A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
October 1, 2008
2. Supply –
Big step for Hetch Hetchy system upgrade
San Francisco Chronicle
Editorial:
Use `carrot' for conservation
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Big step for Hetch Hetchy system upgrade
San Francisco Chronicle – 10/1/08
By Kelly Zito, staff writer
(09-30) 19:54 PDT -- The colossal plan to repair the decrepit water system that serves 2.5 million residents of San Francisco, the Peninsula and parts of the East Bay reached a key milestone Tuesday with the release of an environmental study that, if approved, will kick-start 17 regional water projects worth more than $2.5 billion.
At the same time, the study advocated an aggressive schedule for water conservation and recycling - an attempt to strike a balance between an increasing demand for water and concerns about the toll on watersheds and wildlife.
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission general manager Ed Harrington, who released the report, said the projects - which range from expanding recycled-water facilities to burying pipelines deep beneath the bay - are crucial to upgrade a system that carries water 167 miles from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in the Sierra Nevada to customers in San Francisco and to 27 water agencies in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alameda counties. Some of the projects could break ground by the end of the year, because many jurisdictions already have been working on required local environmental impact reports.
"The Hetch Hetchy system is a marvel - it's gravity-driven and delivers pristine water to people in four counties," Harrington said. "But it crosses five active fault lines, and we know there's going to be a major earthquake in the Bay Area."
According to a study conducted several years ago by a regional economic think tank, a major break in the Hetch Hetchy system - pieces of which date back 100 years - could cut off water supplies for up to 60 days.
Before any seismic or other work can begin, however, several city commissions must sign off on the report.
Voter-approved measure
The sprawling improvement plan, which encompasses roughly 80 separate projects with a total price tag of more than $4.4 billion, grew out of voter-approved bond measure passed in 2002. Work on the project was slow off the starting line; but in 2005, the commission staff set a target of 2030 for delivering 300 million gallons of water each day.
Tuesday's study, however, focused on keeping deliveries to 265 million gallons per day - the current amount - until at least 2018. The aims are twofold: limit water drawn from the ecologically sensitive
To meet that goal, however, the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency, which represents the 27 South and
"There's some disappointment for a number of reasons," said supply and conservation agency chief executive Arthur Jensen. "First, this was a number decided upon unilaterally, by someone else. Second, the question is, is that possible? I don't know."
Jensen said agencies within his group have already tackled the "low-hanging fruit" of water conservation. As in many other areas, agencies in his group offer rebates for low-flow toilets and water efficient washers and provide consumer information on planting drought-resistant landscaping.
The regional agency also recycles more than 6 million gallons of water each day. Under the 2030 timetable, Jensen estimated that figure could grow to 9 million by 2018. Now, his agency faces the prospect of increasing that total substantially.
Bigger savings
The
"There's so much potential for conservation in the (regional agency's) territory, and we need to look at that before we start talking about taking more water from a wild and scenic river," said Peter Drekmeier, director of the Bay Area Program of the Tuolumne River Trust.
Drekmeier said the river's ecosystem has sustained tremendous damage. He pointed to the crashing number of Chinook salmon: in 2000, researchers counted 18,000 fish; last year they counted 212.
For that reason, Drekmeier had hoped the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission would limit the water supply from the
But Michael Carlin, the San Francisco Public Utility Commission's assistant general manager for water, said such a tight restriction would allow little wiggle room in times of drought.
"If we had seven or eight dry years and we were limited to 265 millions of gallons a day, the reservoirs would be empty by the end of that period," Carlin said.
With experts predicting less precipitation and higher temperatures for
"It's difficult to please everybody, but I think we have an opportunity to show our environmental stewardship by limiting (water) sales and by demonstrating that we can achieve our conservation goals through conservation recycling and groundwater," Carlin said. "Then by 2018 we can start projecting out and looking at future demands."
Next steps
The environmental report released Tuesday incorporates responses to 1,300 public comments registered after the release of the draft report in summer.
S.F. hearing: On Oct. 30, the San Francisco Planning Commission is expected to hold a special hearing on whether to formally accept the environmental report on fixing the aging Hetch Hetchy water system.
The PUC: The same day, the S.F. Public Utilities Commission will consider adopting measures to offset any of the plan's environmental impacts.#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/01/MNH413916O.DTL
Editorial:
Use `carrot' for conservation
ALL Pasadenans - and much of the
You know the ones - the mock mug shots of Tap-On Tina, Busted-Sprinkler Bruno and Light-Load Loretta.
Their criminal offenses? Running the faucet while brushing their teeth, dumping 500 gallons a month because they put off fixing the garden pipe, throwing one pair of jeans in the wash when it might use 50 gallons to do so.
Yes, wasting water is a serious offense, and many of us get the picture - we'll go straight, come clean, realize the error of our ways.
Problem is, as the Pasadena City Council lectured Water & Power Department managers, that during the current conservation campaign, city water usage has actually gone up 3 percent.
And if that's a crime, which it figuratively is, the council laid into plans to make it literally one.
Something's gone badly wrong if we had come to the point at which the city's public utility was considering severe penalties for the little guys among the city's water users - the households - when the big tappers keep spraying a gusher out of their spigots.
We're glad that the council ordered the managers to come back with a new plan - though a little disappointed that the deadline is a lax six months.
With the Metropolitan Water District threatening to cut allocations to the city by 10 percent, the problem is in the here and now.
Long-term, city leaders are already taking appropriate steps - finally, for instance, providing funding to pipe in recycled water
But that project will take years, whereas the conservation need is now.
After all these years of water politics in the West, there is still a fundamental misunderstanding on the part of many residents - and of some knee-jerk city critics who just don't get it - about where most of California's water goes. Most of it, from the flooded rice fields of the northern
If you've got five teenagers in the house who all take half-hour showers, yes, your family is part of the problem. But most households in their actual houses use more or less the same amount of water.
The advertising campaign is right - being more thoughtful in all the areas it chides us about can make a real difference.
But when we have no power over the Caltrans sprinklers and other untouchable irritants, we don't want to see the city coming down with too many punitive measures just yet.
The education campaign must be intensified. People must start taking personal responsibility. And we like the positive suggestion from one Web site, apparently run by City Hall gadfly Wayne Lusvardi, that borrows from an energy conservation plan currently being tried up north: "The Sacramento Municipal Utility Distict is running a pilot experiment on 35,000 homes of similar size and similar heating systems. Each month it sends an energy report card to each home showing how much energy each customer used compared to the average customer. Homes exceeding the average get an unsmiling face and homes that beat the average a smiley face.
"Sounds better than setting up a Soviet-style informer system in neighborhoods whereby neighbors can retaliate against each other if they are seen hosing walks or washing cars in their driveway."
It does indeed sound better. Informal neighborhood groups and the larger associations can aid the cause. Neighbors with green thumbs can help others who rely on too much turf because it's easier than drought-tolerant planting schemes. Though a time may come for new restrictions and for more usage-tiered payment systems, we'll continue to believe in the carrot over the stick as we find ways to live more sustainably in
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/opinions/ci_10604507
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