At last, San Francisco is ready to get seriously under way with the $4.3 billion program to fix the aging and seismically vulnerable system that provides water from the Sierra to 2.4 million people in the Bay Area — including San Mateo County.
The “final program” environmental impact report, which was released Sept. 30, analyzes the impacts of the 37 regional projects that carry 265 million gallons of water per day from Sierra and Bay Area watersheds to taps in the Bay Area.
In back-to-back meetings Oct. 30, the San Francisco Planning Commission is set to approve the final report, and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is set to launch the water system improvement program, in a massive effort to make its sprawling water system safe and reliable.
The SFPUC staff has recommended a compromise that would allow critical construction to get started while postponing controversial aspects of the project that might delay its completion past the target date of 2014.
The controversy swirls around the proposal to divert up to 25 million gallons per day more from the wild and scenic Tuolumne River to serve growth in the Bay Area.
Demand for water from San Francisco’s Hetch Hetchy system in San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda and Santa Clara counties is projected to grow by 35 million gallons per day, from the current 265 million gallons per day to 300 million gallons per day by 2030.
The compromise proposal would delay increases in water diversions from the Tuolumne until 2018. It would absorb any increased demand through a combination of increased conservation, recycling and groundwater use. “We’ll keep the status quo until 2018,” said Ed Harrington, general manager of the SFPUC.
Mr. Harrington urged the Planning Commission to certify and adopt the final environmental impact report. “Nothing less than the public health, safety and economic vitality of 2.4 million Bay Area customers depends on it,” he said.
Responses
Representatives of both water suppliers and conservation groups welcomed the proposed compromise — with reservations.
Art Jensen, general manager of the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency, which is made up of the 27 water agencies that buy water from San Francisco, greeted the proposed compromise as: “some good; some disturbing.”
“It’s a good thing to fix up the system and create a chance of getting seismic improvements sooner rather than later,” Mr. Jensen said.
But Mr. Jensen is disturbed about whether member agencies can save an additional 10 million gallons per day of water above the 15 million gallons per day they have already committed to. “We’ve put in a lot of work,” he said.
Peter Drekmeier, Bay Area program director for the Tuolumne River Trust and a councilman in Palo Alto, was pleased that the new proposal will decouple the issue of diverting more water from the Tuolumne from the vital upgrades of the water system.
Ten years will allow the PUC to complete a biological study of the river below the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, explore new techniques for water conservation and recycling, and understand the impacts of climate change on the watershed.
Mr. Jensen also wondered what will happen after 2018: “There will be more people. There will be more jobs. They will need water.”
Projects
The final environmental impact report for the water system improvement program consists of eight volumes. These include responses to 1,300 comments submitted by agencies and the public to the draft environmental report.
The size of the document reflects the size of the project to transport water 167 miles from Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite National Park across five earthquake faults to residents and businesses in San Francisco, and three suburban counties.
The project includes 81 individual projects grouped into 37 regional projects. Some of these projects will need additional environmental studies before they can be built, PUC officials noted.
Major projects on the Peninsula include: raising and strengthening Crystal Springs Dam; rebuilding assorted pipelines that carry water on the Peninsula; and building a new 9-foot tunnel under the Bay between Ravenswood and Newark that will replace the two deteriorating pipes that currently carry water under the Bay.
Copies of the EIR are available at the Menlo Park Library at 800 Alma St. They are available online at PEIR.sfwater.org..
