Seeking to improve local groundwater problems and possibly expand redevelopment activities as well, the City of San Bernardino has created a joint-powers authority with a water district and an economic development agency to pursue some kind of "water feature" near downtown San Bernardino. The project would cover some 300 acres in the Base Line area north of the current downtown and might involve condemning some 900 parcels of land at a cost of more than $100 million. The San Bernardino Municipal Water District first proposed creation of a large surface reservoir last year when a rising water table in the Bunker Hill groundwater basin under the city increased the risk of liquefaction. Judith Valles, the newly elected mayor, appears receptive to a combination water/redevelopment plan of some sort, which would be undertaken by the San Bernardino Regional Water Authority - a newly formed entity made up of the city, the water district, and the Inland Valley Development Agency. However, Valles opposes the "lake" concept. Local officials in the area are now discussing the possibility of a San Antonio Riverwalk-style project, which would include a series of canals and reservoirs. Architect Jon Jerde has been working on a proposed design, which may include a water connection to the struggling Carousel Mall area in downtown San Bernardino. If the project moves forward, it would be one of the most ambitious redevelopment projects undertaken in California in the last decade - and the latest in a long series of attempts to revitalize one of Southern California's most depressed cities. According to Patrick Milligan, a member of the water agency board and the project's leading advocate, the Base Line neighborhood is among the most economically depressed zip codes in California. Milligan said he hopes that, with the JPA in place, land acquisition and construction on the project will begin within 18 months. Arguing in favor of both quick action and a large project, he said: "This is one of those wonderful political moments....The larger the area we use, the bigger the redevelopment area we can affect." To meet such an ambitious timetable, however, Milligan and other supporters of the water project will have to overcome considerable local opposition - much of which surfaced after the water district released a concept drawing of the "lake" proposal late last year. Among other things, critics have charged that the water proposal is the brainchild of developers, eminent domain lawyers, and engineers seeking a large-scale project from which to profit. In particular, local church and community groups opposed the condemnation of their entire neighborhood. Lawyer Alan Bartleman, chairman of the local section of the Sierra Club, has opposed the lake vociferously, calling it "politically unviable - from a redevelopment point of view, nobody was going to take out that whole community and move all those people." Since local officials have backed off the idea of a single large lake, however, opposition has diminished. Bartleman, for example, said that while he opposed the lake he is not opposed to the idea of bringing some of San Bernardino's underground water to the surface. But he suggested that the real motivation for the project is to make San Bernardino's groundwater available for sale, thus permitting the water district to create a profit. "That's not a bad idea, as long as we don't sell too much of it and we do some decent planning," he said. But critics such as Bartleman also question whether a surface water project would alleviate the environmental problems associated with San Bernardino's underground water aquifer. San Bernardino has always faced high groundwater because of the area's unusual geology. The city sits lies atop fans at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains, while the San Jacinto Fault serves as a "dike" cutting off the underground connection between the city's groundwater and other groundwater sources. According to the city's general plan background documents, groundwater depths have risen from 50 to 100 feet under the city in 1960 to less than 10 feet in some parts of the city today. Flooding in basements and other low-lying areas has been an increasing problem, especially with the heavy rains of the last few years. The high groundwater has created two related problems as well. First is the potential for liquefaction - perhaps the problem most frequently cited by advocates of the water feature. Second is the need to improve the quality of the basin's water, which suffers from low-level contamination the form of perchloroethylene (PCE) and tricholoethyline (TCE). Water-feature advocates - who blame this problem largely on contamination from the area's military bases - argue that bringing the water to the surface will remediate these problems by ventilating the contaminants. But skeptics like Bartleman and James Mulvihill, an urban planning professor at Cal State San Bernardino, question whether ventilation will actually improve water quality. "That's a bunch of baloney," said Mulvihill. However, Milligan said the potential water-quality improvements will strengthen San Bernardino's attempts to obtain federal financial assistance in constructing the water project. The lake proposed by the water district last year would have consumed an entire 30-square-block area along Interstate 215 north of the civic center in San Bernardino. In addition to the land assembly issues, the lake also would have required a major berm or similar obstruction on the south side, adjacent to the downtown, because of the city's topography. "The problem with San Bernardino is it's on a slope," Mulvihill said. The vertical drop from Base Line Avenue to downtown - a distance of approximately six blocks - is about 40 feet, he said. Contacts: Peter Milligan, board member, San Bernardino Municipal Water Authority, (909) 888-5741. Alan Bartleman, Sierra Club activist, (909) 885-8388. James Mulvihill, Cal State San Bernardino planning professor, (909) 880-5522.