UPPER LAKE – A bill to restore up to 1,400 acres of wetlands along Clear Lake's north shore received unanimous approval from the state Assembly on Monday.

AB 74, the Middle Creek and Hamilton City Flood Damage Restoration and Ecosystem Act, introduced last December by North Coast Assemblyman Wes Chesbro (D-Arcata) and Assemblyman Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber), was approved 75-0, according to Chesbro spokesman, Andrew Bird.

The bill had survived a tough Assembly Appropriations Committee last Thursday, in which hundreds of bills proposing state spending had been knocked out, as Lake County News has reported.

Bird said the bill is an authorization to spend funds from previous voter-authorized bond sales to restore Clear Lake habitat and wetlands.

The bill also would include funds for a levee project on the Sacramento River in Glenn County in Nielsen's district.

Bird said next week the Senate Rules Committee will assign AB 74 to a committee – most likely the Senate Natural Resources Committee, after which it may go to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

He said the bill probably won’t arrive at the Senate floor for a vote for at least a month.

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