The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California will study the feasibility of boring an 11-mile-long tunnel under the Cleveland National Forest, adding some political muscle to a proposal that could give Inland Empire commuters a direct route to Orange County.
Dismissed by critics as farfetched and overly expensive, the tunnel is one of several options under consideration by regional transportation agencies trying to alleviate the traffic crush between Orange and Riverside counties. It could also carry water pipes between the two regions.
"If they decide to build a transit tunnel and we can run a pipeline through it, we'll pay for part of the tunnel. It makes it worth doing," said Wes Bannister, chairman of the Metropolitan Water District's board of directors. Other agencies and companies could also benefit from a joint tunnel project by stringing fiber-optic cables, oil pipes, gas lines and telephone cables through it.
"There's a world of opportunity here for everybody," Bannister said.
The proposed tunnel has met resistance from environmentalists, who oppose further development in the national forest, and from the Irvine Co., which says the project would be environmentally destructive.
Other traffic solutions under consideration include building a railway or adding a second level to the congested Riverside Freeway.
While transportation officials expect to decide on a strategy by the end of the year, water officials are skeptical, saying it could take much longer just to get an accurate picture of the geology of the Santa Ana Mountains.
"It would be nice to know what we're really getting into," Bannister said.
The MWD is Southern California's major water wholesaler, providing drinking water to nearly 18 million people in parts of Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.
Water officials said they have known for more than a decade that they would eventually need to push a pipe through the forest to meet growing demand and carry water from Lake Mathews in an unincorporated area of western Riverside County to south Orange County, Long Beach and San Diego.
When congressional representatives Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), Gary G. Miller (R-Diamond Bar) and Ken Calvert (R-Riverside) began an effort to tap $30 million in federal funds to study a multiuse tunnel, the MWD board decided to push up its plans to map the geology of the Santa Ana Mountains.
