SENATE PANEL TO EXPLORE WATER GROUP'S ACTIVITIES.

Byline: Associated Press 

A special state Senate committee will investigate reports of wrongdoing by a coalition linked to the giant Metropolitan Water District.

Recent reports have accused the Partnership for Regional Water Reliability of spending $12,000 in public funds to dig up dirt on state and local government officials in Southern California, Sen. Ruben Ayala, D-Rancho Cucamonga, said Tuesday.

He said the partnership, a coalition of 12 MWD member water agencies, wanted to influence the officials' future water development decisions.

``There's only one use for that kind of information,'' Ayala said. ``These agencies have demonstrated an astonishing lack of judgment and disregard for the use of public funds.''

He said the committee will look into how much the MWD was involved in the activities. The MWD supplies water to 16 million people in six Southern California counties.

MWD spokesman Rob Hallwachs said the MWD would cooperate fully with the committee, but knew nothing about the information gathering.

``They (the partnership) made an extraordinary effort to keep us out of their loop at Met. We didn't really know anything about what they had done,'' he said.

The Select Committee on Southern California Water Districts' Expenditures and Governance will also look at whether the MWD should be restructured, Ayala said. Several bills introduced this year would reduce the MWD board and require the agency to create an ethics committee.

Hallwachs said the MWD Board of Directors also is reviewing its structure and has hired former state Attorney General John Van de Kamp to advise it.

The MWD has been involved in a long legal battle with the San Diego County Water Authority, the largest of its 27 member agencies, over a proposed deal to ship excess water from the Imperial Valley to San Diego.