The State - News from July 10, 1987

A bill that supporters say represents California’s last chance for a competitive bid for the superconducting super-collider passed the Senate a day after a companion bill stalled in a key Assembly committee. The bill that passed the Senate, AB 185, by Assemblyman Sam Farr (D-Carmel), now goes to a two-house conference committee. Farr’s bill was originally intended as a technical clean-up measure for Sen. John Garamendi’s bill, SB 81, which contained the thrust of California’s proposal. But the Walnut Grove Democrat’s measure failed to move out of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee. The super-collider will be an oval track 53 miles in circumference in which superconducting magnets will propel subatomic particles at great speeds. The $4.4-billion structure is supposed to advance science and be an economic boon for the area that gets it. Several states are bidding. If California wins, it would be built in Garamendi’s district, either east of Stockton or west of Sacramento.