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 the water to clean up and i have put it in the public health and safety exemption and you cannot leave the food to accumulate on the sidewalk to get smushed you have to deal with those kinds of issues so that is may not be a typical example, but it is an example of a situation that we have to deal with, and we are gearing up in terms of having the staff to be available to respond to these calls and to go out as necessary to educate and document the conditions. >> and so, in summary, today's actual action proposed for the commission is imposed in the ten percent mandatory outdoor irrigation reduction, and in orn mental landscape and turf and the discussion and possible action coming up at the next

meeting, at the charges, is the bases for that and we expect to implement the water ways and enforcement program and we will be reporting to the water board as required and we will be working with the other city departments especially the large users and irrigation holders to make sure that we are doing the right thing and we met last friday afternoon with the rec and park and how well we are responding to this and it sounds like they are on the right track and we also, cooperate with the sister and wholesale customers and anything that they need to implement their portion of this. >> i just have an observation. the people are going to get creative with the appeal process, i would assume and i would if i was confronted with a mandatory usage that was

going to result in a bill that was going to be in excess of when i could afford to pay, the alternative will be maybe to let, an important asset die. right? and then the cost associated with bringing that asset back to life, here, is after we are beyond this will be, far greater than the potential cost savings during this time, so, i am thinking about, and i do want more information from recr, and park it seems to me like they are moving in the right direction, but you know, we represent gardeners in particular, and there is, and there are some real assets. >> yeah. >> that have been here for decades and decades. and what would be tragic, is that we are not thoughtful and deliberate about, i don't think that i, i would not want rec and park right now to decide what to just let die. that is a concern >> and so i want to have a more thoughtful discussion and i want to be briefed about if

they are reaching those kinds of approaches i want us to be briefed about it. >> and when we met with the rec and park last friday, we talked about some of those kinds of situations where there are many different assets as you say around the city, that is, you know, need close attention, and for example, you may cut the irrigation, of turf but there might be mixed within that, a variety of trees, that have adapted to that turf irrigation, and as the basis for going in and driving. so, yeah you might keep them alive with the water on them directly, but you might ultimately might end up killing them. if you over do it. >> we think that ten percent is a minimal amount to cut by, and that i think is a good path to build on, and we will be happy to be sure that you are fully informed on how those discussions proceed. >> yes. i know like for example, the city hall frontage, we utilize

this space for children's activities and i have seen soccer there and stuff and i know that we just did the, and we just did the new turf and what would be toribly unfortunate is for somebody to make a decision to say okay, now we are going to let that die, even though we just rolled it out, not long ago, you know? and so i am interested in just, at least getting that data, those reports. >> thank you. >> commissioners anything else? >> thank you very much. >> so, this is still item number ten, we did call it out of order. >> i will entertain a motion. >> there is no motion, that is next week. >> so i will not entertain a motion. that is why we have vice president caen here. >> and is there... >> comment. >> is there any public comment on this item? >> i have one speaker card from

friday opolisky, anybody else who is interested in commenting on this item, number ten if you would please hand donna a speaker card. >> hello friday. >> happy tuesday. >> yes, it is tuesday. >> thank you very much. for taking the time to listen to me. and for discussing the issue of oern mental turf, i am here toes because i am the president of my co-op, which is not far from here. and we heard loud and clear from the governor, and from the puc, that we as residents need to save more water, and we need to do everything that we can, and we have done that. and actually i want to say that the puc has a lot of tools that we have used and incredibly helpful. but we have let our oern mental grass, turn brown. and as the president, i have to listen to grumpy shareholders every day, who would really

like our orn mental grass to be green and what is difficult for me, traveling through the city and walking by the city hall on a daily basis and looking at the grass that is bright and green. and why, i understand that saving ten percent of water is a step in the right direction, my concern is that the visual message that that sends is that it is okay to have green grass, and for residents, like me, you know, that a significant amount of water for us and we could not just cut back ten percent. because of the irrigation system that we had. it was kind of an all or nothing deal. and so i think that as you go through and you maybe work with the rec and park you think about what areas need to be cut back, for example, the 6 feet of grass that surrounds this building here. could be let go brown and that does not have to be the civic center grass where the kids

play soccer tha, is usable turf, but the turf around this building is not used. and except for by dogs. and i mean, and the sitting area is even granite, it is not grass. and when the people in my co-op walk by the city hall every day they think, well if those guys don't have to brown my grass, then why do i have to? and it is incredibly frustrating and so i just bring this to you because i hope that even though there are some places where it is not a huge amount of water savings, that you will consider taking drastic measures like letting the grass go brown because it sends a visual message to all of the residents and an important one that has been taken in sacramento and will be followed in san francisco. >> and just so that i am clear, did your... was there a letter in the file from you, a few days ago, did we get a letter

from that same co-op. >> i did send an e-mail. >> i didn't get a response. so i wasn't sure if you guys got it. >> i think that we got a communication. >> i did get a response from rec and park and they said that they are using less water to irrigate the grass and i respond to that is that is great, but then put up a big sign or something that shows people that you are really making an effort because in the meantime, you see green verses brown and... >> well, of course, to my question is though, you seem to indicate that it was not a ten percent reduction, that you all. because you can do an assessment because i also live, and you could do an assessment and you could have them vote and they can decide do we want to kill the asset on our land or we could own the land it sounds to me and i wants the facts, it sounds like to me that you all decided just to stop watering because you said that that is wait that our

irrigation is as opposed to cut it back ten percent, right? >> well, we didn't cut the landscaping landscaping entirely, we only cut the portion that is covering the orn mental grass, we have a very large trees around our space, and other trees, that we are continuing to water. and we have gotten the water rise assessment from the puc. and we are in the process of changing and doing other things, but in the meantime, again, we heard the urgency, and again, the repeated, you know, comments from you as an agency as well as the governor and the press saying that this is an emergency and everybody needs to do everything that they can do and so yes, as a board we decided, there is five members on our board, to let the grass go brown because we heard you and we believe you. but there is 60 members of our share co-op and not all of them are happy about that. i am t