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 are in the planted area in the project but it then goes to a third take -- tank, two final polishing cells. this is on a micro level. and if we can switch over it, to the document camera, one of the biggest challenges we had was having and of planting area in the urban location, so this is really taking a lot of cooperation, which really do not have yet. it is taking a lot of cooperation to have more planting areas than is to collect -- than is typical.

this is about 150 square feet for every 1,000 gallons that you treat, so we are treating 5,000 gallons, and that is 750 square feet of planted area, so you can see that the bacteria clings to the gravel and roots of the planted area, and the question i often get, especially if it is outside, can people reach it? that is something that we're working with dph and dbi a lot, because that is their concern, can the public get at this, and should that be an issue, and you can also see how this moves through each of the cells. this is a very horizontal lay-up compared to ours, but we will have these in different planted

areas, and this leads me to my last slides, and the reason i bring this up is to show you the extent of the planted areas, so you can see the eastside and the eand there are planted areas on both sides. the planted area would be inside the lobby, and that ends up with the total square footage we need for this system to work, so i think it will be a fantastic demonstration for public tours as part of the project, so that is what i wanted to bring you up on today, and stay tuned. there will be more. do you have any questions? pardon me? but commissioner: what is the completion date? >> it is spring of 2012.

great that you're going to be modeling that. are there plans for any rooftop gardening at all? f.@w÷/'d with the solar panels on the roof, so we looked at trying to do a green roof, and that was several iterations ago. work, but it did not work to be able to do that. zacommissioner moran: to understand in more detail what this living machine is about, if

there is something, i would be interested in it. >> yes, there is a website that has a ton of information on it, and i can give you what we gave to dbi, which has a lot of technical information in it, and the website with the living machine has a lot. we were hoping would be the first, but it was just installed in portland, eso we would be the only second one to do it in the country. also, in regard to the roof, it has to be in proximity to force it to work for the living machine. they are in -- investigating the living machine for the zoo, which would be a very large platform. i think the biggest challenge is that i wanted to push the boundaries, but when i evaluate

it for irrigation, it would not negatively impact plants, but then you get to the public health issues, and that is the biggest challenge, having any of those remain in the water. commission appear -- commissioner: is john the founder? i just wanted to note -- to know. >> they got out the original company. -- they bought out the previous

owner. i am hoping that we see a positive savings when we complete the buy up for the project. -- the buyout for the project. we have plans for the child care center and the cafe. will it stay on budget? yes. president crowley: colleagues, anything else? commissioner: i am fascinated by the living machine. there might be ways to tie this into another program, because we are hoping for more greenspace around a particular treatment facilities, and maybe there is a real opportunity, and i do not know if we need to tested first or if there is a way to think about bringing in online to

treat this like an gray water. -- is black and gray water. >> good afternoon, for waste water. we're looking at the living machine. we just wanted to make sure that there was a bypass line. there will be some facilities that will be built as part of that. how much of that we can actually do, and we are involved.

commissioner: we could find it broad enough to do other things. commissioner: this does what a sewage pond does, right? >> there is the opportunity that if we make it work here, this is where i really see it happening. president crowley: 80, tom. thank you, ms. campbell. -- thank you, tom. secretary housh: next up is the

closure of the pr -- potrero power play. >> and we're going to continue to call a a closure, because that is our plan. the team was going back to develop a plan. they have made the effort, and the project is now in a new testing period. meanwhile, as the clock runs, we are at the time of year when the california independent system operator considers its needs for reliability to obligate this within its control area to continue to run. the iso staff recommended on september 9 to their board of governors, last thursday, to continue to obligate the potrero

plant to operate. the iso board unanimously approved that. rmr contracts that you hear us talk about. they did actually update it regularly. this directed the staff to modify the resolution to ensure their desire for closure as soon as possible can be reflected in the formal action they took. the city attorney and supervisor maxwell, the district where it is located, both sent a letter to the iso board of governors $ie;u.et7vünn?"[m6itheir persh the closure.

÷úñrthey were also speaking on behalf of citizens to ensure its closure, so this continues, together with stakeholders, to apply pressure and to make it clear to the iso that we look forward to closure. i think the communications between staff, both at the puc, myself, the city attorney, with the mayor's office, with the stakeholders, it has been good in this process, so i think we're seeing really positive improvements in that regard. we have different opinions about the technical information. xibñiñiñiduring the board of gos meeting, so in the event that it

does not come through the test successfully, we have a common understanding of what our next possible steps are to achieve closure. on that note, unfortu8puqe on september 8, the trans bay cable project did trip off-line during a test period. the testing ish= scheduled to resume. it was scheduled to end on september 10 and then resumed and that will conclude on october 10. they will of the other big results of the testing, and a determination will be made about whether the project is ready to bear, if you will, the reliability burden that the

potrero is involved in. they would look at the termination of the process. they are, at this time, working with mirant to shorten and accelerate determination process that is in the current project. president crowley: barbara, could you mention more about the

letter concerning mirant? >> yes, " in unity, it is important to note that on september 7, mirant's president sent a letter to the iso that they did not want the reliability must-run contract extended through 2011. having stated that previously, they also knowledge in their same correspondence that they would mean whatever obligations are placed on them, and they would operate if they were required to, but they made it very clear formally on the record that they wanted to see it closed.

there was a dialogue that happened on the ninth. commissioner: barbour, the timeline for when it is complete? >> in working with feet iso staff, they're optimistic that evaluation of the test period data will be completed by november and that they will be in a position at that point to make a judgment. we had argued that knowing that they may know as early as november that the facility at that facility would not be needed on january 1, that they not extend the contract now, that they could wait probs the 30 or 45 days it would take to evaluate and to the test period with your valley region of the

data, but the board did not agree with us. on the positive side, they did make it clear that it wanted staff to arrange for accelerated termination. and to report to them regularly on the status, so we're optimistic that if evaluations show that it will not be needed, we will have no potrero operations as of january 1. commissioner: what will happen to it? >> it will be dismantled and other opportunities pursued. redevelopment of the power plant site. one company is obligated to perform mediation at the site, because they are the prior owner of the facility, and so they have responsibility for much of

the cleanup. that cleanup cannot commence in earnest before the facility is released from its must run obligation. pg&e has stated that they are standing ready to begin that work, once the boiso says mirant can shut that down. : commissioner -- commissioner: does the city owned that? >> no, but -- president crowley: we are trying to develop some of it, but we do not own all of the land, right? >> correct. for that area to be redeveloped, there is still a substation nearby that would remain. and as we get closer to the actual shut the new and are able

to report, we will do that. commissioner: i think that tate project in england was really great, where they made that into a museum, and i think it would be great if we could get to that level of radiation. -- we mediation -- remediation. >> r&b cable is expected to be doing things. -- transbay cable.

president crowley: if you drive out there, there is just a lot of drunks. it has significance. -- there is a lot of junk. commissioner: i have some questions. what were the loads expected for the transbay, and who is testing it on our behalf? >> it is being tested with the owners and those who own that line. it is being tested with oversight from the independent system operator, from the iso. president crowley: thank you. >> you are welcome. secretary housh: