and >> alike to call the meeting of the san francisco public utilities commission to order. how can you call the roll? >> [roll call] >> we have a quorum. thank you. the minutes, it is the second version of the new format. i think it is working pretty well. if you have comments on that, it is still a work in progress. you have any questions, comments, modifications?

>> the motion carries. >> the for public comment, i would like to pull items 12 and 19 from the agenda today. item 12 is the port issue, and there are issues that have come up by virtue of the first district court ruling that i want to make sure we have a full briefing and understanding before we proceed on that. the intent for that would be to be on the next agenda. item 19 is a closed session item and we like to continue that so that the appropriate staff is available. public comment. given they are no longer on the agenda, if anybody has come just for those items and needs to

speak, this is the time to do with. it is for items not on the agenda today. >> [inaudible] i had a few comments about the proposed water transfer, and we did submit comments in a letter back in march, had wanted to thank staff for following up on the concerns that we expressed. i wanted to focus on the need for the water or the lack thereof. in 2008, when it was approved, will reusing about 257 million gallons a day.

last year, we were down between 210 at 220. projections are down, so we are not going to need it in the near future and it would be a take or pay contract. we are paying whether we use the water or not. i know there has to allot of concern about rising rates. we are being penalized for conserving and we're having to pay more a unit. we tried to explain the, there are fixed rates that have to be covered. the $1.5 million a year isn't going to go over very well with the public. i would encourage you to think about if we need it and if we

can address this sooner rather than later. it might be necessary and a good idea, the staff is going on that direction. if we go through the process of negotiating in creating a contract, i think this will be the issue. maybe it is better to make that earlier on. the zero you will consider that and -- i hope that you will consider that and thank you for your time. >> communications, commissioners? the letter summary, the advanced calendar and a variety of staff reports. i think questions or comments about the staff report --

>> the first is waste water, page 6. i am sure i have seen this before, but what is the philosophy behind the late date that is 2025? >> and the director of the capital program for waste water. this is a tough project, we are currently still in the planning phase. when we are validating what is there, we would be putting about proposals to be able to pull and the consultant to the planning, the design, and to help us during the construction. when we talk this summer, we

will be coming to you with the validated recommended schedules. this is probably the program with the longest duration. it involves some and a different maneuvers, we have to relocate the department city to another location, relocate, bill. it would be all the steps it would take to get through building at the digesters and building a potential facility. the digesters themselves would be up and approximately 15 years. this represents the full duration. >> i guess we can address and click. >> we are all concerned that it happens as quickly as possible.

>> we will be discussing this allot in the next couple of weeks, but it is such a large project, we understand the urgency of it. >> i have another question. this time, the hech hechi capital improvement. page seven. retail services. >> miss hale. >> we have everything is delayed. >> what is the meaning of that? >> projects are delayed for coordination of other department and for staff concerns.

>> e d and months? >> yes. -- >> 18 months? >> yes. and we're trying to address hiring needs with h.r. >> in the wsip quarterly report, it starts out with a brief statement by the responsible managers to what the takeaway message should be. aside from all the detail, one of the things most on their mind, i ask that those be added to the reports as well. part of that process that makes life easier. anything else on communications?

any public comment? other commission business? i have one item. we are in the process of scoping the west side reclamation project in light of moving to a new location. has been put that together, i want to make sure that one of the alternatives that we look at is one that does not include reverse osmosis. that is the same technology they use, it is energy intensive and carbon impact that are very expensive. i would like to see what the project looks like. i understand there are good reasons why it has been included.

>> we will still have that one? gosh yes. any other commission business? report from the general manager. >> the first item, there have been two different emergencies over the last several weeks. one with the leak at the shore and the other was that 17th and fulsom. i want brian henderson to talk about each of those. >> good afternoon, commissioners. there are two items i would like to give you an update on. i have some slides. switching over here for you guys. i will be very quick and brief, but i don't think there is a time limit when it comes to

answering questions. you have already gotten little bit of a briefing on the main issue. it is the only consolation that transmits an average of 15 million gallons a day for treatment of south beaceast. we discovered a leak in this item that is visible in these pictures. it was discovered by sue work crews. with the force made underneath, we went through a series of legal detections had decided we need to give somebody in the pipe and to see what is going on there. what you see here, part of the mobilization to get into this white, it is a monumental

effort. this is before he goes againin. they come out of this thing, they're one color. very fgrueling, intense, and a dangerous operation. the leak on the street actually occurred right at mission on the embarcadero. it was just short of the ferry building. we currently have the elite under control. this is the weekly had a year ago, over a year ago of a near jackson streets. this is the same fix that we

implemented here at mission street. what you see are compression bands and rubber seals. against all these things. -- they installed these things. we had to dam the sewweer system at samson and jackson, that allowed us to pump about 3 million gallons a day into the central basin, and you see them at their where we were blocking stevenson for a time. this is a pretty monumental effort between the water department and waste water crews.

this allowed us to make this happen. they were blocking deliveries to the system, there is a little picture here. we have moved to the pump around with a wheat field test, we are still monitoring the situation, we are going to get out there and do more detections in the next week to verify that we have gotten yet. we addressed in the big leagues of was coming up on the street. we received a three-quarters of an inch of rain in that area and less than an hour. combined with high tide, we had hollowed-lying areas here. it affects up to 20 businesses more or less.

what you see here, the picture that was on the news that came from -- i am almost done, so ask questions. the last picture, let me show you a picture of this thing. we intend to be able to address these issues. thank you. >> if you recall, we started a project to work around that general area. and we ran into a pg&e utility box that wasn't where it was supposed to be. we had to cancel and start again. if we had been able to fix that, this would not have been anywhere near as important. the since this is the only way

to get the flow from the northern part of the city down from the southeast, having it leak is obviously unacceptable. if we had to build and repair it from the outside, it would have meant that we would be closing down two lanes of the embarcadero for many evenings over the next several months. it is great that it was able to be fixed from the inside. when we get that new main in place, we won't have to rely on this as the only way to get sewage from that part of the city. >> when we have an issue with this, we have about a day of storage and before we start the coh -- >> what is the level of service standard that we have adopted?

>> again, this issue will be handled -- >> 1.3 inches over three hours, it is very low. we are glad to throw everything we can at ait, we're looking at how the flow patterns are working in this will be a challenging area. we probably shouldn't have been developed a way it is. the community hall, and particularly the urban watershed assessment will be looking at what we can do to try to mitigate this. >> there was flooding the number of years ago. you just can't fix it there.

if you look at the watershed view of the world, you can see how you could avoid a runoff coming down. the other problem is that it was high tide. part of the discussion for ssip is if we're supposed to start pumping out the sewers to allow the water to a slowdown. this is putting infrastructure, these houses and businesses in a creek bed. >> we will see more and more of these with the sea level issues. the service goals that we established at the beginning as we learn more about that, it does not fully describe what we need to do. >> that is the current system,

so you may want to change them. the problem is that to change them may require huge changed all the collection points in the entire city. >> i thought that we have revisited those. >> we used to talk about them as five-year storms and nobody knew what that meant. we tried to figure out what it means for normal people in terms of how much water is falling from the sky. a recollection is that it is what it is currently designed to do. >> it is designed to hold a certain amount of water. it is experiencing some runoff, the lower-lying areas get impacted. we will be bringing to you in

the summer, the idea about what a double of the improvements we need to build and where they are impacted. >> that was basically to improve system performance concurrent design levels? >> correct. >> they did not improve the design standard? >> not yet. >> hire appreciate the images of the workers that are addressing the emergency conditions. i want to know if you would just give a brief description specifically related to the diver. what kind of employee that is, what kind of training they have? just to give an illustration of what they are doing, and how they are resolving the problems and those emergency situations?

>> we brought in a contractor, highly trained with various backgrounds and specialized in this field. >> will have divers in the water department that are not certified to do this kind of work. it was a 36-inch main. if you go in with an oxygen packs on, you end up having to drag 1,500 feet of oxygen. we brought in seven outside people to do it. >> can delete area, we have drained the line, but there is hot selling in areas, so they were not swimming through a fully charged force main. >> like shawshank redemption. [laughter] >> there you go.

>> thank you. and they were probably still available on youtube. >> world's dirtiest jobs/ ? they did a program on the waste water folks. >> is really quite remarkable. >> the other item as an update on the water system improvement program. >> i wanted to start with a brief update on awards. we have received a number of them at the latest one we got is the exceptional performance and safety award for the american public workforce association. we have logged over 3,200,000 construction hours without any major safety incidents.

and all hours if the incidence rates are well below national averages. also, note worthy, last week received bids on our seismic home appliance 3 and 4, very important and critical projects. we did not expect that many, the contract with 51 million. it came in at 38% below. a pretty aggressive bid, a pretty well-known contractor. we have yet to certify that bid. a lot of the efforts on the construction side have been spent on negotiating the backlog of change orders.

we are about to finish negotiating all remaining changeover's on the number of projects, so i expect there to be something before you to close out a number of projects. i wanted to mention a couple great settlements that we reached on the east today segment of the bay division tie line #5. we reached a settlement for remaining change orders that will allow us to close the project 5 million under the total you have approved. that is good news. last friday, we also reached a global settlement on the number of change orders for the treatment plant. he carried a $9.8 million backlog and we were able to negotiate all those for $3.7 million under. but we were able to reach of verbal settlement that has yet

to be put in writing. we were pleased with that, a lot of large changes at that plant. on the peninsula segment, we have been trying to work through a dispute related to some quality work on welding. we haven't been successful in those negotiations, so to avoid a costly legal action, both parties have agreed to pursue mediation on that. we will be seeking be assistant mediator and we will be doing that sometime in june. work is proceeding pretty much as planned, we are seeing some challenges. there were landslide incidents in recent weeks. it sounds big, but they are not huge.

nonetheless, it is impacting some disposal sites. there is also on forseen site conditions at the intake chaff that will require some changes and modifications in our work. there is no question it is carrying the largest risk. the total risk level is $50 million. we are now 50% excavated, the segment between the shaft and the portal, we are holding true through that segment. we are expecting that to happen in june. we are expecting to encounter some pretty challenging ground conditions in that area. stay tuned to what we call squeezing ground. we're hoping to be able to delay

it. we are trying to maintain safe working conditions. the show covers, we are monitoring the conditions there. what hundred and 75 feet a day, how wanted to brief you. our team is working very closely ha trying to come up with a recovery schedule. the currently projected delays, i will be meeting with in the executive to make sure that the

issue is high on their radar screen. very briefly, i wanted to let you know that we have changed over the management of the construction management bureau. it is now being replaced and is now moving on, replaced with one of our most capable persons on board that has been with us since 1992. i am very pleased with all the work we have accomplished so far together. i wanted to remind you that may 7 is the water for people event and you are all invited to join us.

>> mr. jensen? >> members of the commission, a few items to report. i spoke to you on a long-term viable water supply strategy. we will continue to initiate that in the coming months. in the previous meeting, we would want some capital debt.