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 not happy about it, i mean that it is not beautiful. but it is the right thing to do and i would be so much easier to do that if i said i have the city and everybody else behind me. in making this decision. >> commissioner vietor has words of wisdom. >> one thing that we have been

talking about and moving at and moving toward implementation off is using recycled water because a lot of the potable water, currently goes to non-potable necessary uses like watering of the parks and golf course and whatnot. and my understanding is that there might be some opportunity, especially at city hall, because i brought this up at the last meeting as well, and i think that it has been quite interesting in sacramento has done to allow portions of their lawn to go brown to use that as a message to talk about the drought and pay attention to the issue. and i am wondering if we could hear if there is any progress made on the recycled water, because even to do something like that, and put a sign up, that says... >> totally. >> because of the drought and the conditions that we are facing, we are making a commitment as a city, to move more grasses to the recycled water space. and you know, to short of going brown, or what you have. because you we to in the beautiful city or what have you, could you speak to that

mr. general manager? >> yes, thank you. i think that your comments are right on point. one of the things that we want to take advantage of this opportunity to work with the rec and park, and to help them with their investments. and i think that in front of city hall, instead of allowing the grass to go brown and basically, indicate that don't use the fresh water in a time of drought to water your lawn, a better message is that we need to expand our water supply because this may be the norm, so we need to look at alternative water usage. and so i think that a better message is have the grass, and have the grass green but use the recycled water, because we have plenty that we can utilize and so one of the things that we are working with rec and park to provide the recycled water so that we can continue to water the lawns and post them and let them know that we are using the recycled water and i think that is a better

message that we want to utilize or you know, or don't know, a couple of the golf courses that we used the water from daily city, to water. and so, we really want to expand that, because we are really facing limited amount of water in the future and, that i think this is a step forward for not only the puc but all of the wholesale customers >> absolutely and i just want to add that i called to see if we could use recycled water, and i was told that we are not able to because it is not available in our portion of the city, and i said, could we get it or a water truck if it came out and get it and could we bring it. no. that is not, an option, and so, again, totally, great, but how do i impose that as you know, someone who is trying to learn from you guys? >> well, i think that what you, and we can talk off line but i think that one of the challenges of recycled water is

to make it affordable. and you need to actually find the source of where you can treat it and then you have to put it or bring it to where you can actually use it. and if you just used like, a one lot mere, and then a line over there and that is why we are looking for the golf course and large impactful areas and so we can probably talk to you about your specific situation. but we are looking at golden gate park, and you know, lincoln park and you know the large landscape where we can actually and because we have to bring it from wherever we are looking beside us and so right now we are looking at prosiding a recycle at ocean side treatment plant. and so, we would have to provide, some type of transmission to where we want to use it and it gets expensive. >> commissioner? >> there is also been some movement at the state level, you know, even before the drought, around glen water regulations and i think that is

really the promise for the residential, at this point. and it is to really start to, you know, not only regulate, but potentially for the puc to help subsidize and go to the water systems and i think that already there is, you know, opportunities to have someone come out to your house and see what the hook up would look like and whatnot. and so, you know, on a smaller version of looking at recycled programs, and projects i think that is kind of the next frontier, and you know, whatever we can do as an agency, to really help to facilitate that, and i think that is really going to need to happen, pretty quickly because i think that we are all recognizing that these drought years are going to be coming closer and closer together. and so whatever we can do to you know, support the gray water systems for the residential and you know the recycled water and you know, piping for the new developments and the other things that we have been talking about that we need to look at accelerating now and so i just want to thank you for bringing all of this up because it is important for us to hear, what is going on, and i think that we are all dealing with it as residents of san francisco. and trying to figure out what we can do to save water, short

of, you know, letting our lawns go brown, or you know having to really be, you know, mandated to restrict our water use. so i really appreciate that. and we want to be creative with you on how we can really, help get recycled water to you as well. >> thank you, very much. >> thank you, for being here, thank you very much. >> commissioners any other comments? >> at the risk of upsetting one or more of my colleagues i am going to go ahead and entertain a motion. >> so i just would... if i may, there is two parts of what is presented here, the first part which we would like a vote on, is the ten percent mandatory on irrigation. and so that is the first part, the second part is the excessive use, and that we didn't and we could present it to you and we could bring it and that portion to you, at the next meeting. >> so there are two motions in

order? >> yeah, they are bundled. >> and one motion. >> no, we will take... >> actually one motion today which will be for imposing the mandatory ten percent reduction and that is outside of the irrigation. >> so moved. >> that is the first motion. >> the excess charges for discussion today, would take that up as an action, and next meeting so representing the thoughts on the excess use klargs to guide the staff in bringing back that recommendation. that will be useful. >> okay. >> that does not require a motion. >> so i move that... >> second. >> seconded by vietor. any other public comment on this item? >> seeing none, public comment is now closed. commissioners any further discussion? >> i will go ahead and call the vote. all of those in favor, signify by saying aye. >> aye. >> and the ayes have it and the motion carries, commissioner vietor. so on the excessive charge conversation, i mean that i think that some of the issues that are developed around the

appeals process that it would be important that the next meeting to hear about what that would really look like and what that would mean and maybe even to get a better sense of this 1600 irrigation users who are and don't have, sort of the city agencies of have that as a quarter of that and sort of that a rec and park and how does that break out and i don't know if you can do this in the next couple of weeks, is there going to be any real hard issues with some of these users that you would anticipate, by an excessive charge, you know, mandatory, reduction. you know, and is that potential for them to go over the usage? as far as you know, and who would that be? is it the most, is the rec and park or what have you, so to get a little bit more information on what it will look like from an appeals perspective as well as who we are talking about that might get affected. >> thank you, commissioner. >> anything else?

>> so, we did call for your recollection, we called item ten out of order. and so long as there are no objections, i am proposing that we go back to item number 8. and madam secretary, will you please read number 8? >> item 8 is a south east plant bio solids digesters facilities project update. >> good afternoon, cruz. >> good afternoon, members of the commission, assistant general manager of the infrastructure. moving from water to the waste water sides of the organization.

we would like to present to you the status of the bi. o solids replacement facilities project. as part of the over all project, we set some objectives for what the project will do and we wanted to make a modern treatment facility that will meet the reliability goals of service and meet the present and projected regulatory requirements to the extent that we could project them, and we wanted to change our product from the class b, product to a class a, product and we wanted to achieve the beneficial readings of 100 percent of the bio solid, and 100 percent of the bio gas and in addition to the technical goals, we want to be sure that we have to transform the community asset by doing a contribution, to the surrounding community, and minimizing odors and noise and traffic and during the construction to promoting training and opportunity of jobs for that community.

>> we went through a, and we were in the middle of a process that started with planning in january of 2013. and takes us through the planning phase, and through september of 2015, and at which point, we will enter into the design of the project and that the goals of meeting and slightly in the construction of january of 2018 and we have the general anticipated construction value of in the neighborhood of 800 million dollars on just the construction side. >> and to again, review what sfip goals and in order to provide a compliant reliability and flexible system to manage the storm water, and to be able to adapt to climate change, and to achieve economic and environmental sustainability in the plant and to make sure that whatever we do maintains repair and affordability. we looked at evaluation

criteria, and we looked up technical considerations and we want them tied to our goals and adaptability, and the new and the energy, generation and we looked at greenhouse gas emissions and we looked up financial considerations and we looked up the cost of construction and the over all schedule and the operation and maintenance and the technology and we tested the value of alternatives and the net energy pro-ducks of alternatives and finally in the other side of the triple analysis, we looked up considerations and obviously odor control being a huge factor and the stake holder acceptable of the final design and the greenhouse gas emissions as a result of the project and over all air quality and safety and noise and traffic use and the odor, control and we definitely are looking at a state of the art system and we have not landed on one and here is an example of something that exists in bright water, which have been able to achieve the zero odors

behind the fence line which is our goal as well. to walk you through the analysis process, we started with the world of opportunities, and the options and we looked at everything that was out there in the bio solid world today and there, narrowed that down to four to five valuable alternatives. and we then took those four alternatives, and one subset, and then, we did a further detailed analysis and got it down to two and then put them against each other to come up with a recommendation that we are moving forward with deeper analysis in order to conclude our alternative and analysis report. >> did you say scrub? >> yeah. >> so, we wanted to walk you through the alternatives that were considered. and but not advanced and in that kind of opening world of options. and we did look at aeroibic digestion, being the process that happens in an oxygen ated

environment and we took that off of the table because it is an expensive process and uses a lot of energy and the generation of the oxygen necessary for the process and we looked at stabilization and the lines stabilization and we took that one off of the table because we do not know yet what the impacts of the final product would be formed to line the introduced into this, and again, we wanted to make sure that we will achieve 100 percent of the reuse of the bi.. o solid and we looked at insin ration as an option and we looked at it because of the impacts to the community and did not want to pursue that option any further and we even looked at something called our super critical water oxidation, which is something that exists only in one plant, and i believe in florida. and what we will consider to be not the cutting edge but the bleeding edge, working through that technology and they had an explosion while we were considering that option and so it became fairly easy to take it off of the table. >> so what did we consider?

we considered, four alternatives that we, that are what we say state of the art, and that would meet our goal and one of of our primary goals that is to make sure that we have a class a, bio solid at the end of the process, and the first was digestion, with drying, and from the mechanical drying. and the digestion is what we currently do at our plant and it is an operationally, and it happens at around 100 degree temperature, and where they are familiar with that. and it produces a class b product by itself and you get to class a by post treatment after digestion, through a mechanical drying system. and not all of the different from your clothes dryer at home and you put the product in the machine and it dries it and comes out in a pellet format and the heat kills all of the bad passage in there and you come out with a class a product and it is a good product and it has the most reuse options of

all of the items that we considered and it creates a product that is very easy to transport. and so the benefits of this one were the highest reuse options and the easiest format of the product itself. the challenge that is very expensive and the cost associated with the mechanical drying were very high on the operation's side and both in the form of energy consumption, to one, and to actually power the mechanical driers, but also in the form of operation staff. we did visit plants and found that the mechanical drying was two to five times more expensive for the staff to safely one these dryers and that was one of the optionses and i walked through the four. them. and alternative two, started with the... >> sir? >> yeah, on that point, did you compare what revenue could be obtained by the sale of the

fertilizer supplement and pellets >> we did. >> and offset the cost? >> it did not offset the cost in any measurable way. >> thank you. >> alternative to with starting with the same, and the digestion and non-oxygen environment and the oxygen free environment and then accomplishing the transition from class b to class a through composting and this is what the city of chicago does, they have a massive composting operation as part of the process and the challenge is twofold, one is that you need, i am sorry, i didn't transfer. >> my apologies. >> you need a lot of land because you need to spread out the bio solid over a large area of land to get a thin enough layer in order for the composting to be accomplished and so we looked at two options one will be us buying the land and outside of the city and county of san francisco. because we would not be able to acquire enough land to have a successful composting operation

and as the staff, this obviously had a high capitol cost of acquiring land and then the additional cost of transportation of the sledge, to the composting site. and we also looked at the option of contracting of the composting, and the county of los angeles which is just finishing the construction of a large composting site, and it has far more capacity than they need and has expressed interest if we were to go this route to contract with them for our composting and our concerns not only that the transportation from here down to the county and across to the environmental impacts, but also, the long term cost and why we might be able to lock in a ten or a 15 year contract with the la county, what would those costs look like, 15 years on. and it was more unknown, and so we also saw this option as viable, but more sensitive, than some of the alternatives that we considered, which i will explain further.

>> alternative three, is the temperature, phased anaerobic digestion, process, and it is a process, where you basically go through the digestion process and then goes through a second digestion process and this is similar to what the los angeles plant does and so they run through a single batch, and send it through a secondary batch and then the secondary process, the last of them are killed, and you are coming out with a class a product and the disadvantage over this alternative is are that it requires a lot more land because you have to be able to built two sets of digesters on your plant in order to go through a second batch process, and again, a process that does produce a class a product. >> and then finally the fourth alternative is a new alternative to the united states. and this alternative exists in europe and has for a decade, successfully, and it is viewed in the united states, washington, d.c. has opted to

go this route, about 4 years ago, they opted to go this route, they have just firning construction. and the commissioning in this next month. and in addition, hamp on roads in virginia has decided to go this route as well, and stanford, is considering this option and it is called a they are mal hydrolysis process and this differs from the other three in the sense that it is a pretreatment before the digestion, rather than a post treatment after the digestion, and this particular process, you enter, and you put the sledge into this pretreatment process in the pretreatment it is introduced to high temperature and high pressure primarily induced by steam and it is once through a series of tanks and during that process, it is effectively acting like an autoclave, killing all of the pathogens, so that what co