Recycled Water Program and the Eastside and Westside Recycled Water Projects

The Eastside Project, currently in the initial planning process, would bring recycled water to customers in areas such as Mission Bay, Hunter's Point and McLaren Park to be used for non-drinking purposes such as irrigation and toilet flushing.

SFWater's next workshop for the Eastside Project will take place on Thursday, March 29.  It will be held at 1155 Market and will begin at 6:00pm.  Please join them as we look at potential sites for a treatment facility.

The Westside Project is a project to bring recycled water for irrigation and other non-drinking uses to customers including Golden Gate Park, Lincoln Park and the Presidio Golf Course. We have reached a tentative agreement to locate the treatment facility for the Westside Project on land at the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant and the California National Guard Armory. 

Please join them on Tuesday, April 17 for an update on this project, and learn what our next steps will be. This update will be held at the South Sunset Playground, 40th & Vicente, starting at 6:00pm.

These projects are part of SFWater's Local Water Supply Program, a program that includes the development of additional groundwater, water recycling, conservation, graywater and rainwater programs.

Please contact Suzanne Gautier for more information about our program, and visit them at www.sfwater.org

SFWater's Reservoir 180

Surface of University Mound Reservoir

You may recall last summer, hundreds of Portola residents mobilized to let the SFWater department know that the proposal to keep Bacon St closed over the University Mound Reservoir was not in the community's best interest.  Read more here and here.  One of the major reasons that SFWater used in their argument for closing the street was that an act of terrorism at the site would cripple the city's water supply.

Well, it seems the SFWater department has had a complete change of heart, or something.  Now, according to SFGate, they're actively looking at ways to utilize areas over their city reservoirs with solar panels and recreation areas!

Recycled Water

UPDATE: If you missed the meeting in the Bayview last evening, there will be another on Thursday, November 17, at the Mission Bay Visitors Center, 255 Channel St. Doors open at 6:00PM.

Learn more about the benefits of recycled water for you and your community.

Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Alex Pitcher Room Southeast Community Facility 1800 Oakdale, San Francisco

The Open House will present information so that you can:

• Learn about local water supply planning and how recycled water helps sustain our city.

• Find out about your role in helping shape the eastside recycled water project.

• Be eligible for a door prize.

Information: www.sfwater.org/recycledwater; Suzanne Gautier, sgautier@sfwater.org or (415) 554-3204

The Arrogance of an Agency

John Ehrlich talks to Portola residents

Last night, the SFWater Department held a community meeting to discuss, as they put it, "The future of Bacon Street and the University Mound Reservoir."  On hand were Suzanne Gautier of SFWater, John Ehrlich of Homeland Security, SFPD Captain Chignell, and representatives from SFFD and the SFPUC.  Also on hand were about 150 angry Portola residents.  The residents weren't there because Ms Gautier had invited them.  Ms Gautier had done her level best to ensure that no one showed up.  That's the kind of outreach she did.  Neighbors were there because Ron Parsall and Pat Connon had gone door to door for several days to tell them of the meeting and to collect petition signatures.

Read more about the proposed closure here.

SFWater set up a 15x15 tent to contain the meeting because the SFPUC caretaker's house couldn't accommodate the crowd they expected. As it turned out, their 15x15 tent couldn't do it either.  As people streamed in and chair after chair was taken, it became clear that this would be a much bigger meeting than SFWater had ever imagined.  What it also showed, and what they continued to display throughout the evening, was that they simply didn't understand the neighborhood or its people.  Most of the people huddled under the tent were elderly.  Why hold an outdoor event for 70-80 year olds?  You only do that if you want to keep people angry, which they certainly did.

After a few well reasoned and respectful arguments from neighbors, John Ehrlich was asked why they want to permanently close the street.  His arrogance and condescension were outrageous, and even after someone in the crowd told him to knock it off, he continued talking down to the crowd.

Basically, their message was that the closure was only a proposal, not their plan.  Bullshit.  They've already contacted SF Planning Department to see if they need to do further environmental review in order to permanently close the street.  They "took the liberty," according the Gautier, of installing hydraulic barriers.  They've been planning this permanent closure for a while.

Neighbor after neighbor gave impassioned speech and reasoned argument to keep the road open, while SFWater and Homeland Security gave nothing but flimsy excuses.  Ron Parsall presented Gautier with a 527-name petition against closure.  Gautier and Ehrlich left the meeting with their tails between their legs and their plan in tatters, but still unable and unwilling to tell neighbors what the timeline would be for next steps and when the road would open again, permanently.  Gautier did concede a little in saying, "Well, I guess the next step will be that we reopen the road, yes?" as she looked over to Ehrlich, "and then we discuss what we want to do from there."

Congratulations to the Portola neighbors who attended, vented their anger but were mostly respectful, and who have sent a message to all agencies like SFWater that the Southeast of San Francisco is not going to be ignored or put upon any longer.

Does Bacon St belong to SFWater?

Bacon St, University Mound

SFWater thinks that they can simply roll over neighbors in the Portola and tell them that closure of Bacon St is their decision to make, not ours, because they own the street and have complete control over it.  They're only doing outreach to let neighbors know that their temporary closure has become permanent as a courtesy.  How nice of them. They're only doing outreach to neighbors who live in the immediate vicinity of the reservoir too - no one else needs to know about the permanent closure until it happens.

Never in the past two years has SFWater mentioned, not once, that they planned to close Bacon St permanently.  Bacon St is the ONLY direct access between McLaren Park and the southern slope of University Mound and Bayshore Blvd.  In 2008, SFMTA studies showed that 500 cars per day drove on Bacon St through the University St intersection.  Those 500 cars have been diverted for two years, increasing traffic on Felton and Woolsey, and SFWater wants to keep it that way.

At the meeting at the SFPUC Yellow House on Thursday, July 28 at 6PM, we'll be told by SFWater that they must close it, or else our water supply will be susceptible to attack by someone scary - someone really scary!  We'll be told by SFPD that they want it closed, too, because if open, it can be used by nefarious no-good types as an escape route (from all those burglary sprees on University Mound back to their evil lairs in the Bayview, I'm sure).  We'll be told that SFFD can't even use the street, because, well, you know, well, there's a reason, and boy, it's a good one - we just haven't thought of it yet.  And ambulances trying to get to the Ladies' Home on University or to other parts of the Mound don't need to use Bacon St.  Response times will be mere seconds more because they now have to go around on Felton or Woolsey.  A few seconds during a heart attack aren't that important, right?  Maybe SFWater should invite Rec & Parks to the meeting, too - I'm sure they'd tell us they don't want all those folks from the Bayview or even most parts of the Portola easily getting to McLaren Park and messing it up.

Thursday, July 28, 6PM, the SFPUC Yellow House at Bacon & University.  Be there to tell SFWater that you're one of the 500 cars per day that use Bacon and you want it left open - just like they told us it would be.

SFWater Plans to PERMANENTLY shut down Bacon Street

According to the SFWater website (which is now mysteriously not showing meeting schedules anymore), and a recent CBS5 report, the University Mound reservoir, over which Bacon St runs, has reopened.  

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/06/03/san-francisco-reservoir-reopens-after-seismic-upgrade/

According to all documents on the project, the closure Bacon St was supposed to only be temporary, and once the project was finished, it was to be reopened. 

Residents recently received a letter to invite them to a meeting to discuss security at the site, but at no time did SFWater mention Bacon Street closure as their preferred outcome.

The contact for the project is Suzanne Gautier <sgautier@sfwater.org> or 415-554-3204.  I have already emailed her to ask that SFWater to send out a notice to the yahoo group about the July 28 meeting and to explain the reasons behind their desire to permanently close the street.   (She said she would, but didn’t.  I emailed her this week and asked again, but she did not post it.  I told her I’d post it for her.  She never replied).

Bacon is the only direct road connecting the University Mound with Bayshore Blvd. As we have already seen, closure cuts off residents' access to Bayshore and increases thru traffic on San Bruno, Woolsey, and Felton. It also creates a permanent impediment to access to McLaren park and requires people take longer, alternate routes to get there. 

I checked on the SFMTA site for Traffic Count Data... Some of the traffic studies aren’t all that recent, but they give us some numbers to work with, as they don’t seem to have changed much between 1996 and 2008:

6/12/1996: (1933 cars/day)
Bacon at San Bruno Eastbound 3263 cars in 4-days
Bacon at San Bruno Westbound 4468 cars in 4-days

12/10/2008: (2044 cars/day)
Bacon at San Bruno Eastbound 4429 cars in 4-days
Bacon at San Bruno Westbound 3745 cars in 4-days

4/16/2008: (498 cars/day)
Bacon at University Eastbound 927 cars in 4-days
Bacon at University Westbound 1065 cars in 4-days

11/7/2000: (1332 cars/day)
Felton at San Bruno Eastbound 1777 and Westbound 2220 cars in 3 days

So Felton and Woolsey will see an increase of 500 cars per day, as will other streets such as Holyoke and Gottingen as cars make their way back to Bacon, the only nearby street that is used to get across Bayshore.

Recently, Bayview residents were told (seemingly after it had already been decided) of a similar thoroughfare closure on Jerrold Ave through the SF Produce Market. Outreach had been done, but quietly, and because there were no complaints, the plan is moving ahead without hearing much from residents.

I suggest that if indeed sfwater wants to close this street, that a group of residents and business owners organize to come up with a set of reasons why they think it's a bad idea.  Ask questions such as 'What environmental studies have been done or are required?' 'What traffic studies have been done?'  Even if all the requirements have been met, sfwater isn't doing a good enough job informing people, from what I can tell, and all that does is make them look like they're being shady, whether this is their intention or not. However, putting up permanent white pillars makes it seem like they've made up their minds already.

On Tuesday, July 12 at 1:30PM there will also be a public hearing at City Hall (Room 400) to discuss proposed changes to the scope, schedule, and budget of the Water System Improvement Program (WSIP), of which the University Mound project is a part.  The only mention of changes to the project are to address a delay in completion.  There is NO mention of plans to permanently close the street on the SFWater site or on the SF Planning Department website.  This heightens the importance of attending the meeting on July 28th at the Yellow House, but also means that SFWater is planning to “announce and defend” their one proposal – street closure – at this meeting without having looked at alternatives.

The bottom line is that we need people to attend the July 12 at meeting at City Hall AND the July 28 meeting at the Yellow House.  There also needs to be coordination in our presentation so that we don’t all come across like raving lunatics (I’m sure everyone’s been to meetings where the ‘foamers’ come out and take up lots of time but get very little accomplished).  We need to be polished and ready to defend OUR security and access to the city, have well thought out questions, knowing what answers that we want, but also prepared to counter the answers that we expect to get from them.

I’m happy to meet with others to try to coalesce around and couple of well thought out arguments against this closure and to bring data to the table that show how this will affect access.  I’m out of commission from tonight until the 23rd (vacation and  then planning for Wellness Day on the 23rd – please come!!), but am free to meet any evening after that and before the 28th.

The SFWater website has been scrubbed clean of all documents. Below is all I had saved re the project...

Project Factsheet, October 2009

Things to Know, April 2010

Final Construction Project Update, April 2011

Attachment 3 - Summary of Schedule Changes, June 2011

Laundry to Landscape subsidies available

San Francisco Water Power Sewer is now accepting applications for a Laundry-to-Landscape Pilot Graywater Program. The program offers a $95 subsidy toward the purchase of a $100 laundry-to-landscape kit that will divert your clothes washer water directly to your landscape for irrigation. Program participants also will receive a free training workshop and a Graywater Design Manual for Outdoor Irrigation that provides step-by-step guidance on designing, installing, and maintaining
your laundry-to-landscape system.

The pilot program will help provide the City with valuable data on water savings and the potential market for graywater systems in San Francisco. Up to 150 qualifying single-family and two-unit San Francisco residential properties are eligible to participate. The Urban Farmer Store is helping implement the Laundry-to-Landscape Program. For more program information or for site requirements, visit www.sfwater.org/landscape or contact The Urban Farmer Store at (415) 661-2204.

For other water saving programs such as rebates, free indoor and outdoor water use assessments, and free water saving devices visit http://conserve.sfwater.org or contact San Francisco Water Power Sewer - Water Conservation Section at (415) 551-4730.