The state Department of Homeland Security has approved $25 million in Proposition 1B bond money for the Bay Area's new ferry agency, the Water Emergency Transportation Authority.

The agency plans to use the money from the 2006 voter-approved transportation bond to build a ferry terminal in South San Francisco, continue planning terminals in Berkeley and Hercules and do environmental studies for new ferry service out of Redwood City, Antioch, Martinez and Richmond.

The agency was created by controversial state legislation last year, allowing an upgraded version of the former Water Transit Authority to wrest control of existing ferry services run by the cities of Alameda and Vallejo. The legislation allocates an eventual $250 million of the bond money to the new body.

The funding was announced by the office of State Senate leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, who spearheaded the ferry legislation.


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