>> it's important to have public comment because the drought affects everybody. one of the things that i have noticed we can make statements in general about the drought. that's okay. and everybody's hurting. i have -- since we live in san francisco we have to be forward thinking and we're not forward thinking. the staff is not forward thinking. we have proprietary technology that can help us right now, not only in the central valley but here in san francisco, and nobody wants to be forward thinking. like you know primitive [inaudible] and i know that

sounds harsh, but what about forward thinking? what about having a real conference on drought and bringing our university students, our scientists and addressing it just like when we had this napa earthquake. that's what we need to do. oh we have the reservoirs, this and that that and some charts over there that most of the people don't understand. we need to be forward thinking. who is going to take the lead on this drought? we can save millions of gallons of water, gray water, right here in san francisco. we have the technology. why are some people keeping quiet? why? people if you go to somebody and tell them "listen this is what

we can deliver. we have the technology" and they poo poo you. that's bad for san francisco so i challenge this commission and i challenge the staff to meet with us. we've had this conversation before with the general manager, with others in my writings. people have come over here and state to the san francisco public utilities commission that we have proprietary technology where we can deal with water, water with sludge and after we treat it no sludge. [inaudible] so i challenge you. let's not talk about the stats in general. let's talk about our future and future technology. thank you very much.

>> thank you. >> i would like to say i feel today is my birthday because everything i just heard -- francisco reiterated there are solutions that are here so i want to address a couple. i heard about the desalination plants and we need to understand that reverseos moazis technology means that we are taking 70% of the water according to the epa that goes through the membrane goes to our wastewater, our toilet bottom line so why would we throwing that away to keep 30? once we remove it from the reverse osmosis and the water is a ion and when we drink it. how many stores in san francisco alone are using reverse osmosis technology when i buy a bottle

of water i am getting 30% of what i paid for because the rest is going to the wastewater plant and we're doing that and it's super constraitsed. the last thing that we could do and save 70% of the water we're throwing in the toilet. hetch hetchy is the beautiful pristine water and we're throwing 70% away and not just san francisco and i started counting water stores. how many of you are thinking about that waste? with a desal plant it's a huge waste. the technology is here today and have lab tests to show it's working. two, we have technology to remove the contaminants and solve the salt based water softeners. in one of the districts in l.a. they took many out of the homes and they were able to recover $75 million in savings for the

wastewater treat plant because now they took away all that salt. we have the technology to do that. if you put it in the home it would soften it without salt and clean and filter so when you mix hetch hetchy's water with the dirty groundwater the people aren't at risk like new orleans in amebas and other states and we have proven technology if we're given the opportunity so we're asking let san francisco be the leader in this. we can change the word with the technology but you can't do it if you're in your home and throwing away 30% and -- water systems and if you do that alone we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars saved not only by saving the water but also the

processing. thank you. >> thank you. do i have any other speakers? okay. let's continue with the manager's report. >> good afternoon commissioners. dan wade and could i get the slides please? thank you. so today i am here to talk about the new irvington tunnel and give update on the progress of this project. as you know based on past presentations i have made the construction has been progressing well to date despite of very difficult tunneling conditions and gassy conditions and high water in flows and water pressures and geologic conditions ranging from squeezing soft ground that

requires intense support to hard rock support and has drilling and controlled dentinations and we had this in the tunnels and the sheer zones. the project is approximately 95% done with construction. that's 90% complete overall but construction phase is 95% as of the end of the last reporting period and in fact in my last update to the commission on august 12 i reported that the bay tunnel and the new irvington tunnel would put in service this fall based on the current progress of both projects. the bay tunnel is still on track to be in service this fall. however today i need to brief you on a setback with the new irvington tunnel project experienced recently and will impact the construction schedule for this project so i would

like to briefly describe the problem and the challenges and show the status of the plans to get the construction back on track as soon as possible. now these photos show the new irvington pipe installation and as reported the pipe is installed and steel liner and the excavation for the tunnel for the 10el length. over 18,000 linear feet. this shows construction workers within the pipe and that's within the rough excavation of the 13.5-foot diameter tunnel excavation and insert this pipe in that excavation and then we place a cement grout between the steel liner and the rough excavation

of the tunnel to grout the liner in place. these photos show workers inside the tunnel including welding of the steel pipe lengths that are 50 feet along the three and a half miles of the tunnel. the grout is placed in that space after the photos were taken. now as i said at the beginning of my presentation the mew irvington tunnel construction had a setback after that space was grouted. namely between work shifts in the early morning hours of august 27 a 65-foot length of tunnel lining buckled at a location 8200 feet down stream of the alameda westportal of the tunnel and where in flows were very high and pressures

are very high, and it's a very deep portion of the tunnel below a mountain. as can be seen on the photo on the left, the left-hand side of the steel lining of the tunnel actually buckled into the tunnel several feet and this is a view looking upstream towards the east. the photo on the right is a view of that same buckle from the opposite direction which shows the damage steel liner and broken weld with groundwater actually poring into the tunnel. now although this is a serious and unfortunate occurrence that impacts the current construction schedule i think it's helpful to put in perspective this is 65 feet of over 18,000 feet of tunnel liner that has been completed which represents less than 1/3 of 1% of the total length of more than three and a half miles of new

tunnel alignment that has been completed. as we speak the protect team clb the contractor and the management team and the designers are working together to develop a repair plan that is robust. we're currently investigating the cause of the failure and we're also investigating other sections of the tunnel in order to provide assurance that the tunnel will reliably serve the customers for decades into the future. so the status of the project is that we have removed the damaged section of tunnel lining as of the end of last week, the 65-foot section that was damaged. we are currently investigating the cause of the pipe buckling using an independent third party consultant. third leer we're investigateing areas of the tunnel adjacent where similar in flows occurred. there is 2500 feet we know there were

similar conditions during the tunnel excavation and we're drilling holes in the lining and checking the groundwater conditions behind the tunnel liner along that length. we're developing a detailed repair plan and the procedures are being developed by the contractor with recommendations from the design team and then it is the designers will have finally review and approval of that repair plan. now, this week do we expect to begin implementation of the repairs in the damaged section of the tunnel, and then we would repair other sections of the tunnel if necessary based on our investigations that are ongoing. now the current delay estimate is 2-4 months in the construction and we're working around the clock to expedite the repairs without compromising quality. we're being very

careful to make sure we don't expedite to the extent we miss something so we're are investigating carefully and doing the repairs as we go. it's possible to put the tunnel into service before the end of the year but of course that will depend on the results of the investigations. with they will happy to take any questions. >> questions? why do you think it buckled? >> why do we think it buckled? so i want to be careful answering that question because there is an independent third party consultant investigating the cause of the buckling but it's definitely related to high groundwater pressure and may be some aspects of the construction that contribute to that high groundwater pressure interacting with the tunnel liner in a way that would cause the buckling. >> so we might be in real trouble with other parts of the tunnel? >> no. i wouldn't say that at all. there is a length of

tunnel where we experienced difficult groundwater in flows during construction. that is about 2500 feet of the total 18,000 linear feet of the tunnel liner and so we're are doing a detailed investigation of that section in particular, and we're also investigating other areas as well. >> yes. >> i want to follow up a little bit on that. i know there was recently some groundwater legislation signed at the state level which i think is way over due and part of that is in response to what is happening state wide with the groundwater table and all the wells being drilled because of the drought and whatnot. do you think -- i understand your third party evaluation but do you think it's related because what is happening in adjoining tables that this 2500-foot area is

particularly vulnerable to additional problems? >> it's a good question but i wouldn't say it's related to the recent legislation or the groundwater pumping that has been happening on the project. this area is historically -- well, let me say this. when the existing irvington tunnel was constructed and adjacent and parallel to the irvington tunnel there were high in flows in the construction of that tunnel as well so we expected groundwater in flows during construction and as we excavated we would tril ahead and grout -- or drill cement grout to prevent the in flows and done for the tunnel excavation. now you have areas of the tunnel where there is leakage during construction and those flows were controlled, but as the construction progressed there were certain areas where

the pressures were very high and the contractors had difficultly in those areas. >> so you haven't seen increase in groundwater pressure in recent years even though you saw some at the old tunnel? >> correct. we haven't seen an increase in water pressures in recent years. >> any other questions? >> we will keep you apprized of the status of this project. >> good. thank you very much. >> that concludes my report. >> good. any other public comment on the general manager's report? seeing -- >> [inaudible] >> i'm sorry. i didn't hear you. >> it's a breath of fresh air when someone in charge of a

project really divulges what happened or -- right now we can't talk too much about it until the 30 party does the investigation and tells us. >> >> but it's a breath of fresh air that you all know exactly what happened or more or less exactly what happened and the matter is taken to address it immediately. thank you very much. >> okay. next item please. >> item 8 is a citizens' advisory committee update. >> good afternoon commissioners. i wendy and the chair of the citizens' advisory committee. i am proud to say that i celebrated my first year on the citizens' advisory committee and it's been a great year. we have three long standing appointees and 13 new appointees. most of the appointees have experience in dismpt disciplines and

represent constituent groups around the city. we have 50% of color, 50% people of non color and 11 women on the cac which is really wonderful. we have been doing some orientations and trainings around our enterprises since we are so new and some of those have included review -- overview of the water supply and drought on the committee. sewer improvements updates on the committee and we talked about operations and capital budgets and work force development and the drought and impact on the agency. i want to give quarterly reports to the commission to make sure we're communicating and working with the commission as well as management. two of the items that we have doesn't we have passed two resolutions. one is on global technology that we think is very timely considering

my account has now gone live. it would be iphone, android app for water conservation. we passed a clean power resolution and ask the commission to consider that resolution. we are meeting every month and we have sursubcommittee meetings on tuesdays and working out very well for us. we have three new members that started this month as well. and i think that is it. >> well, first of all i want to say welcome to our meeting. i wanted to thank you for everything that you do. the cac is very important and a lot of your time, and we all appreciate it very much. >> absolutely. thank you and last month president courtney came to our meeting which wasn't a formal meeting so we didn't have quorum but we had a

discussion and surprised to see president courtney and we would love to see more commissioners come to the meeting and see what we do. >> good. any comments commissioners? thank you very much. >> thank you. >> do i have any public comment on that report? seeing none we move to the next item. >> item 9 is a sewer system improvement program update. >> good afternoon commissioners. karen kubick director of the sewer system improvement program. can you bring the slides up please? today is my regular quarterly update. we're going to focus on the projects and program status and talk a little bit about the projects that are in construction as well as stakeholder and work force

development. so here on the graphic you see all of the projects moving forward in phase one, and these have been scoped based on the levels of service we discussed with the commission and have been endorsed. we have 37 projects that are in planning or design and three projects in construction. phase one represents 2.7 billion dollars and to date we have spent 88 million. so now for some program level updates. we're doing a lot of work on cellties plant because there is going to be so much construction happening at the same time we initiated this integration plan because we have to keep the plant running 24/7 even so we have different projects moving plus our planned r and r in addition to maintenance so we're looking at utilities and mapping that out in terms of gif so we know where they are and where

foot prints are at facilities or planned or existing. we're identifying the staging and layout areas and folding into a master schedule, really a logistical effort. when do we need it available? when will each project start? and how will the plant form with these constructions so maintenance and operations can be fully up to speed. we're doing work on climate change. we completed the mapping for the areas and we are looking at the areas of risk are. pump stations at risk sooner? will we get salt water into the system? this includes sea level rise as well as storm surge. we are updating our contacting plant. as we move forward with this we will have opportunities where we're putting out rfps and putting out proposals to get engineering

services. we will put out proposals to get technical advisory assistance with projects. we're looking at different approaches and these are things we can bring on the contractor sooner so we can get projects implemented sooner so we want to meet or exceed all of the schedules we put out for the public. we're pulling in the design institute of america to give training across disciplines, including legal, and contract managers to look at alternative ways to deliver projects at a quicker pace. we're looking at alternative funding, things like low interest state funds as well as grants. we hired a coordinator focused in this area. first we want to ensure that alternative funding will meet the puc requirements but i don't think deputy general manager harlan is here but they went to up

sacramento on our behalf to talk to state leadership to say that we have the program coming and our funding needs and would save money in the long haul. we will issue a report when we close 2014 so now for some projects. most of the energy in the program is spent on planning and design and i know the dio solids a project you're tracking closely and on schedule moving forward. the alternative analysis is developed around the technology that was presented to you last month. that presentation has been given to the wastewater cac. the team has developed a dynamic odor model and it's such a concern this gives us an opportunity to look at sources and alternatives so we can best address them and mitigate any odors for the future. north point facility is a wet weather facility located

in north beach and they're the projects we're moving forward with have to do with reliability so we're working on the out fall which is old from the 1950's and pump station upgrades and we have initiated the environmental review for work on that bay out fall. head works is making good progress and where all the flows from the north and the south converge and this is where we have our opportunity to make use of grit removal processes. we received two proposals for design of the new head works and we will be back to the commission in october to seek an award for those proposals and i will show you pictures of the technology because we have constructed two pilot studies at seltise plant. on the collection side we're making great strides. the bay side improvement project and effort that is gray and green infrastructure to manage flows on the bay side of the city.

we have been working on alternative analysis currently and what the components are and where they would be located tightly coordinated with watershed assessment where we look at geography, the soils, land use and look at things very differently. some are upstream storage and others are green storage along right-of-way. we had two open houses one in dog patch and one in po troaro and the alignment will be close to the areas and this is the start of the public outreach we will be doing. on the eight infrastructure early implementation projects a lot has been . >> >> happening and we have completed sunset and environmental review on three of the projects and the next in construction at the beginning of 2015 which is mission valencia

and by st. luke's hospital and cesar chavez converge, a great area. the first one is construction and i will show you a picture of that. -- we have a working draft for alternative analysis comparing what alternatives we want to move forward w we have completed on the west side of town our characterization looking at all of the streets, all of the issues with storm water collection and the collection system and what opportunities to move forward with. we recently had a public process in golden gate park on a saturday and attended by 65 people that hung in there with us for over three hours talking about the collection system and opened our eyes in a lot of cases. it was a really neat process. people from age seven up to 85 or so, older, but that was a very cool

experience. i want to show you just a couple of things [inaudible] bottom line and something we're employing with the design teams. all of these must meet the level of service. we further screen these with environmental, social -- let me give you a blow up of what the triple bottom line criteria are. operations and maintenances cost, looking at life cycle cost of projects, looking at climate change. comparing different alternatives to see what the net impact is on greenhouse gas. looking at cultural resources so these are a very positive thing and you could see -- actually on the previous slide when we apply it is between alternative analysis and conceptual engineering. now some shots of the construction. this is phase one and we broke ground earlier

this month and occurring at four locations -- [inaudible] broderick and baker. and we have a lot of work going on at seat ise plant and this will be rebuilt in a seismic safe manner and reduce need. this is the conveyer two and conveys sludge from the digesters to our cake bins and here is a shot of them. this is the holding place prior to where trucks come and off haul biosolids and the digester roof repair. we have two additional digesters to stabilize prior to the new facility being up and running. the replacement oxygen facility -- things failed so badly with the other facility the plapt

had to truck it in and this plant does it in the treatment process. and finally the two grit studies and 5.5 million gallons and 7.5 million gallons will run in wet weather to show how well we can remove grit from the system. on the stakeholder engagement side you have been briefed on the southeast working group. we had four meetings with them. much of the investment of time is focused on projects but the one in august focused on community benefits. the september meeting focused on programming for the southeast community facility. 15 of the 19 members have worked with us and gone on a walking tour of seltise plant which is a wonderful eye opening time. we have been spending more time with wastewater