Transcripts For SFGTV 20140818

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anticipate participation there after. and that concludes my report and i would be happy to take any questions. >> commissioners? >> yes. >> what is that flying saucer machine? >> in the last slide? >> that is a butterfly valve that is one of the pipelines at the treatment plant. >> it opens and closes for flow. >> okay, >> correct. >> thank you. >> mr. wade, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> very informative. >> so, the next report that i have the water supply out look, and mr. ritchie will present that. >> all right. >> okay the team is finished with the work. steve r. cri. hie, the direct for water and i will have the updates, i will move into those and i have skipped a couple of these slides that we have seen before to cut right to the chase and this is the slide showing the reservoirs and as you note the hetch hetch is 90 percent low, and it has been coming down as the summer progressed and there is no inflow and that will decrease until the following and into the next wet season that we get. we expect to be around october first at about 250,000 acres in the reservoir, on that standard operating procedure for this kind of year, again the water bank number is low, 37 percent and it is low but that number has been coming up and it is actually come up about 13,000 acre feet as we have steadily put the water into that from the cherry reservoir side and because we want to replenish the water, so that it can come in this year, the total system storage is 61 and a half percent right now. and so, these numbers are you know going to be steadily changing as we get into the fall and as we look forward to what kind of precipitation that we are going to be getting in september, we will come to the commission with an out look for the future of how we expect to operate the system. through the next year, and potentially the years after that if it continues to be dry. and on the precipitation front, the study now after the late july storms and again we have reached the 2007 level, of precipitation for the side, and about 62 percent of normal which is a far cry from where we were in january and still not a great year but it is definitely, we have gotten more precipitation this year than i was expecting a while back. >> here is the really good news slide and the total deliveries is compared to 10 percent reduction level and we have tried to keep the demand below that black line and we were ahead tf and now we have pretty steadily over the last eleven weeks been very steady just below the line and we are really catching up on savings in the system and so our goal of needing ten percent reduction system wide is within reach. and this is our cumulative savings here in the green shows a steady climb up. what we want to do in the case of this slide, we want to be above the black dash line that means that we are saving more water than we have to. >> that has been a lot steeper than the black line. hopefully by labor day we will have crossed that line and receiving the ten percent reduction for the year. just to remind folks in san francisco that we are at 49, and 88 gallons per capita, or the gross per capita use and then also, in the wholesale customers complied with the mandate for 20 percent reduction by 2020. this is the point that we made yesterday, when we met with the governor's drought water system, along with the representatives from the bay area and the water agencies that one of the things that we are proud of, is the amount of water that we have saved already and we continue to save more on top of that. and, we actually showed this slide a couple of years ago, but it is good to remind us, that relative to other larger, agencies around the state, san francisco, is again, saving substantially more water, and have gotten already to the target reduction for the 20 percent reduction by 2020. >> our average campaign continues. and we have done a lot of billboards, and muni cards, and we actually are working on billboards out in the wholesale area with the wholesale customer to get the message out there on conservation as well and that has been successful and i think that is part of the indication why the demand has been reduced. one of the key things that we are doing now and have been for a while is working with the city departments consistent with the mayor's february 10th directive, and working with the rec and park and public works and some of the largest ones, through the data and developing with the data sharing plans and in order to view in the conservation reports that were submitted by most of the city departments, august first is directed by the mayor. and on the quick review of those so far, and there have been about 3 to 4,000 that need to be replaced and we will be working with the departments to determine the most efficient way to get them replaced, taking advantage of the different programs that we have to offer. we have also applied for the grant funds from the state to augment to install the toilets in the city departments and we will be looking at those plans, in two to three weeks and we will have a clear plan going forward so that by the end of 2015, you know, replacing substantial number of those fikt turs and i think that is a real big step forward for us. >> and the last slide that i have at this point, is on what in one picture looks like... but it looks like a new tool that we have available for us and it went backwards. this is data that comes to or out of our automated meter structure system. what you see here, every one of those blue lines with the little tag at the top, is a daily read from the jones street tank, a storage tank in the water supply system and on the left-hand, this is over the last three months, on the left-hand side, you see, those bars are constantly at a level of 400,000 gallons per day and so the system was using and demanding, 400,000 gallons per day which is not good news for a system, and that is generally in the waste and that means that we are losing water out of that system and so we worked with folks, trying to target the leak detection techniques and i will get it right. and by about, mid june, we were able to detect a large leak in the system and get it repaired and so you see there, about the middle of that table, the demand dropped substantially and this is something that we could not have seen with our old manual reads where you read the meters once every two months, this is because we are getting the daily data so that we can actually see the results of our actions and we cut off that leak and reduce the demand by 300,000 gallons a day, and we have not observed that leak, because it actually was shooting out of the system directly into a storm drain and going into the waste water system and so it was not expressing itself with a sinkhole or something like that and then for the system really is working, you see a couple of spikes there. one was a main break that we had and one day down on bryant street and so we have a spike in use and so we can now tell that there are spikes in use related to various activities and the first one was a main break and the second one was actually last week at the foot of street there was a call on the system and the point of this slide is a, we found a significant leak and fixed it, but b, we are now having more and more tools in place that allow us to actually understand what is going on in the system and take action about them and so that is one of the good things about the automated water meter program and i think that we will start to see taken advantage of more and more as the time progresses and so that is the summary of where we are at this point. >> commissioner? >> the recent problems that my old home town has been facing in los angeles, have we done a comparative model of what we can learn from what they are doing here. >> we actually talked with them, quite regularly, and through, a california urban water agencies and the american water works association and many forums, you know we saw some of the results and we saw the definite results of the main break and also the system and the issues that they have with it and there are some more, situations in our system where we have the weak spots and that we don't get a chance to test them because we can't take this system off line. and so we see them, express themselves with big results. so we talked to them and others regularly about what are the best tools that we can use, one of the things that we actually have been talking a lot with the other folks about is using new and different types of materials, for pipe replacement. and another one is leak protection, how do you utilize, an automated to the best ability? and those topics that are commonly discussed as ways that we can all get better into the future. >> and so, as two cities, coordinate with each other in terms of updates. >> yes. >> because, the water that was lost in that main break at ucla was equal to a day's use of consumption in san francisco county. >> about a third of the use in one shot there. and we were looking at all breaks and i think that we have a break in south san francisco, november a few years ago that might have been comparable with that one, but that one was just right there. >> we are on top of it. >> as on top of it as you can get and we will actually have a report on the pipeline assessment program at the next meeting so that we can talk about that. >> thank you. >> commissioner vietor >> just a question about this precipitation graph and if there is any other data that you have been learning as you plot out these graphs around precipitation, whether it is starting to come later, during the year, because something that you said around, you know, you are much more pleased that what you were thinking was going to happen in january, is not happening. because there has been additional rain fall and one thing that says to me is that there is more and there is later rain fall happening during the year. and that that might have applications for the water banking and when we do the projections and our storage. and so, i guess that my question is, is, can we tell, either from this chart, or are you tracking whether our rain fall is starting indeed to come later in the year? and what are the implications for our water banking or for our, you know, planning and forecasting of the water use. >> yeah, one of the things that we see is that every year is different and if you can pull up the slide again and you pull back up the precipitation slide. and that each one of these years, has you know, bumped the different times, and some years it is earlier and some years it is early, and some years it is late and some years it does not materialize and some years it is overwhelming. when you look at the collective record, it is a broad swath around that median. and this is the kind of data that we frankly need to keep on collecting on a routine basis so that we can start to look and see if there are longer term trends and in this case, 2014, we just caught up with 2007. those were both within the last few years, you know, not too bad and they were in there and 2010, which it does not show here which was a big year, we had a very big year in there. and it was constant throughout the year and there was no, and there were no particular ups and downs, it was just a steady flow and so early to draw conclusions on this but this is something that we will continue to look at and one of the things of a task that we have under way is working with a number of climate specialists to try to take the global change models and bring them down to the regional level, and directly to the local level for operations and that is work that should begin late they are year and hopefully within a year so that we can have results of that, to that and it might start to shed light on how we should potentially change the operations in the future, and each year is different. and looking at this year, and i will speak for margaret, and myself, both in january, when we saw how low things were, we were, we were frightened. and that was extremely low. and i started to ask, what if it does not rain again? and the people laughed. nervously, because it is always rained and this year was no different, and it did, rain, but that does not mean that it is going to rain next year. >> that is the challenge of operating, is you can try to conclude as mostly as what you do is operate very conservatively to make sure that you can make it through each successive year and why we chart out at least three years out. >> vice president caen? >> mr. ritchie could you comment on the fact that bottlers are using the water and there seems to be no regard in terms of cutting back? >> that is something that we as a wholesaler, sale water to the retail customers and they in turn, sell it to their customer and that is one of the things that we can call for a reduction in the system and they, you know, need to make those reduction and they have made those reductions and how they make them and we leave it entirely to our wholesale customers. >> okay. >> thank you. >> okay. >> that concludes the general manager's report. >> thank you. >> any further conversation? >> seeing none, i will call for public comment on the general manager's report, i have no speaker cards, is there any public comment? >> reports? >> seeing number, public comment is now closed. madam secretary, i would like to callen item out of order so long as there is no objection from my colleagues, i would like to move to item ten >> could you call item ten? >>authorize the general manager to impose mandatory restrictions, as required pursuant to the state water resources control board's emergency regulations, on outdoor irrigation by reducing all outdoor irrigation of ornamental landscapes or turf with potable water by retail customers by at least 10%; and presentation and discussion of proposed excessive use charges applicable to the approximately 1600 retail potable water irrigation accounts, for commission action at the august 26, 2014 meeting. >> >> and i would like to note that in your packets there were two resolutions for this item, and the first resolution was the correct version and it included an additional language on the third further resolve clause on page 5. after charter section, 9.118. and the addition of the wording along with the approval of the appearing of the far greater irrigaters. >> i think that is for the next item. >> i am sorry. >> forgive me. >> ignore, what i just said. >> ignore what i just said. >> dually noted. >> thank you. >> i was scared. >> i was wondering. >> the assistant general manager for water again and now we are talking about the proposed implementation of the new state water board regulations if i could have the slides please? >> and in terms of an overview, we are going to be talking about what the state water resources control board adopted on july, 15 and was approved by the oa, and the office of the administrative law and our implementation of those related to the outdoor irrigation reduction, as well as a water waste, education and enforcement program. first, under regulations, they are listed here in the four bullets and these are uses that are considered water waste by the state, and are punishable by a fine of up to $500 as an infraction and the first one, the application of the potable water to the outdoor land scapes in a matter that causes run off, that is something that is already part of the city ordinance that we have adopted and so it will be an effect of that later that you will see and that is already in the administrative code of san francisco. the second, puts limitations on washing motor vehicles, and the third, is the application of the potable water, to the driveways and sidewalks and the last is the use of potable water in the fountain or other water feature and that is probably the recirculation system and these are considered wasting practices that the state has prohibited >> and the next slide shows the exception to that, which is one that we actually requested in the regulations, that they should be an exception based on public health and safety and we have actually put in the website, a description of what we think that means for san francisco and that is the water can be used to wash the sidewalks if necessary to remove human and animal waste and other liquids and substances that cause odors or attract for verm in only those with shut off nozzles should be used and for the least amount of time needed. and in the recognition, and that and the challenging environment there are situations where you really do need to use water as the cleaning agent as the last resort to effect clean up. >> and the regulation ts also required that the agencies implement all requirements and actions of the stage which the water storage plan that imposes mandatory restrictions of the landscapes or turf and requires reporting by the retail agencies on their usage on the monthly basis. >> so we talked about it exactly, how we will implement those. and we will cover both of those aspects, first the outdoor irrigation and, then secondly the water waste, and the education and enforcement program. >> and on the proposed mandatory ten percent reduction for landscape and turf all customers are required to reduce outdoor irrigation by ten percent and the reduction does not apply to edible food gardens, this made it clear that they did not want to interfere for the gardening, for food, and it is just about orn mental. and 1600 on the retail side are dedicated irrigation accounts will be assigning those and wateral locations based on the 2013 base line and half of those accounts are city/department accounts, and rec and park primarily, and the irrigation customers will be notified, to a letter, about the water allocation and the process of achieving the ten percent reduction and no water charges will be assessed until the end of the year and people can balance out over the year between months and for other retail customers, we will be notified regularly through the messages that they need to reduce the irrigation outdoors. and we will be talking about the excess use charges at the august 26th meeting and our current proposal that we are considering is that any excess water use, above the total allegation, from september to june will be charged two times the water rate that is what we did in the last big drought was if you used excessive water above your allegation, for controlled purpose, that you would have to pay double the cost for those units of water. >> we water set up. and that the charges and base line, can be appealed through the administrative process, here. and again, the irrigation accounts we don't know exactly what they are irrigating out there right now and so if someone is irrigating, fruit trees, for example, they can come and make their case that is what i am irrigating and so i need an exception and that will be heard on a case by case basis. >> and our wholesale customers are responsible for developing their own retail compliance plans and we will be offering to provide assistance to them if they need it. but they all have some of the ordinances that they have to deal with in their system and so that is how we plan to deal with the ten percent mandatory reduction in irrigation in the landscape and turf at this point in time, are there any questions on that aspect of it? >> commissioner torres? >> yes. when you say ten percent, you mean ten percent across the board percuss customer? >> correct. >> you measure my flow of water that i use in my home in san francisco, in january and then based on that number you will see whether i have increased or reduced? is that how you are going to measure it? >> if you have an irrigation only account. >> these are for irrigation only accounts? >> yeah. this is for irrigation and so for a normal customer, you are a normal customer. we can't differentiate, so there is no good way to measure that reduction. we think that actually it will be any real savings that we will achieve will be in the irrigation only acounts and so that is why we are going to focus our effort there. we will inform you that you should reduce it by ten percent but we will leave that to you as to how to accomplish that. >> as a home owner. >> will you measure that amount as a home owner month to month? >> no, we will not. >> how will you know if i have exceeded it or not? >> we will not know, but we will snow if we achieve the over all savings that we are trying to achieve. >> you are going to rely on the faith of the home owners that do not have a irrigation account to reduce. >> we assume for waste water purposes, that ten percent of your water usage ss a home owner is for irrigation, which is actually given the 49 gallons per capita per day that is a really small amount of water and it is not worth the time to actually chase down more without having to rely on, your good intentions. >> the pay out there. >> and it will continue to be there. >> 1600 dedicated irrigation accounts that is what we have here in san francisco. >> that is correct. >> it is conceivable that all 1600 might want to appeal? >> it is conceivable. although, that we know that like we said at least half of those are municipal accounts which are for irrigation of outdoor spaces. they are mediums. >> are we establishing a irrigation account court? >> well, in effect, the irrigation account accounting system where we are laying that out. >> and you come back to that irrigation account holder and say, you have exceeded it by ten percent and that irrigation account holder says that i want to appeal. >> they could say that, that is correct. >> and what happens with whom does that irrigation account holder, submit the appeal to? >> well, we have instructions that process specifically, but we will submit it to the puc, and maybe, directed to the general manager who will identify, the staff to actually hear the appeal. >> and the judge kelley, irrigation court. >> yes. if i were the general manager. >> so, i just came from... >> yeah. >> the general manager. >> congratulations, yeah. >> and first thing that i ask is that a person, is rather, misuser of the water, and but, i think that we are talking about the process, that we are talking to the controller's office to ask someone who is a third party. >> yeah. >> actually this is on the irrigation side, and as opposed to the water waste side. >> okay. >> so, what they... and i have an irrigation account. because i have fruit trees on my property. >> i do not. but using an example. does that mean if i exceeded ten percent i could come and submit an appeal to you saying that i need it for my irrigation that is why i exceeded the ten percent? >> yeah, because it is, it goes and applies to oern mental landscape and turf, if you are irrigating fruit or tomatoes bushes or things that are used for food, that you would be exempt from that. and so, even though is waiting until, you know, we started to tell you that you are using above, just notifying you that you have that possibility someone notifies us right away. >> how does one apply for an irrigation account? >> it is one of our possible mechanisms in the puc, and it usually is to deal with people who don't, and have a high water usage which goes to irrigation that does not end up in the suer system and so it saves them a lot on the sewer bill. >> this is not like nurseris that we have in the city limits? >> yeah, those might be irrigation accounts, yeah. >> okay. >> and if they agree with your determination, they can appeal with that decision. >> half of them are city departments, rec and park, medians and dpw irrigate and those are all irrigation accounts. >> that is a big bureaucratic nightmare, isn't it? >> well, we are staffing up to make sure that we can deal with it, 1600 is not a large number and we have looked at different ways to approach this and there are other ways and this one appeared to be the most sensible and effective at getting at the highest water users for the least effort. >> that will be putting in a mailing in the next billing cycle. >> yes. >> so that the people know how to deal with their issues? >> yes. >> thank you. >> any other questions on the irrigation? >> we will move to enforcement and here we are going to focus on education and notification, and the point is to get the people to not waste water, it is not to collect money, it is to not to waste water and, to be reserved only for the severe and repeated water waste activities and we actually expect to have the parallel efforts to record the safers out there and the people that are doing an extra good job in their water use and so the process that we expect to follow, will vary based on the severity of the water waste, and one of the things that we will do is we will make sure that all water waste is reported through 311, which is basically our public works, way of tracking all kinds of complaints and issues and the special category for the water waste complaints in the 311 system and the first notification is that we would give them a cursecy level, or, the resident, if this is what the addresses are different and just putting them on notice that gosh, somebody said that you were wasting water and we hope that is not the case and please contact us if you need any help. if i second come nms, we will send someone out there to document the water waste that might be occurring, and the third notification is that we will out there to look at the circumstances and fully understood them and well it will be placing the door hanger that we found, and coming toelgt and the people can't throw those away as junk mail and have to open the door and so they see the door hanger and deal with that and again, you need to take some action here and we are here to help. and but, you need to stop wasting water and then, the final action, could result in the citation, which we can do by the mail and in person to the people and hopefully we all will have to actually issue the citations and that is certainly our intent. and so the citation process itself, and again, they can be issued under the existing san francisco administrative code but only for the over water prohibs that we talked about earlier, and the code to actually provide for the starting of the amount of 100 dollars per violation, and you know, the code is clear that the evidence and documentation, are required to actually, support any citations and it will have to be approved by the general manager, and that is where there is actually appeals process, set up through the city controller's office, for anybody who wants to contest, citations. and so, there is a process, and there is a tool, and we are prepared to use it if we have to, but education, and education, education, and we think that it is the real solution to controlling the water of the waste. and we actually already had a letter go out to somebody about this, and he called, and said, well, yeah, but i have market, and i need to be using

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