i think it had to do with that we gain a lot of knowledge as we move through life, and, certainly, at this point, this report is not a directive, per se. it is an outline. it identifies so many challenges and gives a so many potential solutions -- and did so many potential solutions that it affects the board of sups and others. we do have a new rule that says major buildings have to be reviewed by either -- a different type of examination according to the top of power that we use. the previous gentleman was mentioning about how steam loops are a bad thing, and in the traditional fashion, they

probably are. an apartment or units or development, instead of a traditional water boiler, a steam heater, whatever, yes, you are burning fossil fuel, but you are getting a 85% sun, 87% efficiency, instead of the below 50% efficiency is -- but you are getting a 85%, 87% efficiency, instead of the below 50% efficiency if you are using natural gas. i do not think we will get rid of that in the next 10 years, but i would really encourage you to move this as it is, and, believe me, on march 24, the next task force meeting, we are really hoping that is our last meeting, because there were two things that we were tasked with, including closing power plants, so it would really make my day.

thank you. president vietor: thank you. public comments? any further public comments? i just wanted to clarify this amendment, and with the council's blessing, we can move it. this directs the general manager to return to the commission with further details, including a financial and operational implementation plan. represent environmental assessments -- representative environmental assessments, and others. further comments on this item? all of those in favor? commissioner torres: aye. president vietor: p [[ -- opposed? the motion carries. next item, please. secretary housh: item nine, a

staff presentation and discussion of the development of an urban watershed framework for san francisco, a proposed process to determine appropriate solutions, collection system improvements, stormwater control, and low-impact design, to minimize flooding throughout the city. >> this was a follow-up on the cesar chavez, so if we can go through one more presentation on this, it would be wonderful. president vietor: yes, of course. can you bear it? >> capital program director. i am going to be presenting the process that we are going through currently to develop the urban watershed framework, and at our last meeting on february 22, we talked about the improvement program size, the

duration. many in the program will be collection-system related. so one of the real drivers for doing it is to have a transparent process, because this will be such a public process, and we do have so many interested members of the public that relate to watershed framework. flooding, permit compliance. we are being asked by the regional board and others to begin improving our control of storm water, and this is going to be something that we see progressively as we bring new permits in the future. right now, we are in the second year -- as we read new permits in the future. -- as we renew permits in the future. being able to use stormwater supplies.

many of the fixes for the system, flooding, can be fixed with pipelines. we are being asked to be more creative, think outside of sarb- ox, and let's make sure we use our money -- think outside of the box, and let's make sure we use our money -- low-impact design. the level of service that the commission has adopted for the improvement program includes many that relate to this area, but the primary one is minimizing flooding, and that is where our concern is. we want to improve the areas that have been susceptible to flooding. so, today, we are talking about what this is, what factors are involved in reforms, the process we are going through to develop the framework, and some ongoing efforts.

36% of the city's service area, and the eastside represents 64% of the service area. -- the eastside represents 64%. -- the east side represents 64%. we tried to utilize gravity -- we try to utilize gravity to reduce costs. water is going to tend to stay in those areas if it does fall, and there are three on the west side and five on the east side. i also want to highlight here, showed on the map, we have areas that straddle different watersheds.

golden gate park over to the west, the presidio, and one down to the south. when we talk about urban watershed management, it really means just that. we are constructing storm water elements that will help us control stormwater. we want to be able to capture rainwater and reduce the load on the system, so we have enough capacity to mitigate flooding, encourage potable water reuse, but it is like a project in itself. it is not just putting out one area and hoping it will work. it is engineered. it requires engineering and development. we do not know much about it. we are going to have a long way to go as we develop these projects and learn how effective they are and what the costs are. so one nice little starting

point is in a natural system, if we were to get a rainstorm, most of the water is either evaporated or infiltrated. very little is running loss. however, in an urban setting, most of the water is running off -- very little is running off. however, in an urban setting, most of the water is running off. paging, steep slopes, urbanization -- paving, steep slopes. blogging normal rainfall patterns, and there are challenges. -- blocking normal rainfall patterns. there are areas susceptible to flooding, and they do tend to be more on the east side of town. 280 divides part of the city,

there. we'll be hearing about the project on cesar chavez that is putting in a pipeline to help mitigate a chronic problem there. this has been based on modeling, and we are believers in modeling because we calibrate models. we use actual physical measurements obtained in the field and from our observations. does it fled here? we have people who are out when it is raining note -- does it flood here? we have people who are out there when it is raining. we calibrate what is happening in the system and feed that back into the model. bringing in our system to life. -- bringing our system to life.

it will require us to look at low-impact design and green technique. i will be participating in a meeting in april, and we will be talking specifically about this topic, low-impact design and watershed management, and other cities are also beginning to study things, just as we are. president vietor: can you just talk for one more minute about that? permit compliance, there are issues? >> what we are beio is look on the west side about reduction of the discharges and looking at using beane techniques to do that, so reducing the amount -- note using green -- reduction of discharges and looking at using

green techniques to do that. they are conveyed to our treatment plants for treatment, so we are treating storm water plus sanitary flows. it is not disinfected, but it still allows settleables and floatables. they are looking for green techniques that will reduce things in the volume. president vietor: i see. >> and it has changed around the ocean and around the bay, and we have other challenges. so storm water management also provides a bevy of other benefits. in addition to flood control, we

are coordinating with gray water and recycle used -- use. optimization of our collection system, by reducing the speed at which water gets to our system and reducing the amounts. we actually buy some capacity for those intensive storms that david was talking about. water quality improvements, the opportunity to improve levels, and we also of the improvements for habitat as well as watershed function and opportunities for greening within neighborhoods, so what we are looking at, and i would like to get your input to see if this does make sense or if there are other directions you would like to see us going, is to detail what we will be going through to assess each of the watterson's -- watersheds that i showed you, each of the basin's -- basins.

one opportunity that this has provided us with is that we have collaborated with a great deal with the water enterprise, the power enterprise, and external departments, as well. because there is a lot of opportunity, and we want to maximize city resources where we can make these come to fruition. step two will be assessing each of the watersheds to see how they perform now. where is there flooding? are there areas that are undersized? are there opportunities? some areas are going to be quite steep and have an area at the bottom that may be flooding. the cesar chavez area. another area could have sandy soil or laoom, -- loam, so we look at the gaps, in korea identify what we need to develop. we are also -- and we identify what we need to develop.

we will screen the alternatives. the ground floor is that we want alternatives that are going to fix the flooding problem. this is all wonderful, but when we get back to our core mission, which is reducing flooding and managing stormwater, we want to look at projects and to evaluate them, compare them on a social, economic, environmental factor, and i have an example a little bit further in the presentation, but i felt you were almost giving a presentation when the meeting started, because we want to note -- giving my presentation when the meeting started because we want to look at the dollar's -- dollars. we have to have metrics, and they have to be meaningful, benefits that outweigh the costs, and, ultimately, for each basin, we will end up with an implementation plan.

the 10-year cip plan that was moved through the commission, there is the watershed assessment for each of the basin's -- basins, but this is a very public process. you are talking about a lot that are in people's neighborhoods, so just to give you an idea, before development, now, really are buildings, our streets, the plan, 10 years ago, we were not thinking so much about a low- impact plan. it was out there, but we were not really thinking about that. and opportunities to make use and see stormwater as a benefit and not so much as a nuisance. commissioner torres: the present building? >> this is an imaginary location. commissioner torres: ok.

>> bioretention basins. the cesar chavez. it will take awhile to chip away. we have completed one it -- one project that was completed in the southeast part of the city. it has pavement, planters. basically, we did monitoring before the project, and we will be doing monitoring to see how it does in different types of storms. but now, i get to my fun part about the triple bottom line. this is a big one, because we are being asked to look at this differently than we have ever compared alternatives before, where we actually place values on different types of improvements, including environmental, which, still,

hitting the market in terms of flooding -- with, still, hitting the market in terms of flooding. we are working with our hydraulics to define what level of performance that will have to be, and it will have to be a technical one to be able to make sure our storm at. have enough capacity to be able to take -- our storm areas will have enough capacity to be able to take it. social, economic, environmental. it looked at things like esthetics, jobs, recreational benefits, social, economic for each neighborhood. i think what is important to highlight again is that each of these factors would be quantified. we have to have metrics that are meaningful. vice president moran: before you focus on that, the slide talked about triple bottom line plus, and it seemed to be big trouble

bottom line plus assessment, technical, functional -- it seemed to be the triple bottom line plus assessment. >> it will reliably perform, and we have to have that. vice president moran: it does not go to the next? >> we have to have a level of performance to deal with the impacts of flooding. vice president moran: we are really at the ground stages of developing a triple bottom line. i will need more quantitative stuff. the idea of doing a ranked choice assessment for each of the areas, i have a real problem. >> i think that is great. our watershed and planning staff have begun to develop a later date metrics type of approach -- have begun to develop a layered

metrics type of approach. they might be able to make use of a modified approach. president vietor: commissioner moran, i know this is an area of interest for you, so maybe you can provide input so we can get it right at the outset. vice president moran: i appreciate that, but i do not know anybody who has done it right. whatever expertise they can bring to it, as a yell. yes, i will be glad to participate -- whatever expertise they can bring to but, as well. yes, i will be glad to participate. >> we will also be looking, and this is back on metrics, to be able to compare benefits and

costs, local jobs, safety, being that we do not have water in the streets and a dangerous situation versus what are the capital costs of the project, and i may be repeating and repeating again -- light cycle costs. what is this going to cost over the long haul -- life cycle costs. what is this going to cost over the long haul? obviously, we went to maximize the benefits and minimize the overall cost. to we want to -- we want to maximize the benefits and minimize the overall cost. we wrapped up a workshop with you, and we have one of our process engineers, and we were lucky to get someone who has been really acting as a project manager on this effort, and those two, with the help of our

maintenance liaison -- oh, i thought he was in sacramento. they have conducted interviews to be able to obtain information from stakeholders, and the puc, we are really focused so much on the day-to-day -- we have made efforts to reach out within the puc, external affairs planning, sustainability, as well as to other departments for expertise, as well as with president vietor, who has spent hours with us, but all of that has benefited us. we found out dpw has greening programs. the school system has something. korea sustainability plans. side what plans. -- we have sustainability plans,

sidewalk plans. hopefully, we will be able to get some traction. the informational interviews were great, and they provided us with a lot of information with the public issues. the concerns are to maintain a dialogue with the stakeholders and that we are open to comments and suggestions. in terms of interagency coordination within the puc but in others to make sure we make use of what we do have. the types of projects, this is a big one, as well as having the right data and metrics, which we talked about, making sure we have things that are maintain a book, so where are we going? -- that are maintained of all -- may attainable -- maintainable, so we are we going?

to perform the full assessments of each of the basins. we have tools and are looking to actually customize one for ourselves. after our meeting today, depending on what guidance we receive, we will be moving forward with vision in, we will determine how we will go forward with this. lastly coming back to the commission possibly in august to bring the final report and the secret options.

we are looking at how quickly conditions are getting serious. we're looking at monitoring how these modern and -- how these are working. we're also are looking into the gates. we are participating in the climate changed talks. what about two weeks ago we had waves break into this sea waves.

we want to make sure no salt water comes in. we want waste water power -- if there are other groups you would like us to meet with a were other things you would like us to look at, please just let us know. >> commissioners. public comment.

>> this is what i came here for so i'm very happy to have stayed around here for it. this is one of my major -- this is kind of like my major area of focus. i really appreciate the work that the waste water enterprise has done. you have a very long way to go. when i walked in, the conversation that commissioner moran was making are similar to those that we have had in the letter. we passed a resolution, one of

the first expressed our concerns that the trend towards agreeing and low impact to the element was used and we did not want to make investments without having a specific benefit. one of the members of the technical advisory committee, which is now defunct, which is from seattle public utilities. they have a cost benefit model that they have been using for more than a decade. i don't think that the task force is really the model that you are looking for.

this is really a watershed council that you need. he will start with the council that has representatives on the local property owners and environmentalists and schools and stakeholders and then you get to talk about what the needs are. i really hope that in the next few months we can do a broader public ought reach month. there are more non-governmental groups listed on this order that will limit -- that were interviewed for this process. i could kick in a dozen more signatures from this letter if

you could give me a couple more days. that is an important step that