Transcripts For SFGTV Public Utilities Commission 11017 20170119

Dying and it has been left where inadequate water flows for some years now and as a couple of people have mentioned in 2010 the state water board issued a report called development of flow criteria for the sacramento san joaquin eco system that suggested 50 percent of unempaired flow is what is needed if the delta repairs itself and the salmon fisheries will recover. It is horrifying for me to see salmon fisheries dying in california because water is issued carelessly. The delta is essential to californias economy, a healthy delta and the fisheries and plants and animals the salmon eco system support are essential to the health of the whole state economically, but i would say spirit wale too in a sense. We want our salmon fixries to thrive, not be sackifyed to industrial agriculture profit s. Now the large Central Valley farmers have way too much influence over californias water and think that has got to change. It seems clear there is a allocation problem especially with east palo amento because i believe pal o alto has abundance of water and there is a lot of extravagant use of water in some Water District jz that surely needs to be addressed in a different way. Where will just say i hope you can take a long view and support not just a 40 percent flow through the delta which is inadequate but a higher level. Thank you. Thank you very much. Tom schwartzsharf. Hello. My name is tom swartsharf and scrabackgrounds in biology. Coming from the governor special Interest Groups or political arena this is what im hearing. Dont confuse this with the facts, we already made up our minds. The message is clear, we dont value your input. [inaudible] offered as a recommendation. Everyone has heard of Climate Change deniers. We have delta change deniers. These are folks that deny the delta and bay area are in a state of biological clapsh. They declie water flow and human activities are factors. Im concerned about the salmon population destroyed and nearing extinction. Native american cultures and sport fishing are suffering ing. We have a larger number of water expert izen california than any other place in the world. We need to stop wasting money and man power on the twin tunnels and complete the resources to continue the bay delta walter Quality Control plan in 2017. Knowing the Scientific Community in inepa frl biologist the stailts university and environmental agencies isnt the answerment we are losing the eco system that made this the golden state. We need to stop circumventing the democratic process to not letting citizens vote on issues like the twin towers. The delta in San Francisco [inaudible] special treatment as a state and national treasure. Im not hearing people tray saccharify the Water Resources to grow a multicultural [inaudible] thank you for your time, [inaudible] thank you. Peter [inaudible] the president of the john mure east bay chapter. Trout unlimited is conserve, protect and restore north americas cold Water Fisheries and watersheds. The chaptert supports the state Water Resources control board in the effort to help farmers, commercial and recreational fixerman, water users and environment groups cooperate on increasing river flows in the rivers. As a student in the 1960s i fished the toileomy in the high country and lower river prior to complooasian of the don pedro dam. At that time the flouz in the river were much higher than today. A kid from western pennsylvaniai worked as a Civil Engineering in consulting and now retired. My wife and i live in oakland and conserve water. I disconnected my irrigation system during the rainy system roof run off is diverted to the garden. I wash my car as a car wash which recycles the water. I converted the concrete driveway to gravel. My water usage is about 42 gallons per person per day. These are small steps and big picture surrounding the issue but small steps can help. Im not alone. As you have seen in steves presentation, many in the bay area are doing what im doing and more. I would argue that urban Water Conservation is a Sustainable Movement and provides a opportunity for the San Francisco Public Utility Commission to reevaluate its very very conservative drought storage scenario taking into account reduced demand and more reasonable assumptions. Partner with state board to increase flows and aquatic habitat in the toileomy river. Heinicke alburt. Thank you very much. Like toprint you these 296 letters from members of the sierra club in the bay area chapter and im speaking for those members today. What we ask you to do in this letter is to support the higher flows that our rivers and the bay need in order for them to restore this beautiful habitat. And it asks you to put this item on the agenda today and want to thank you very much for giving us this opportunity to talk about this important issue. In three minutes i cant begin to cover everythingall of the facets of this, but let me just point on a couple of things. You pointed out the low per capita use of citizens in San Francisco and more widely in the bay area and that is true and that is really adimable. I think we have been glad to do that because we value the environment. Of course we value having the water. We need the water, but i believe that people have stepped up in the past when we needed to ration water because of the drought and we can continue to do that. Further more, the city during the past year has instituted new policies in terms of reuse of water at large buildings and even requiring onsight treatment of water to have it be reused. With those innovation and public support we have here for preserving our environment we can step up and meet this challenge. We want to be Good Environmental stewards and i believe that is what you want also. The orebt other thing is the question of coming to a negotiated settlement rather than a one size fits all rule imposed by sth state. My understanding of the process is the science that the state had done very clearly said 60 percent. This already is a negotiated settlement. The 40 percent starting point, thats not the full wish list, that is already the compromise. I urge you to support the state water board in these efforts and i believe all working together we can have the water that we need and the healthy environment. Kenneth gibson, ulgu[inaudible] and Michael Frost. My name is Kenneth Gibson and live in oakland. I lived in the bay area most of my life. I lived on the peninsula and San Francisco and now in east bay mud territory. I expect all of you sfpu c, all the agencies and east bay mud to show leadership in this state on this iges issuement this is our bay and we have a obligation to protect it. We have been destroying it for the last century or more and need to turn that around. So much of the discussion from staff is focused on what we use and obligated to provide. Qu cannot believe that you have contracts with all the agencies that go into perpetuity for you to deliver 184 million gallons per day. I just cant believe that. I cant believe there is no [inaudible] or reason to adjust those obligations. I think you need to sit down with all those agencies and coordinate with other agencies in the state to really look at what people can get by with to preserve the other requirements of the water system in the state. We have among urban agencies a established practice of tiered pricing. It is like nobody talks about that. You got 2 or 3 tiers here and 3 ourfore there, a couple have 7 tiers. You get 25 gallons per person per day at the lowest tier. If you go above that you are in the next tier. Once you are over 50 you are in the third tier and each time it steps up by a percentage. A agency sets what that percentage will be and that will sceez down the use by rez kelsh cusmers and hopefully that can be made to apply using smart meters and made to apply to all residential customers not just single families behind the meter. Provide meters for your family. This concept needs to be pushed into the employment sector. Why should silken valley customer and banked some of the companies years ago, why should they pay a flat rate no matter how much water they use. If they provide a job they should get a low price for a small amount of water and that should multiply in tiers so eventually they are paying more than would cost to provide recycled water and finding new ways to save water. You motivate people through micro economic practices. That is what we need to do. Thank you. Thank you. Ulgumander son, Michael Frost and tally ben tar elguman deuceo and grew up in San Francisco. Did any of you grow up in San Francisco . No i didnt grow up in San Francisco. I grew up in San Francisco but moved here in my 20s. That isnt exactly what i meant. Anyway, the water wars have been a part of my life. I red cadlic desert as a kid and now retired and the lexry coming to meetings like this. For support this at least 50 percent of the flows for the rivers go to the bay delta. I think that is really reasonable. Others say 60 percent i say at least 50 and think we can like we are a Technology Center, right . Silicon valley wants to make sure they have enough waterthey can figure it out. They got all the technology. They got all these great people and can figure it out as can the industrial ag business people. They have tons of money. The Property Owners and business people. They can Harness Technology to fig yor how to make due on the water. Thanks a bunch. Bye. Thank you. Michael frost, tally ben tar and dave warner. Thank you very much. I want to take a minute to step back a little back and try to get our minds in more high level place. As we look at this old environmental term, the crisis and opportunity. We are in a crisis. I wont repeat what is already said, buti think our crisis is that we have bad assumptions. We have all kind of incorrect assumptions that were created decades if not centuries back and our world changed significantly. We make water reliability assumptions. Water is terrible unreliable in california and if you go back over 2 thousand years multiple droughts over a hundred years 50 to 80 years common place. Do we take into account ocean acidity and how that may effect what we do qu how much fresh water is in the ocean . Do we calculate the cost of algae blooms in the delta with too much exported . We talk about salinity, do we analyze the salinity coming from westlands . We always think about salinity from the ocean but when we water the salty areas from the south and comes to the san joaquin that is a issue. What is good where we are now, we are early in the process and have time to analyze what we are doing. Lets take a look at the dta in a different way. We have all the data. One example would be the cunaria and cole mine, not one smelt was cocked. The cunario in the cole mine is non existent and do we charge ahead or do we take this queue . I read a book called, a short history of progress by Ronald Wright and he talked about a progress trap which is situation with 20th century innovation create new Problems Society is unwilling or unable to solve and it inadvertently creates conditions worse than what existed before the innovations. One example is [inaudible] massive irigation, over grazing, clearing land. Fast forward centuries we have what we have today that used to be covered with trees. That was a example and Easter Island was another with the forest pulled in the rain and created animals and things for them to eat but over time you cut down tree tooz build boats and statues and dams and they cut the very last tree down and became a waste land and ab wn got on boats and left. We dont have anywhere to go. We are here the San Joaquin River supports life in a delta that can not support salmon steel head and smelt or provide clean Drinking Water or groundwater or irrigation water. We need to mitigate against the unforeseen costs. 60 percent. Thank you. Hello commission. I am a San Francisco native and deeply concerned about the environmental state of the bay delta and all its tributaries. I am here to remind the commission of its water enterprise Environmental Stewardship policy. It states, it is our policy to operate the water system in a manner that protects and restores native fish and wild life. The sfpu c acts as a leader in science based and collaborative Environmental Stewardship. I am disaopponented to hear the sfpu c comments which seem to disregard their own policy. They are prioritizing economics over sounds science which determined 60 percent of unimpaired flows is necessary to protect and restore native fish population. Iu the commission to act as a leader it claim said to be and set 50 percent unimpaired flows. Fair is fair. Thank you. Thank you. Dairfb warner. It is honor to be in front of you today. Thaupg for your stewardship of our water supply. I have been a 30 year pal o alto resident and libing in San Francisco for a number of years. I number one say please take fulisha marks up on the lead ership role. The first is going back to the peter dreck myer comment. As a finance guy i think you can support whatever numbers you want so the one thing i ask your staff is say not only explain the differences and have different points of view brut come up with numbers that are plausible and i think you already disregarded the Economic Impact numbers. It is not plausible given what we have seen in the economy this last year and given the conservation we had to do. Point two is, i think other people have said the state water board did a bunch of resurs and sciencetist have come up and said settlements are not efficient and why the water board says we need to increase the flows. I dont anyhow how you get comfortable with that but encourage you to rely on their science or review the science on settlement that isnt sufficient. It is unfortunate we are a part of a environmentally damaged area that salmon are all most extinth and it is something we need to deal with and emplor that you fiend ways to deal with them in a adequate way. Thanks very much. Thank you. Thank you. Im spreck rose cranz and speaking on behalf of restore hetch hetchy. We dont have a spinge recommendation for a target flow. We respect the state boards duty in administering the very difficult problem. Before i pile to a few of the earlier comments i want to say that you commissioners and all the staff and mr. San coola you have a very honorable and essential job and it is because you do such a good job we want you to do a better job protecting the environment as well. However, in 2013, i sat in the state water Board Hearing when staff presented the draft report. You heard that from Steve Ritchie earlier and i have some concerns about the hid row logic assumptions involved but the economic assumptions were egregious and unwarranted and commissioner moran you spoke to that earlier when you said we wouldnt let that happen, we would make investments to make changes. When you do submit comments to the state board i urge you to think about what those comments might look like, what you would actually do if the flow increased to 40 or 50 percent or Something Like that. As you all know, you are not the first water agency asked to reallocate water to the environment. 92, the central vala project impruchbment act, 94 the mono lake decision, 94 the bay delta accord, 2007 and 8, the indaijered species act. 2000 the Trinity River decision. Some of that effected mostly ag customers and others urban and seen invest in local groundwater storage and you have done a great job in cole mu and the western part of the city but more can be done. Some of the customers have not done as much. There is water recycling and other options out there and so when you comment to the state board you should comment on those things. The [inaudible] report from 2013 and dont think it is officially published, it said that the impact in a drought would be losing 118 thousand acre feet a year is 49 billion in a drought. That is over 400 thousand per acre foot and there are a lot of things you can do for 400 thousand a acre foot so c50e7 keep that in mind. Thank you. Just to be clear on what i meant by the economics, economics is called the dismal science and for good reason. It tries to take very complicated functions of Human Behavior and reduce them a single number and it is a invitation to argue. Thats not to say that Economic Impacts are not real and i didnt my comments to be dismissive of Economic Impact, it is just Economic Science doesnt ovcontribute positively to a discussion. It may give a measure how big a task and how much money you spend to fix it, but it isnt worth the trouble arguing at least in my view. That isnt to say it isnt real. Lia rogers, dug good afternoon. My name islia rogers and worked 3 decades in the field of Water Resources and here as a priferbt citizen. And do have a phd from stanford in groundwater. Luckily speaking late most people have already said what i was going to say just two really quick points that i hope perhaps you may ask when you obviously are going back into the Group Economic modeling question. I didnt see any history matching. I made my livling from Predictive Modeling for 20 years and dont think i have seen people present predict sk modeling without matching the history. They must have done it 1345ir and think it is yusful for us to see if and you all to see it and obviously 2014 has been a while and particularly the last fwo two years where we were under 30 to 40 percent water rationing will be very interesting to see how well they are modeled matched those years before you all make any decisions that incorporate these numbers. Just to make sure i get what you are saying, what models are you roughering to the 2014 battle group socioeconomic modeling is the one i was looking at. Perhaps you have additional ones that have such history matching but i didnt see it and was plety shocked. The second is a question of whether or not their coefficient of elas tasty benefit the Water Conservation. We spend about 20 percent of our in california mubing water to other parts of the state. The hetch hetchy aqueducts is pretty darn efficient system but the rule of thumb if we save money we save water we save water and energy so have money to invest in our economy and culture so curious to see how they incorporated those benefits. Cunary in the cole mine was spoken about. Let me just say if our rivers thrive we thrive. One perhaps perspective i have about it is it is our way to regularly invest in our groundwater. 25 percent higher valium than our surface water and think that is what we will look towards in scenarios of Climate Change. Thank you. Thank you. Dou g obeejy, arthur finesteins senior attorney with Natural Resources council moved from Southern California and part of the reezern i move today the bay area is the pride we take in protecting the environment. I i want to impress the importance of really understanding the issues at a staff level. You have seen earlier how much disagreement there is between the walter agency staff and members of the public including nrdc about the impacts whether the impacts only occur in critically dry years as the state water board estimates or occur every year which seems to be implied by the statements. I encourage you to direct staff to meet with the public and hold a workshop prior the the march deadline to have a shared understanding what the impacts will be. Secondly, nrdc believes quee can protect the environment and our local economy and think a lot of the focks is on per capita water use but ignores the water supply tools San Francisco is moving forward with whether that is the groundwater banking project to help get through drought years or recycling waste water. In 20s 14 the bay area trumped 180 thousand water into the the Treatment Plants. That is a renewable resource and need to think of that as a resource not a waste protect. We cant just focus on conservation but it is clear we can do more than what is in the economic assessment. They did their assessment based on higher levels of demand than the city has shown is possible. We can do more and should do more. We have a morbl obligation to protect the rivers and fishing industry that is the heart of San Francisco Fishermans Warf which is decimated by years and taking 90 percent out of the toileomy is not a river and can do better. I implor you to direct staff to meet with us and let us work on Long Term Solutions because we can make this work and believe there are possibilities for settlement but settlements have to be meaningful and mean imprubing water flow in the rivers because if we whipe out the salmon population in dry years we never build up the populations in the long run. Thank you for your time. I appreciate you scheduling the meeting and hope you will call back before the march comments so we have a better understanding what the agency will say to the state water board. Arthy finestein, [inaudible] and rachel trugairoes. Hi commissioners. Artha finestein representing the sierra clubs california conservation committee. Im vice chair. It is very [inaudible] recallier today we had a discussion of cca and green power and how successful that has been. I think all of you ear most of you are in the commission during the 3 to 4 years when the sierra club and many others came before you to encourage the city to adopt cca and remember the difficulty we had being told we caents afford it. It wont work. It is just not feasible. Where are we . Complete 100 percent turn around, 80 thousand people is that the number who are now enrolled kwr more and more coming only and going towards cca. Same thing here. There is a lot of denying we cant do it, a lot of facts and given facts why we cant do it and gibbon facts now why we cant do it for water. It can be done. You just have to have the will and we are here urging you to take that will. I think it is from my perspective at least we dont have a lot of choice. With Climate Change we see the world is getting to be a scary place. 6 mass extingzs species going out every day. The world is getting scary. I have a grand daughter and would like her to sur vive but not sure it will happen. If you look at what the scientist who most of us do listen to say about Climate Change and rising sea levels, it is a scary world that she will be looking at and need to do watt we can and this is something that effects the Natural World which is what we all depend on and talking about today. We need healthy echo systems in the face of Climate Change so people have a chance. You have a great opportunity to take a big step forward so urge you to at least support the state water boards proposal and if we can go further that is great. 60 percent is wonderful but lets at least get to 40 percent and make for a healthy est ware and hope we sur vive the next 30, 40, 50 years but it is scare aef world and you can help make it less so. Thank you. Thank you. Michael [inaudible] rochel [inaudible] and ben ikeenburg. Rainy day here. Im michael waurbenturn and executive director of a nonprofit called the Public Trust Alliance and we have taken on our mission reminding public agencies that there is a whole area of law that requireslegal requirement to actually be reasonable and use the best Information Available when you are dealing with the allocating public trust resources. Water is such a resource. A lot of the people appearing before you act as if they own the water. Some people encourage you to believe that you own some of this water. Water rights are about the reasonable use of water for public benefit. It is held in public trust by the state of california by the brft of all the public and that includes future generations and there is a unique obligation with wrard to the fisheries resources because thats where a lot of the law was put together. Three public trust uses are commerce, navigation and fishing and anyway, the amount of work that seems to have been put in by Commission Staff arguing against what the state Water Resources control board has invited you to join in um, becoming a leader withsome people come in saying we got to have 60 percent. State board figured my god, lets just see if we can do this with a 40 percent amounts of flow and um, it is possible and the thing is historically speaking there is a lot of statistics here and i want to take my queue from a author who lived in San Francisco by the name of mark twain who says whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over and there is three kinds of facts. There is lies, dam lies and statistics and the other one that is often used is we all know that water does want flow uphill, but in california you get much better results if you assume it flows uphill towards money. The thing is, it is possible to do a lot better and a lot of times arguments before Public Utilities commissions are asking you to do unreasonable things because the law requires it. They just happen to help out the party who is making the suggestion in the short Term Economic interest and i just was hoping that you would recognize the public trust responsibility in the state of california to be reasonable and use the best scientific nrfgz available. Thank you and i think a healthy doest of whiskey may help that. Good afternoon commission. Rochel trugairo a policy manager at the Bay Area Council. The Bay Area Council is a nonprofit Public Policy organization representing a cross sector of the regions largest employers. The bay area is californias most valuable economic asset boasting 531 billion economy in 2015 despite having 17 percent of the staets resident the bay areas taxpayers generate 36 percent of our state income tax revenue. But the bay area economy cant function without water as it account for about 85 percent of San Franciscos fresh water and 55 percent of the 1. 8 million served by bosca. They would have the lowest water use rates in california. Residents in the combined San Francisco use just 54 gallons per day compared to the state wide average of 82 gallons. San franciscos residential usage of 41 gallons per day is one of the lowest in industrialized world. However, the San Francisco Public Utilities commission estimates the users could face up to 50 percent cuts during droughts with rationing beginning immediately at the first sign of drought. This level of rationing could only be avoided by major investment in new supply that have no certainty of procurement. Because the bay areas water usage is so low this could have impacts undermining water sensitive institutions such as Hospital Data centers and bio Tech Industries and exacerbating our housing e crisis. The region is projected to grow by 820 more householdsm the draft [inaudible] could stifle the Housing Production as demonstrated in east pal o alto and force employers to expand else 37 where. In conclusion the bay areas economic value per gallon needs protection. Applaud the state water board initant to improve and save the echo system of the san joaquinair quu and tributaries and appreciate the balancing of human and environmental needsism we urged the board to take whatever measures needed to meet these competing water needs through voluntary agreements. Thank you. Ben ikeenburg, john palmroy, m att richardson. Hello. Im ben ike en burg on behalf of San Francisco bay keeper and more than 5 thousand members who use San Francisco bay and urge you to support the state water boards sed and compromise 40 percent proposition. I think a lot of the commenters that have gone before me have covered a lot of the reasons why this commission should support the greater flows of the river and health of the bay delta eco system but i want to make a few quick points. The bay area demonstrated it can thrirfb under drought condition squz one thing that isnt coved so far is the most successful Environmental Conservation in the country regulatory conservation in thecountry has come through innovation forcing regulations. I think what you see in the bay area is Innovative Tech Companies and people here who come up with solutions to these problems and if you limit supply then youll see Great Innovation and people come up with Amazing Solutions and that is some place where the sfpu c can take a leadership role. The other point i wanted to make really quick is that i notice that youre cooperating with or aligned with the irrigation district turlock and merced qu with the san joaquin tributary association and want to point out thaes partnerships dont necessarily represent the interest of sfpu c and the residents and customers. The irrigation districts have very different interests and think you should take that into consideration when you put together your comment s. That is what makes negotiations difficult. Good afternoon commissioners. Thank you sfr your time today. We are waterthis issues goes so much deeper than a couple species of fish. The health of our environment should always be our First Priority. These are most pressure assets. All too often business and commercial interest take a very narrow view while commodifying these Natural Resources which are a matrix of closely linked and pressure components. When one component is degraded there is a ripple effect. Similarly, when one component is nurtured the other s benefit as well. Healthy living soil for example needs much less irrigation as life is water, so life in soil equates to water in soil. Incent vising agriculture practices that nucher living soil, maximize irrigation efficiency and allows more water aligated downstream. This is just one thing we can do to fix the problem that all of us are here talking about today. Thise practices also minimize the toxicity of irrigation runoff maximizing our health. Let us know follow the example of recent history where great economic and social achievements came at the cost of air and Water Quality no longer safe to breathe or drink, in planning processes our cities county and state must place the quality of the eco system as their highest priority. The truth wealth of our society to provide long term wellness and happiness to all the people. Compromiseing for economic gain steals quality of life for the children and generations to come. It is easy to say this is a small compromise and there are situations where a compromise is necessary but shouldnt be the course of normal or public prescribet enterprise. We must always ask what sth value of economic success if our living river eco system is little more than a toxic sewer. The problems of our world are increasingly complex the solutionerize embarrass ingly simple. Is m att richardson here . He had to leave. Gale, bury hermann son and [inaudible] thank you for agendizing this item. I was born and raised in San Francisco as was my father. I am related through my mother to the con roy family, which included San Francisco police captain, a lete a couple fireman and one member of the San Francisco board of supervisors. I remember i was here when bay shore was synonymous with offensive stense and when air quality was so bad that the entire bay area was coated in a green yellow cloud. Hats off to environmental leeus peter dreck myer who fought and got the improvements to be realized. Im not sure of the social and economic democracy for america dim cratic club. We studied water issues and found out there is vastly more water assigned as paper water rights. I think it is 5 times as much than there ever is water in the state and that many so called farm said are actually ginet agrow businesses growing water intensive crops for export. We also found a number of holders of paper water rights sell them for many times the very low price they pay to the state. This seems very wrong. Our demo cratic club voted to approve the twin tunnels known as the bcdc. Your neighbors in san mateo, conte, the board of supervisors passed a resolution noting the significance of San Francisco bay and the esh ware providing Drinking Water and providing for the salmon fisheries and resources for migetory bird. They also kno note the state water board resource control board determined in 2010 that 75 percent of unimpaired run off from the system should flow into had deltasorry out of the delta into the the est ware during winter and spring months. As for economic concerns clearly drought restrictions have posed no barriers to Economic Growth in our area. In fact, to such an extent east pal o alto is suing meno park over traffic and issues related to growth and development. As for citizen support i remind you that bay area residents voted to tax themselves to imbruv the condition of the bay. In closing, i note that San Franciscos water use is not typically in my area while some people allow their lawns to go brown others waste vast amounts of water especially in palo alto. I urge you to do your maximum to preserve the health of our bay eco system. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is barren hermann son and serve on the San Francisco Group Executive committee for the sierra club. Im here to speak in favor of increased flows. There was a speaker a little earlier today that encouraged you to try to always keep a balance between human needs and the needs for the environment and i say that the needs for the environment must take pres dense because it it is if we do not provide the flows, we are already experiencing a est ware that is dying and it is up to us to find ways to save more water. It is possible. Myself, i installed Water Systems not only for my shower, sink, bath tub, but have also done it for laundry so that i reduce dramatically what i use in my yard yet i have fruit trees and a vegetable garden. I use less than 25 gallons per day and it is i believe possible for us to actually people talk about dooms day using half as much as whauts we get now. I believe it is possible to do that and it is possible to do it as well in terms of particularly our agriculture uses. We need to actually invest in finding ways to be as productive but use less and less water and recycle that water. I would love to be building a large cistern in my backyard. Be able to save all this rain water. Drives me nuts i got to use fresh Drinking Water to flush my toilet, that obscene. It ought to be the First Priority in the state to figure how all that infrastructure can be changed. We should not use Drinking Water for that purpsh. Im having trouble finding a engineer who will design a cistern. This is old technology. It is used arond the world forever. To be able to save 5 to 6 thousand gallons of water comingone big storm would fill that out. I believe we need policies to encourage this kind of savings and reuse of our water. Thank you very much. Thank you. President moran and commissioners, nice to see you. Im the Program Director at the Bay Institute and director of conservation at bay. Org which includes the institute [inaudible] and other facilities so speaking not just as a representative of a group of sciencetist and policy people who looked at what the flow needs are for the eco system and the city major employers and tourist attractions. As some speakers have said, San Francisco is justifybly proud of the leadership we displayed in many environmental areas but also have to acknowledge we are not as good steward as we should be of the water should or important eco systems downstream all the way to San Francisco bay. There is a vast scientific record compiled by the Bay Institute and state and federal fisheries agencies, state water board staff itself and other researchers that you need half or more of the watershed flow from the san joaquin basin and the tributary rivers in order to support fishery populations and Aquatic Resources that have a tupt to grow rather than to decline. What that means is not you need hlf the water to restore a eco system to what it was 100 years ago it means you need half the water to prevent fish and organisms going ix tinth. That record is no serious counter arguments. There a number of issues raised and Steve Ritchie mentioned some of them. The first is issue of flow versus nonflow. No one argues there are many non flow measures taken to protect the eco system as a whole. The point is that it is isnt a either or. You need flows in order to support non flow measures if you want to address predidation you need to provide improved flows. If you want functional flood plain and spawning you need improved flows. If you do one without the other those measures will fail. You cannot decouple them. Adaptive management we dont have perfect knowledge and should more adaptively manage but the fact is the boards proposal is based on a percentage not flat numbers, so it is hydro logically sensitive. The boards proposal allows for shaping of flows so we dont have to do those numbers every year. The board will likely include criteria for drought periods which chris chutes referred to earlier. Finally, let me address the settlement issue. In 4 or 5 years of settlement talks among all the parties, none of the parties have come close to resolving the issue and not likely they will do in the 6 monthss before the board has to make a decision. The board has a proposal of great range of Adaptive Management flows from 30 to 50 percent of unimpaired flow. That is a huge negotiation space so the fact the board make as decision doesnt stop voluntary discussion. There is a opportunity to come up with solutions after the board makes the Water Quality decision but prior to adopting a water rights decision. That is a really pornts aspect of this to reflect. Chair woman marks encouraged you to step up to the the challenge. I say step up the responsibility. The is a responsibility San Francisco has to repair damage done and willingness of the people in San Francisco to Work Together to do that as previous speakers said. Work to identify solution tooz getd get our facts straight and improve flows in the san joaquin basin and protect San Francisco bay. Good to see you again. Christina [inaudible] christina [inaudible] and thank you for putting this on agenda. Im here as a representative of great water action and work teaching people to install the rain Water Systems and teach through bosca and worked on pu c sponsored programs. I see all the time the will of the people wanting to help the environment by saving water and barely tapped that. I encourage you to factor that into the figures that much more conservation can happen. People talk about carrying buckets of water from the showers out to the garden. They are willing to do that. Using rain water to flush toilets, that is a option. I hear many talks i go to that groundwater is pumped out from under the city to prevent flooding of under ground things. The groundwater is considered to be used for non potable use so why not look at the local Water Resources to offset having to take water from the rivers. I also particularly want to speak for sturgeon. I had the most amazing meal at scotts sea food of surgeon. Sturgeon used to be a huge fisry and 20 feet long and 2 thousand pounds in the delta. They are amazing creatures and 240 million years old. They eat Invasive Plant and aerate the system keeping it alive so it doesnt go dead like a lot of est wares have become so we need the sturgeon and the sturgeon need us to give high flows because it turns out they require high flows to spawn. They cannot go up stream where they spawn because they are blocked by dams so they need the high flows from february to june to spawn at all. So, because the eggs require a lot of oxygen and cold water and the flows to get down stream and flood to mature. We need these amazing creatures in the delta eco system. They have a right to exist and need the high flows so hope you will consider not only 40 percent but maybe 50 percent of unimpeded flows because other creatures matter not just human beings in our own wants and needs so speaking on that behalf. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is gerlen moran. Im here as someone who grew up learning about birds along the bay lands and i have fond memories of a lot of family outings backpacking in the toileomy and feel these are experiences that contributed to shaping who i am and im here today with a heart felt thank you for putting this in front of us to listen to us as citizens to talk about this really important topic. As you are hearing over and over, the delta is dying and regretbly we are the Invasive Species and we are orchestrating the crash whether we want to face it or not. Our population is continuing to increase and this resource is not increasing. This globe is a closed system and quee all know that too. Logic dictates then that we use our exceptional intelligence to right the giant wrong with everything we can do and muster. So that is where you come in as a commission and you are what i understand as a very environmentally aware and caring commissionism. Your back ground in environmental arenas assures me that you are listening to us today and you want to weigh the most current facts and influence positively what the next steps will be for our bay delta eco system. We all know now is likely the last big chance to turn this around and it is really frightening, but the seasonal adjusted water flow that the state water board is offering, 40 percent for the rivers we talked about it is weg come progress. I feel im grateful for that but emplor you to push for a true game changeer of 60 percent flow to match what scientist already see what is needed to save the fish and wild life. So recollect in closing, please study the most recent Data Collected and work with all of us. We are all in this together and nobody is going to get what they want, we have to Work Together. But, if we go downjust take a look conservice water at home and through industry we are already been talking about we reduced water just by all this great conservation and agree with previous speakers that people have ovall have good hearts and want to do the right thing and want to conserve but we can do more. Paired with continued efficiency improvements the communities and economy and our natural can be on the right trajectory for the future because Water Management we are faced with Climate Change and the wise Water Management cant be over emphasized. Thank you for considering all this. Thank you. Chris gilbert, jim lazarus, [inaudible] louis. Good afternoon. Chris gillburt long time resident of the bay area. Im just a citizen, i got interested in the issue and do volunteers by the sierra club but not paid by anybody. Whault effected by is the oped by the general manager in the fall taking this to me very unSan Francisco, uncalifornia position on that the celta basically cant be saved. To me that was outrageous and didnt reflect who i think of who i am and who we are and when i look at the background of the commissioners i dont think it reflects who you are. You come from the Environmental Community and Labor Community and i want to underline commissioner courtneys concern about the integrity of the staffs proposal because when i read Something Like this and i see a response by a rational person, policy director for a nonprofit that questions so much of it and which goes unanswered and comes out with a statement saying it isnt valid and wurkt looking at. To me that doesnt reflect what we are up to here. Just quickly in the presentation today they said we have to cut 52 percent. That is our agreement with turlock and modesto. That was an agreement according to a federal agency, but there is a question of whether you are bound under with the state agency and in fact, your own staff hased in presenting potential water supply and Socio Economic effects from the raker fact San Francisco doesnt wave arguments it may have about how the raker act or fourkt agreement should or will be interpreted in the future proceedings. The intend to challenge any use the 4th agreement if necessary but that isnt explained. Maybe that is true but at least should be put in the mix. It shouldnt say it is 52 percent because of the agreement we have. To me that is notthat goes without integrity. There is something missing there. The thing about palo alto that 1112 projects are stopped because water supply isnt garen teed. The district has enough water just havent allocated enough to east pal o alto. I want to question the idea of volunteer agreement. I went to public agreement in stockton and in modesto they had tractors out front. Im just talking the irrigation people too. To me thinking you can get an agreement there is like expecting George Wallace to integrate the schools. It will take a state or federal agency to lay down the law. Thank you very much. Jim lazarus, denise louis. Commissioners thank you for having me toed. I appreciate your listening to all the testimony. Im with the San Francisco chamber of commerce and represent 2500 local businesses with over 200 thousand employees. I have been in San Francisco all my life and multigenerations and can remember since the 1970 having a bucket in my shower and there is one now and i think san franciscans are willing to do that when there is a drought, but are we going agree to water limitations that put that bucket in our shower eeben with the low flow shower head every day for the rest of our live jz childrens lives and dont think that is a acceptable outcome the vast majority of san franciscans will support. That doesnt mean they support a long Term Solution and proper Environmental Stewardship by this commission on behalf of the city and the stewardship comes down to the steps we can take to further reduce without negsive Economic Impacts or lifestyles within reason the use of water not only in San Francisco but throughout your services area. Can we make those cuts, can we continue to what los angeles. Los angeles was run through the mill. Los angeles is using the same water today with a Million People than a decade or more ago. There are ways to use less water or same amount of water for many more people and business and industrial use. We spent meno over 150 years building facilities to hold water for humans. Maybe we need to look at cost and ram ifications Holding Water that flows out and flood like the last few days for the use of fish and the environment and not making a zero sum gain out of the water we captured since the building of hetch hetchy but whether throughout the state we deal with a environmental issue that exists not only on the toileomy but throughout Northern California in a sensitive way. The chamber is willing to work with Bay Area Council can partners throughout the bay area with labor and partnership with alliance for jobs coming up with a method that assures we make reasonable goal tooz protect the environment while protecting the needs of water for business, resident and agriculture in Northern California. Thank you very much. Thank you. Denise louis. [inaudible] kiely and michael barber. Denise louis native San Francisco and student of ecology from city college of San Francisco. Im here to urge you as individuals and as a group to urge the state water board to get on board with 60 percent flow. You heard all the reasons why. I will give 3 reasons can i hope you will take to heart. First of all, california is a bio deversety hot spot meaning we are so lucky to have so many diverse species of plants and animals, many of which live only in california and many of which are risk of extinction due to human actirfbties so i would link it would be our collective job to advocate not to have any more species go extinct on our watch. The second reason is that the San Francisco bay delta has been designated as a est ware of International Importance that you probably already knew that, right . Okay. The third reason is San Francisco is a spanish name for saint francis, our patron saint of ecology so we need to live up to our responsibility because we are san franciscans. Thats all i have to say. 60 percent. Thank you. Thank you. It was pointed out to me i have a couple slips get stuck together. Dr. Elizabeth tarny you are next. Thanks glad i got unstuck. Thank you so much for the opportunity to talk and for hearing our comments. Dr. Elizabeth dockerty and director of holy h 2 o. I also at our house in oakland we use 17 gallons a day per person in the winter time. It is true that we go all the way up to 20 gallons a day in the summer. We grow extensive amounts of food on our property ask have tons of native and different kind of species that support the local biology in my area. So, here we are we got the water cycle that has for 4. 4 billion years been working great. Even in california up to last 1 fib0 years and then one species, one of 8. 7 million species on the planet, one of those 8. 7 million decides to grab that water for our home o sapien use. So, just to keep it in a big big perspective and since we have done that we completely messed up the natural water cycle in californiament we got this delta that is the largest est ware on the western cost of north and south america crucial for migration and done huge amounts of damage to that and here we are talking about different kind of fish, which as you know we are talking about the fish partially because they are important to californias economy but also because we are key stone species, which means the loss of those species directly impacts other species. About 138 different species depend on salmon alone. 138 species. That is not including the aquil soil nutrition and then the health of the soil that leads to soil stability because it is able to support the kind of trees and grasses that can keep that soil in place, so even if we only care for us, one of 8. 7 million different species, we are still shooting ourselves in the foot by this over drawing of water over a long period of time that is causing the collapse of our key stone species that are telling us straight out, we are in collapse. That collapse in the long term is economic and will costhe downfall of the population and Economic Health in the bay area so i really urge you 40 percent a minimum 60 percent is definitely what is required. Thank you. [inaudible] kiely and help me with that if i got it wrong. Michael barber. [inaudible] kyley so they call me tony. Never done anything like this before and my heart is pounding like a drum, but. I was born and raised in the city, my faurt before me and first baptized and he worked for hetch hetchy. We all know about the huge resource, giant eclogical and geographic area, monumental place the est ware is and we are recing it and dont have a right to wreck it. We are not the last generation of people who will live here. I wonder often does anyone think 100, 200 or 5 hundred years down the e line can human live here anymore . We have it save what we have now. As far as low flows and own a house on Russian River and it is hanging by the skin of the teeth in the summer the water may be a foot or less deep in the russian rinch river and moving slowly because they are letting water utjust to keep it go{the water gets warm and it is flowing slowly over dark rocks and the sun is pounding on it and it gets hot and last summer animals died from drinking the water because of the algae growing in it and so everybody is freaking out and families wont go in the water and the dpids will die and that isnt good for local economy and horrible for the fwish and horrible for anyone who has anything to do with it. If responsible citizens can decrease the water use by 30 percent which we have done over the past few years as san franciscans can others use half what others in the state use what cant Everything Else . We are not genius or saint we just care. People need to get on board to save watt squr save lives and our habitat. Blah blah blah. I was driving from my daughters graduation in certain california and hot and put gas in the car, it was about 95 degree jz the wind i thought it would rip my car door off so drive through agriculture areas where they are spray irrigating. Water canon is going up hundreds of feet and none is hitting the ground. How is this allowed to happen . How does agrow business allowed to flood their fields almond orchards, take the money and export to another country . It is insane. We scr a hand full of people making millions a year and not the family farm ers that we need to protect, these are corporations and they are killing our water system. They are killing our delta. Take peter dreckmyers recommendation because he doesvent a dime involved and vust a honest person. Thank you. Michael barber. John mc manus and tim ikeenburg. Commissioners my name is michael barber and represent dave pine and he is a chairperson of the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority as well as commissioner on the bay Conservation Development commission. I am his policy person on water issues which is why im here. Im not here to aopinion anything at this point. I will make a caveat i was born in San Francisco since it seem to be a issue here. I am also on a personal note i am a regular swimmer in the bay so Water Quality is a issue for me personally and for my swim mate but Water Quality makes me not feel gooed at the end of the day. We are not here to apine anything. We are interested in issue. What we are hearing today and have seen in opeds is conflicting information from multiple sources and as the commissioners you have addressed before, if you could uncover that or reconcile the differences that is great appreciation to all of us. I will end with that. You have been slogging through this. Thank you very much for having this on the agenda. John mc manus and tim ikeenburg. Hello commissioners. John mc manus, executive director of San Francisco Salmon Association representing commercial and sport salmon fisherman and relailted businesses. I like to echo something thats dou g obeejy comed for which is a meeting between staff and informed stakeholders and like to encourage you to do your own Due Diligence on the matter. We support the proposal in front of the state board now at a minimum probably need more water. I want to call a couple things to attention, we have been talking about unimpaired flows, we are talking february to june, not all year round. There is a reason for that. The problem salmon are having the Central Valley is juveniles cant knet out of the central val a. The adults can get back and spawn, the juveniles cant get out and that is why we need the flows in february through june. It provides a fast ride down the river and stirs up turbitly so the predators cants see them. There are many Different Reasons woo are in the mess we are in today and water behind hetch hetchy is probably a small part but everybody is called upon to make a contribution. I think you probably all know we experience toxic blue green algae outbreaks in San Francisco bay last summer and that is because we are cloaking the life out of the Rivers Feeding the delta. Completely unsustainable. As a native san franciscan i grew up and new people whos dads were xhilsh fisherman. People who went to si and reerden. Today you go to a warf and it is a shadow of its former self but it could be more economic robust and vital once again, it wouldnt take a lot. Now we have three charter boats running salmon trips out of fisermans warf. When we talk about economic value of salmon sth commercial aspect is only a part. The economy around the recreational fishery is jijantic. You may remember sullivans oen geary or bait shop on pullic and they are gone but we can get them back and wouldnt take a lot. I just want to put the image in folks mind that water is life and water released unimpaired brings life which translates to economic value to San Francisco. Think about the warf. The Developers Tell you we need the water delivered to build new houses, we can see that go else where and economic returned to the city. Tim ikeenburg. Rounding out at 40. Good afternoon, thanks for having this hearing and appreciate it. Tim ikeenburg a resident of San Francisco and a paying customer of yours since 1984. I also teach a course in ocean and costal law and tell my students the fwo most important things when you come to a hearing like this is show up and the second most important thing is stay to the end so what i have kun. I support the comments and the water Quality Control board plan for increasing fresh water flows at 40 percent at least and support the comments of the toileomy trust and San Francisco bay keeper and nrdc and urge you to take the suggestion of dou g obogeee and mr. Mac mans to direct staff to mean with concerned sit whereins that have before you submit your comments to the water board to iron out the inconsistency and contsversery raised today. Everybody knows the bay needs more flesh water flow and agree on that and for many reasons for fish and wildlife and environment but one reason is also for health and safety of the resident in San Francisco which you have a responsibility to protect. Increasing freshwater flow means increasing sediment to the eco system which protects the beaches and wet land and make them resilient to Climate Change. We have a king tide next week and know the impact and know it is 10 if not hundreds of millions of dollars to protect from Sea Level Rise and caused by Climate Change so urge you to add to another good reason to support the boards water Quality Control plan to provide at least 40 percent of the flows, maintain 40 percent of the flows to San Francisco bay. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Anybody that i have not called . Martin kirkwood. First of all thank you for your efforts to all the work that the pu c does with insuring clean healthy and safe Drinking Water in San Francisco as well as all the Water Conservation programs that you provide here to san franciscans. In San Francisco, i build housing and mixed use buildings. I am a developer here in San Francisco. I am very concerned about what i had seen in the cu d. Water is stated to or the lack of water is stated to be crippling housing programs and projects in the East Palo Alto and other areas throughout california like porterville and throughout the Central Valley. I still dont see in that report where there is issue with the supply. The supply doesnt seem to be the issue here. It does seem to be allocation. That is a very concerning not only to me but a lot of other people and hope that the Commission Staff takes a look at that. I did read the report, i have taken a look at the comments distributed by another speaker presenting comments to the commission earlier and speem to be more in agreement what i have seen from the toileomy river trust. They seem to be a reliable source of information and seems they have done the homework and come in line with conclusions a lot of others have made. There are eloquent speeches made here today and not here to repeat their statements, however, as a person working to build housing in the mixed use housing projects in San Francisco and throughout the south pay and peninsula, there is a lot of concerns. We need to move forward with finding a way to balance the concerns of water supply, water useage among the various parties. I dont think the 40 percent that the state Water Resources board is requesting is unreasonable, i think is rational to bring back a historic flow for the 2350u mupths they are requesting and think it is good for california qu fuper generation and good for us. Water conservation measures San Francisco is putting in place is quite effective. People have been living up to what is requested of them to conserve water. As a buildser i put in different types of technology in the buildings. I have one gallon flow toilets. One flush, one gallon not the one. 28 required by cam. The shower heads are more efficient than required by the state for 2017 building or plumbing codes. Housing can still happen. We can still build housing with what we have, we just need to be better doing what we do. I would like to see the commission take a look at some of the concerns that a lot of the people here have issue with and wish you all the best. Hope we have a healthy river. Thank you. Anybody else . Is dollar there anybody else after anybody else . Okay. Come on up. Hello. My name is Jacob Roberts and didnt expect to speak today, but im not from San Francisco i grew up in tucson arizona where every day i went to school, drove past the river which was contrary to how it sound not a river, it was a wash. It was totally empty, about 364 days out of sth year. Occasionally there would be a monsoon to fill it up and growing up to me that was normal and didnt question it. Now looking back i realize that that wash could never have existed without a complete river and eco system there prior to damming up stream and human involvement and i just want to warn you against the dangers of the new normal. If you have children growing up in a bay river delta eco system that is totally stripped of any life of any eclogical diversity, then they see that as the new normal and start seeing that as this is how it has always been and that makes it so more difficult to make changes after the fact then starting now and restoring what we have creating that normal. I am with carbon quest or developing called carbon quest which is waste Water Treatment process and my big concern is the [inaudible] of the bay and the organization. The amount of algae blooms. In 20 11 because of the amount of fresh water flooding during massive storms, the oyster population collapsed and those are what filter out the phytoplankton from having the aloe blooms so we reduction in the echo system that will only move to increase upon each new development you see in the eco system problems. Right now the east side Treatment Plant they are only recycling two million gallons a day using revrs osmoses which is 1. 8 percent of what you are abigated to provide and think we can do more. That you thank you very much. Thank you those of you for being here today and talking to us. Im sorry. Come on up. My name is Catherine Baker and grew up in orange county. New port beach but muchbed here after college and been here and very aware of the water problems. I go off sailing for long months and months at a time and the only play i could find to stay is a shelter where chis where im staying now up the block, up the street. It has been the worst experience of my life, but what i want to say is the women there have know idea there is any problem with water and would like to encourage somebody to come and give a talk to the women that live in the shelter that think they can take run the water for 5 minutes while they brush thrair teeth orthey just waste water and every time i see something im like the wicked witch. She is talking about water, what is the problem with water, there is always plenty of water. I just would encourage someone to come and talk to people who are from all over, but mostly not from here and are not aware there is any problem with water and please come and talk and back me up. Me being the wicked witch of water. Anyway, please give me some information of who i could talk to. I talked to the Water Department and said oica, but they didnt really follow up on it. Who do i talk to to come and givethere is like 300 people in the shelter and they just dont get it. Especially with all the rain. The gentlemen at the back corner of the room is glad to talk to you. Thait great thank you for doing this. I lived in california since i was 2 and know problems with water. Thank you. Is there anyone else . Okay. Thaupg again for coming. We did want this to be a non positional airing of thought and opinion. I appreciate you all doing that. I tried pretty much to keep that rule myself. I think one thing that commissioner courtney you were very quick to get on i think we do need to respaupd in detail to mr. Dreckmyers concerns and there are other issues of a nature raised that we also need to deal with. There is a learning and sharing opportunity that we take advantage of. Part of the reason for that, part of to defend the honor and integrity but the other part is if we spend our time arguing about the numbers instead of the solutions that is a waste of time and we dont need to. I think that the numbers will speak for themselves and different people will use different numbers but we dont need to be in a doubt where they came from or how they are cal culated or being used so zoo we have work to do there and i am sure that staff and the commission are willing to weigh in and do that. That said commissioners any last words before we move on . First, did anyone sign up for clean pow cleanpowersf . One person. I think we need to do that as you walk out. Alright. Thats great. A couple things here, when it comes to Water Conservation it is so impressive what people in San Francisco and bay area are doing. I want to add too, dont waste food if you want to conserve water. Take what you eat, eat what you take. A learned this from a dear frnd named john foly. I want to put that out there. And then i think everyone here shares concerns. Concerns about run off and salmon zygotes are issues and we hear everyones passionate about this. I heard some i guess indictment of character. Staff works hard just like everyone else here and this issue keeps them up at night to make sure they have things correct. I think mr. [inaudible] quote on mark twain, i appreciate that and think statistics can be interpreted through any length but nothing aqua vitta cant fix. A reminder i think everyone is working on solutions and wreneed to head. The notionsomeone brought up a great point of all the species that occupy including human beings and the term gujump which means to something for someone else. Water is a resource to me bee shared of organisms. Go through the numbers to make sure the assumptions are correct but come up with solution that are decisive are conductive for all. Thank you. So, i just want to thank everybody for showing up today. Sorry i was late, but i do really appreciate the out pouring of Public Comment. I think it makes a big difference. I dont mean to be play catch up here but there are a couple things i am picking up on and one is i want to make sure there is going to be adequate input from interesting stakeholders into the process because we are a public body and we are a Public Utilities Agency Commission and so i dont know what that looks like but i encourage staff to try and find a way to have a meeting or two as part of within the next couple months with interested stakeholders. I would like to also ask the chair if it is possible to have another meeting when we are closer to submittal so we can present or at least share where we are and receive Public Comment on that as appropriate because i feel like this is a big enough issue where we want to stay engaged with communities so that is one point that i would like a response to on the engagement process. I also hear what you say about the numbers should not drive the entire conversation but i do think it is important to understand where there is flexibility in the numbers. I do know how well we have done with conservation. I know we have our contractual agreements, but i would like to have a better understanding of what numbers we could do better on and to try and approach this very critical question of the health of the river and meeting our supply needs from a perspective of what we can do being the San Francisco we are, being the Technology Center we are, having the public support expertise and input that we do and having the invitation from the state that we really be partners and leaders in the effort. Thank you. Mr. Richard. Yes, i would make a comment that there issomebody mentioned there is a group called the bay area water steward that we met with from time to time usually roughly quarterly or twice a year so we are about due for another meeting so we will make that a priority to schedule that certainly within the next month to make sure we have more dialogue of this issue. And that would be excellent. Thank you. I dont know if there will be the correct opportunity to come back before this commission before a comment is submitted but at least with some sense of where we are because i do feel like it is going be important to reflect back that we heard the public input. I just want to point out i think that there will be a process where folks are talking about settlement discussions and they are confidential. I think identifying the factual stuff but i know the table is set and will start having conversations and donts know how that will transform so it is hard to say what we can do right now, but i do feel we should engage and communicate and maybe have some meetings to discuss where we are, what we can talk one thing i want to spend time thinking about and talking about is how we deal with the various issues. Some of them can be in writing and there may be small group diss discussions that need to take place. Some stuff is more appropriate back here. The discussions that are going to be taking place in a private setting will be private, but the filings we make on march 7 are public so there is no reason we cant talk about those. I want to spend time thinking how we use our time between now and march 17 and beyond to make sure these issues are fully understood and that we can focus on policy and actions we can take to meet our objectivesism it will be tough. Somebody mentioned that the irrigation districts dont have our interested heart and good deal of the time that is true. We also have a long history work wg them cooperatively ochb other issues so it isnt always true. But they are not the only ones at the table and deis a very tough nut to crack and while i hope we can do is where there is flexibility in numbers we identify that. Where there are numbers that are not fully understood i would like to make sure they are fully understood. We may need to get into discussions about how you mentioned you could not believe that there was supply assurances in perpetuity, there kind of are and there is other agreements that we may need to get into make it fully understoodable to folks. We live under contracts and law and they put constraint on us as well as the Natural Systems put constraint on us so it is a tough one to take care of and in order to get from here to there and any reasonable solution we need to make sure that we dopet just spends our time arguing about numbers, we need to put the issues to bed and do that as quickly and effectively as we can and move on to the nut of the issue. Thank you for coming. There will be more so stay tuned. Let me take a brief time check. Do wehow long do we have this room . Until 5. We can probably go a little over. Okay. Do we have items on closed session that we really need to hear . Got you. Okay. I think we can dispense with the close said session items then. And a couple will be carried over to the next meeting. Lets proceed with the agenda. We will be done well before that. Move to the the consent calendar. Madam secretary. Can i ask people to leave the room if they are having discussions so we ask carry on . Item 9 is consent calendar. All matters under consent calendar are considered to be routine by San Francisco Public Utilities commission and acted by a single vote of the commission. There is no separate discussion unless a member of the commission or public shall request in which event the matter is removed from the calendar and considered. 9 a approve modification to job order contract 46 increasing by 2 million 500 thousand. Increasing the contract by 2 million 500 thousand and time extension of 730 calendar days. Approve the selection of award agreement for amount not to exceed 3 million. Specifications and award contract ww 632 in amount of 9, 536, 00 to qualified bidder mauntsry mechanical. Contract number ww 617 increasing the contract by 155, 674. Thank you. Any commissioners or member of the public want to remove from the consent calendar . Seeing none. Moved and seconded. All in favor . Aye. Opposed. Item 10 approve black and Veatch Corporation for amount not to exseat twovel million and duration of 10 years. Okay. I requested this put as a regular item. It had been on consent and i just want to express my continuing concern we get into the sole source awards. In this case it is because a contractor couldnt comply with the 14 b provisions in time, shame on them. That have the law for a long time, these are reperateable contractors and know how to do it so get your act straight guys and dont put us in a position of having sole source awards. With that off my chest, ill move the item. Second. Seconded. Any comments . All in favor . Aye. Opposed . The item passes. 11 authorize memorandum of understanding with santsa clara Water District not to exceed 75 thousand are duration of 24 months. I like to move the item, and second. Moved and seconded. Any comments . All in favor . Aye. Opposed . The item carries. Item 12. Altogethererize rim fire project grant. I have a question on that, what was the original one this is alternate to . [inaudible] trying to remember what the original projects were. It was a small amount of money. There were certain facilities that we just were not going to rebuild that were burned in the fire. If you can just let me know. I got that any other questions or comments . All indo i have a motion . So moved. Seconded. All in favor . Aye. Opposed . That item carries. Item 12, sorry, item 13 is remubled from the calendar. Item 14. 14, approve the revised water supply assessment for the sea wall lot 337 at pier 48 mixeduse project. Moved and seconded. Any comments . All in favor . Aye. Opposed . Item 14 carries. Item 15. 15, public hearing, discussion and possible action to authorize the general manager to establish a 500 gallon a day residential house water yuss thres hold for customers in singlefamily homes and individually metered multifamily unit, this is imposed during rationing periods . That is contract. It is pursuant to state law enacted to establish penalties for excessive water use so this only comes to ineffect for residential use and Retail Service use area. The 500 gallons, where does that come from . 500 gamins per day we were free to pick a number that fit us. This is originally based around the ordinance which is a thousand gallons per day and use half state wide so we thought that this is consistent with holding the numbers down. This will effect about 330 customers potentially. As we looked in ed to them class residential are not really residential so the number is probably more like 250 customers that fall into the category. 250 excessive water users might be hit by this in the case of mandatory ration . Yes. Any questions or comments . Public . Motion . Move. Second. Seconded. All in favor . Aye. Opposed . The item carries. Item 16. 16 approve the plans for specification and award contract number ww614 r 2 the amount of 12, 485, 980 to the lowest qualmifyed bidder the du tra group. Any questions on that . Do i have a motion . So moved. Second. Seconded. Anybody from the public . All in faiv favor . Aye opposed . The item carries. We will not do closed session today. That means we will have carry over items to be on the next agenda, so there isi will encourage commissioners to plan their schedules accordingly we have time for full closed session. Does that mean it will be a long meeting . Sorry . Is code for a long meeting . It may go beyond 4 or 5. Probably not, but there is another group in here at 6. I have to clean the room after our meeting, soi need time to do that. To be continued. Any other commission . I have one. It is long meeting. So, i got a couple of phone calls the other day about the practices and connection with legislation passed by then supervisor now center scott wiener related to gray Water Systems in new Development Projects greater than 40 thousand feet and there are concerns related to me that there is something going on where people are uncomfortable with it so i like to get a briefing or i want to just investigate some of the concerns maybe with somebody with the sierra club, but i like to meet with staff to have a conversation about the gray Water Systems ordinance and how we are performing pursuant to that moving forward. Sure staff will accommodate that. We will definitely bring in the right people to give a update but i want to let you know it was something that wiener was pushing and we try to work with them and a lot of the Developers Come with a compromise so think the legislation was a compromise but will sit down and give the backdrop. Being no further business before the commission this meeting is adjourned. [meeting adjourned] i have 2 job titles. Im manager of the tour program as well as i am the historyian of city hall. This building is multifaceted to say the very least its a Municipal Building that operates the city and county of San Francisco. This building was a dream that became a reality of a man by the name of james junior elected mayor of San Francisco in 1912. He didnt have a city hall because it was destroyed in the earth wake of 1906. Construction began in april of 1913. In december 1915, the building was complete. It opened its doors in january 1916. Its a wonderful experience to come to a building built like this. The building is built as a palace. Not for a king or queen. Its built for all people. This building is beautiful art. Those are architecture at the time when city hall was built, San Francisco had an enormous french population. Therefore building a palace in the art tradition is not unusual. Jimmie was an incredible individual he knew that San Francisco had to regain its place in the world. He decided to have the tallest dome built in the United States. Its now stands 307 feet 6 inches from the ground 40 feet taller than the United States capital. You could spend days going around the building and finding something new. The embellishment, the carvings, it represents commerce, navigation, all of the things that San Francisco is famous for. The wood you see in the board of supervisors chambers is oak and all hand carved on site. Interesting thing about the oak is there isnt anymore in the entire world. The floors in china was cleard and never replanted. If you look up at the seceiling you would believe thats hand kof carved out of wood and it is a cast plaster sealing and the only spanish design in an arts building. There are no records about how many people worked on this building. The workman who worked on this building did not all speak the same language. And what happened was the person working next to the other person respected a skill a skill that was so wonderful that we have this masterpiece to show the this masterpiece to show the world today. Announcer b dreams and good grades arent enough to get into college. There are actual steps you need to take. Finding someone who can help is the first and most important. For the next steps, go to knowhow2go. Org. All right. Welcome everyone to our rules committee of monday, december 12, 2016, im katie tang chair our clerk is derrick overview vonlz from sfgovtv thank you Nona Melkonian and Charles Kremenak to my left is commissioner coppel and joined by commissioner mar and to any far left is commissioner avalos like to point out supervisor avalos and mr. Clerk, any announcements . Yes. Electronic devices