EDITORIAL: Mayor Newsom: Please fix our water system EDITORIAL: Mayor Newsom: Please fix our water system (July 14, 2004)

Every time they turn on the tap, 2.4 million people in four counties depend on San Francisco for the water that comes out.

Can they continue to?

The answer becomes more uncertain every day, as the next earthquake approaches, and San Francisco dithers over its responsibility to fix the aging system of pipes, pumps, tunnels and reservoirs that bring most of the Bay Area's water 160 miles from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park.

Plans for $3.6 billion in upgrades were approved two years ago. In 2002, San Francisco voters passed a $1.6 billion bond issue to pay for the city's share of the project. Two new agencies are in place to allow 28 water agencies in San Mateo, Alameda, and Santa Clara counties to participate in managing and paying for the project. These agencies serve two-thirds of the people who depend on San Francisco for their water; they use and pay for two-thirds of the 260 million gallons per day delivered by San Francisco.

But San Francisco owns the system, and it is San Francisco's responsibility to carry out the big fix over the next 12 to 14 years. And San Francisco seems to have a bad case of business-as-usual. The timetable is already slipping: Environmental studies are only just getting started, and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which oversees the system, is getting its seventh director in five years.

Enter San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who has promised dramatic changes and new leadership.

A recent delegation by Redwood City Councilman Ira Ruskin and members of the Bay Area Water & Conservation Association put the problems to Mayor Newsom. They asked for his leadership in getting this critical project back on track.

Among their worries: whether San Francisco has the organizational ability, management skills, and political will to see through such a huge project; San Francisco's accounting system, which has already shorted suburban users by $3.7 million in double and incorrect charges; and creeping delays that threaten to extend the time and boost the cost of the repairs.

Delegates were encouraged by Mayor Newsom's willingness to exert leadership, and cooperate closely with the suburban agencies.

As Mr. Ruskin put it, "We must act to eliminate the risk for a human and economic catastrophe, if this system fails."

It would be nice to say, "Failure is not an option." But an earthquake could break pipes carrying water for 2.4 million people, and leave them without water for up to 60 days.

And remember, Mayor Newsom, about one-third of those people live in San Francisco.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.