there is probably something in there that could get us to the front of the line. everybody is asking, wherever the lines are, that they be inspected in case they have the same issue. we do have the ability to inspect them to some extent our cells, and possibly excavate and look at pipelines. -- to inspect them to some extent ourselves, and possibly excavate and look at pipelines. i have all the records in my office of what is already documented. as you know, the program is very active and things are very fluid right now. i will circle back if i see anything out there i do not know about right now that we can look at as well. the short answer is there is some ability to get answers quickly. commissioner caen: i think that is very important and i think we should move forward on that, to look at the records that exist now in terms of the inspections

that have been done. why should we spend our money and our time inspecting their pipes, in light of what has happened? i think that would be a reasonable request that they inspect what is on our property. >> as you know, the california puc has licensed to do inspections. they have to prioritize. the question is how we get to the front of that line in the priority of what they inspect. commissioner ellis: can you talk about what you see as the longer-term water to support san bruno needs and what role we will continue to play? >> over the weekend, at san bruno's primary concern was to take care of the power lines first. there were power lines that were down. that was a dangerous condition to every person on the ground. then they cleaned up the sewer

lines. that was the next level of priority for public health and safety. what the city of san bruno has done is essentially isolated the devastated area for the water distribution standpoint. it is completely isolated at this point. there is no water needed in those areas. there are no homes. there is no use. they have isolated the area and cut a chunk out of their distribution session -- distribution pattern. it could take years for them to rebuild. in the open hills, there are still open lots from 1991. as homes begin to get rebuilt, they will go in parallel and rebuild the distribution system. we are making ourselves available to help them, but it is not an immediate need. president crowley: anything else? i know you probably possess the answer to this.

given the fact that this blast happened, that it did not seismically change our configuration of piping down there, making sure we are not having destruction with leaks or anything else -- we are going to the system as we speak. >> one thing we can immediately check remotely is all of our system pressures in all of our system. there was not even a ripple reflected in the system. the infrastructure we have is the line at that the north coast county water district -- and 8 inch line roughly a quarter mile away. all is fine. all checked out. our closest matches -- major transmission line is 1 mile away. we did not detect anything. commissioner ellis: as far as emergency response, i am guessing our ability to respond so quickly is just that we are practicing and have things documented as far as how to respond to these types of things

immediately. can you talk a little bit about that? >> we drill all the time. there is always after action reports that are put together so we learn from things that did not go quite as planned. once or twice a year, there is a drill of some kind for emergency response, whether it is in the watershed or some type of event. in this particular event, it is always amazing to me to witness house staff know what to do. it is one of the most satisfying things i have in my job. it was second nature. we know the people at san bruno. our maintenance guys know they're maintenance guys. they know who to call. there is not a situation where we have to go through an intermediate your -- an intermediary. we knew the guys trying to figure out how where water was going. we called that guy and asked if

we could help him. it is proximity and knowledge of our customers. we know many of our customers' distribution systems as well as they do. we are well-trained and well positioned to provide help like this. >> thank you very much. >> i would like very much at the end of this session to give a moment of silence for the families of san bruno who have been devastated by this disaster. thank you. >> the next item is on the agenda. >> commissioners, good afternoon. i will be brief. i want to update you on a few different topics. the packet for today's meeting included the latest update on our wsip change orders.

i wanted to point out i ask for a change in format to that report so it is a little more comprehensive. we now have one table that summarizes change orders associated with cost and one for those associated with schedule. i also asked that we differentiate between approved, pending, and potential change orders. i think it is a little more comprehensive. i would welcome your comments if there are things you would like to see in there that are not currently in there. please let me know. we can always provide more information. on the cost side, i wanted to highlight the fact that with all the ongoing construction contracts we are currently at a 1.5% of our total contingency has been used. it looks good, but we are still early on some of our larger projects. i encourage you to look at that

table and give me any comments you might have. annual reports -- we did issue our recent annual report on september 1 to meet state requirements follo. following that report, there was some feedback which led us to add a section to the report. we will be reissuing that report if not late this week early next week. the revision will be provided to you and will also be posted on our website. i wanted to take the opportunity to give you advance notice on some challenges we are encountering on the two construction contracts for the bay division pipeline no. 5 project. this is a very challenging project because are building a major pipeline in an urban area with a narrow right of way. i mentioned in the previous meeting that on the peninsula

side we were having to deal with a few archaeological sites that required we micro tunnel under those sites. we have encountered contaminated ground water on that segment of the peninsula. contaminated ground water is also an issue on the east bay side, where we have an alignment close to the sfc site. we are having to deal with treating that groundwater to greater levels to be able to discharge as planned. on the east bay side, we also had to change the alignments of a micro tunneling operation when we encountered an underground and derriere on a crossing of the union pacific railroad. this will result in cost increases. i will be coming to you if not next meeting than the next couple of meetings with a request to increase the

construction contract, the cost of these construction contracts because of these field conditions. i wanted to point out that because of the large cost savings that we had because of the low bids, there is money in these projects to be able to cover those costs. but i wanted to give you advance notice before i come before you with those agenda items. i also wanted to talk about the three projects in october. those are three key regional projects, the lower crystal springs dam, pipeline number two replacement project, as well as the herridge receive long-term project improvements. those will all come in october -- as well as the harry tracy long-term project improvements.

there is the san joaquin pipeline system. that contract was advertised earlier in september and is in our view at the end of the month. i want to remind you that we do have a groundbreaking event for the tunnel on systema 24, and we hope that all of you can join us. president crowley: questions? commissioner: i have a question dealing with calendar korea. does that go to the planning commission first? -- i have a question dealing with calendar in -- calendaring. secretary housh: may be having it happen on the 14. you're going to be asked about

your schedule and availability. >> but planning will be hearing those on the 12th? secretary housh: their meeting on, i believe, the 14th. >> normally, what we do is be of the planning commission certified the eir, and we wanted to have a special meeting. commissioner: a theoretically would have approved the other ones. secretary housh: they meet later.

it also depends on what time they get there. et might be later in the day. -- it might be later. you also have the 25th ground- breaking. and you are having a town celebration. the next issue is golden gate. president crowley: pardon me, would you take the microphone and identify yourself? that is all right. yes.

>> ms. harris, damanti -- i wanted to specifically herar the cac. is there something in writing that i could take with me? i did not hear it. president crowley: we will ask mr. richard to come up. i believe you are responsible for the report? to briefly share with this person the carmine report that we have. madam, he is going to briefly report on that for you. thank you, steve. >> you have in your packets a quarterly update report, the

first of believe in 2009, the last report to the commission, and it provides the latest information we have. this has been in our system for the last several years. using chloramine, it has resulted in our reduction in the use of will recall by products. when you use a straight chlorine, it forms disinfection byproducts, which in many cases are considered to be carcinogens, so you still love it efficient defection -- so you still love each fission disinfection. there is additional research going on out there.

i believe that report is online. there is a report from the epa region 9 that would reinforce that we were on the right track in terms of usage in san francisco. secretary housh: i think there may be a problem with the packets. we will make sure you get them. president crowley: generally,

these are sent out ahead of time. i can always make sure and bring extra copies. >> madam? >> the 2009 meeting, so the status on the research, the chloramine? >> we were looking at putting

out an rfp looking directly at bat, and no one has proposed that yet, so we're scratching our heads, trying to figure out how to get someone interested in that research. we're still hoping for more responses. we were looking to see if we had done the questions wrong commissioner -- do the questions wrong. commissioner: --

>> it is a bit of a mystery. usually, you would get some kind of response. president crowley: all right. thank you. madam, we will come back to this agenda item in a moment. now what? >> it is my understanding there have been reports and other amplaces about the effect of chlorinated water on wildlife, various kinds. i do not see any mention a olcott on wildlife in this brief

report, and i want to know why we do not have any, and if we do not, why? secretary housh: as we get back to a regular reports. the next is on golden gate, the building going up. there is a brief update on where we are with that. >> good afternoon, i in shelby gamble, the project director for 525, . there we go. so we have completed the design documents, and i think probably the biggest challenge we have had on the product so far is

getting the design to the level that we could have trade packages put together to get on with the project. signed documents have now been completed, and we issued them to dbi, who expeditiously responded with comments, and we responded to that. we are good to go with dbi. we will be issuing the majority of packages for this product in october. -- packages. the next time i come before you, which will be december, which should be out in the project, i will let you know where we are with the budget. hopefully, that is very positive. the trade was elected at the end of july.

i hope most of you have noticed that. is the only trade in san francisco, i think, and a couple of weeks after that, we had installed things into the site. this is to give you an example of how rapidly the progress is going on. the rebar is still being completed, and report the foundation, and a week afterwards, the slab theire, and we went to erecting the columns, so we are pouring on a regular basis, and monday, we began construction of level one, and

level two, the deck for level two, that will commence in october. we are on schedule. the other update that i want to bring your attention to today is that we went back to the planning department for the encroachments surrounding the site, and there is a narrow strip along the length of the building, and when we brought it up, we were really pleased to get such a positive response to them, and we found out that it extends for several blocks, and it has been built over on every single block but this one, so it is in conformance with that.

these are on the east and west ends of the building. >> the number of children that can be at the child care center is directly related to the play space. we have enough indoor space, but outdoor space per child was a problem, so if we can block off more of that street, we can have more children. commissioner: not to get into too much of the micro design, but it would be great if you could look into some garden some planting area, that some

sort of natural space be put in as part of the child care planning. >> it will probably end up being a temporary enclosure. gates that can be open for fire access and other things, so some other things might be useful, and things that block the alley permanently, they probably will not like. we are still working on that. commissioner: but if you do free of that space, planting is going to be very limited, because we need this square-foot,so we're looking at creating mounds that are also play areas.

unfortunately, that rendering is at night. i do not know how realistic that is. the priority will be given to the puc, and then it city employees, and then the next tier is the public. president crowley: in this case, we reserve space, so i would think we will look at something like this. >> as you know, there are several innovative features, and i thought it would be good as part of the update to go into a little more detail of some of

these features and some of the updates, and today, i would like to tell you about the machine korea going to install at that site. -- we are going to install at that site. we are not only going to treat gray water, blackwater. i wish i could get it and the more focused. the reason i am showing you this line is just to show you the flow of water, and so, i wanted to show that this uses water that comes from showers and cooling towers, and the toilets are all treated as part of the living machine, and it is positive in the reclaimed water reservoir for use in our toilets, and then it

demonstrates the rainwater harvesting for irrigation, and that is just under 30,000 gallons to store as much. we're going to have the capacity to treat up to five dozen gallons per day. this as really to maximize the value of doing this. you have to look at this as an eco block or eco neighborhood, so we are looking for using the excess water for the greater sustainability district in the future. looking at this on a bigger

scale, i also think this is very important piece features -- to look at these features. commissioner: will the piping go in, or will that be later? >> we will be able to access this and take it to other locations. commissioner: so you transport it? >> i just mean that we will be able to tie into the building. in the future, you could tie into it. commissioner: some piping or something. commissioner: is that where there are these microorganisms? >> i like it when i am prepared.

the living machine is an on-site ecological waste water approach that produces waste water without chemicals, motor, buy products, or high energy usage. it replicates the process at a micro level. this uses treatment cells, 10 times per day. the rapid recycling brings an oxygen and high levels, allowing bacteria to get a lot of oxygen into the area without having to force it into the water. first of all, i will show this slide. the water goes into a tank to filter solids, and then it goes into a recirculating tank, and that takes it through the cells and ar