[gavel] >> good an everyone. i would like to call to order the regular meeting of the san francisco public utilities commission. today's date is september 23, 2014. roll call please. >> vice president caen. >> here. >> commissioner moran. >> here. >> commissioner vietor. >> here. >> commissioner torres is expected shortly and president courtney is absent today. >> okay. we have the minutes. is there a motion? >> moved. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> motion carries. at this time i would like to call for public comment on any item not on today's agenda. i would like to call first yolanda lewis. >> thank you for this

opportunity to speak. i just wanted to speak to a blueprint for safety and mitigate risk mitigation strategies that we need to look at to address issues that we have with sea level rise, with our oceans and contamination of our water sources and with the sfpuc -- hunter's point point location being one of the biggest polluter of the bay i think we need to look at new strategies to address this. we had in june san juan bativitia and for two months couldn't use the tap water or showers because of contamination of the water sources and we have cities across america with examples of this happening and we would like to take the steps i have spoke about the technologies proprietary that are available and i don't think people are thinking about situations like the sea level rise and the

planning process with the new developments coming under way. this puts us in a situation that we don't have a reliability and it's broader than just san francisco because we have cities along the bay that rely on hetch hetchy and the more pure water we have available and decisions were made we were going to mix groundwater with that water and i think we need to look another strategy to address the problems proactively and we can do that if we have the strategies here and new planning in place are not over burdening our systems but new strategies for providing us with a decentralized way or means of keeping our clean water and sewage systems operational and i would like to address the denight ifz and we're number five in san francisco and if you look at the numbers it's related to the contamination problems

as well as the problems that we have with global warming and if we take steps to begin to work and look thea a holistic approach and mitigate these we can protect our citizens and abroad and not just here in san francisco and the bay area but impacts the water resources for the whole state and impacts our agriculture and gdp in california. thank you. >> thank you ms. lewis. next speaker mr. decosta. >> commissioners originally the grand jury had a report on sea level rise, and soon after that the san francisco port commission had a hearing and i

would strongly advise this commission to prioritize a hearing on this matter, sea level rise, because superficially we talk about chamber of commerce and as you know million. >> climate change and you know millions met in new york and the staff has to be ahead of the game when it comes to anything that can adversely impact our clean drinking water with a blueprint -- god bless you. so the other thing is we're interested in infrastructure and we see the infrastructure that has been adversely impacted in the embarcadero area that all

will go away just like that. we will get a taste of it soon with a high tides of the el nino. you will see it. in fact we're already seeing it now. when it comes to our water treatment plants we know about this. we don't shout on top of the roof but we know about it. there are many occasions our treatment plants have been compromised because of the salt water. we are lucky we have a state senator. we have a former general manager. we have a -- today the chair of this meeting. you have been here for a long time and you keep on listening to people talking about climate change and you can talk about it

forever, but what are we doing with our infrastructure that will be compromised? and once our infrastructure is compromised there will be all the other adverse impacts: health, safety, you name it. i have written about this many times. i started writing about it in the year 1995. in the year 2000 or 2001, or 2024 sfpuc had a convention where this was mentioned so thank you very much. >> thank you for your thoughts. the next speaker i ris allen. >> thank you for giving me this opportunity. i am with an organization that is called alive and free omega boys club located in the dog patch in san

francisco so this doesn't have anything to do with water today but this is about our organization that is almost 28 years old. our mission is to keep young men and women alive and free, something we have been doing i said for almost 28 years. joe marshall is the executive director and the founder of the organization and i am here today just to pass out our annual report and all of you have the commission should have a copy and people here can take one as well, and there's so much bad news in the day about young people and this is talking about the good news and what we're doing and our mission is to keep young people who are at risk going down the wrong path to give them a new way of looking at life, a opportunity to foster opportunity of learning and education and change their lives so they can be contributing members of society, so we felt it was important to generate

our own publicity because it's usually only the bad news you hear about so to generate some good news so please i hope you take a moment to look at this in our annual report. we are very proud of it and we encourage anyone here today to take a copy as well. if you want more information you can contact me. there's ways you can contact me that are in this and i left cards on the table so again thank you very much. >> well thank you for coming before us about this. we also like to hear good news and sounds like a wonderful organization. thank you. anymore public comments before we move on? next item communications. any comments? madam secretary perhaps you would like to read those. >> item five communications. 5a is the advance calendar. b is a letter summary. c is

annual water system improvement program report. five is hetch hetchy water power enterprise capital improvement program quarterly report. >> and next is interim update on wastewater enterprise capital improvement program quarterly report. >> commissioners any comments? public any comment on this? i do have one comment under c which is the program report, the actual report that we got. looking over the overall program the numbers don't -- are not the same. they have 80% complete and then another place they have 81.5 percent complete i was wondering if there is a true

number. that is page one. >> good afternoon commissioners. dan weed. so the overall program is more than 80% complete and the other program is -- [inaudible] so the combined program is more than 80%. yeah. >> but i think the issue that she has is the difference between planned and actual because planned has 80 point four and actual is 81.four. >> okay. >> but then above that it says 80% in the text above the chart. >> okay. let me get back to you on that and double check it's not a typo. >> okay. >> and i will confirm that the

numbers are accurate. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. okay. item six please. >> item six is other commission business. >> commissioners any business? >> madam chair from time to time our meeting laws get in the way of doing what needs to be done, and we learned recently that commissioner torres at the end of his term will not be returning to the commission. i think it's important that we recognize the commissioner and his service, but we need -- i am told -- to have a motion to discuss an off calendar item which is legal if it's committery in nature which this would be so i would like as a procedural matter first to move that we entertain discussion

about commissioner torres' laudatory performance on the commission. >> i second that. so discussion? all those in favor? >> aye. >> opposed? motion carries. and with that i would like to say the commission has put together this plaque for you. >> that's very nice. >> and let me read it first before i present it to you. "senator art torres with appreciation for your distinguished service for as a commissioner for the san francisco public utilities commission, 2010- 2014 and as your role as commission president, 2012 to 2013" so with that we would like to present this to you. >> well thank you. >> and i think we have a picture coming. we need

everyone. >> nice to get closer to ann as always. [applause] >> if i may? >> of course. >> first of all i want to thank former mayor and lieutenant governor gavin newsom the opportunity to serve the city and county of san francisco. as a resident here when i took over the california democratic party since 1996 it's been a pleasure to pay my property taxes and see where the money is going first hand is more inviting to me so

thank you mayor newsom and also to mayor ed lee who i have known for many years and his work in civil rights so many years ago and obviously as a administrative office for the city and county of san francisco and then as mayor it's been an honor to serve with him and his staff and chief of staff and others that work on a day to day basis. they provide tremendous support. i am proud to make a little history here in the city. for the first time a father and son served simultaneously as president of two commissions and joaquin commission serves as president of the housing commission and much more challenging a job than my job here as a member of this commission, but we made history for a short period of time and it was an honor to do that. and lastly i want to thank the members of this commission with whom i serve including the

distinguished city deputy attorney and especially to those who are not here today, but to all of you, and to an son for the work that we did together for the work selecting the general manager and i knew ann's husband as a young legislator and getting to know her here is an honor and wonderful experience getting to you know you after all these years. to harlan kelly and served the city for years and now the general manager and glad to bring you on board harlan and provide that leadership but in the end i of in public service for 43 years now and i think it's time to move on and i appreciate the opportunity to have served this

city in this capacity. thank you. >> thank you. well, -- >> sorry. >> oh thank you. >> can i actually make a comment before? >> certainly. >> so i just wanted to personally thank you for your service here on the commission. it has really made a big difference especially during the rim fire and one of the themes you showed leadership and the other thing your attention to a lot of the important topics. you gave me a lot of leadership as well and helped me work with the mayor's office on a lot of issues, and it's going to be tough to not see you here because you and anson were fartd of the initiation of hiring me and i want to. >> >> thank you for all your service. >> well thank you and i forgot to mention the mentor in the

assembly and before then in law schoo former mayor willy brown and his advice was always sound when i needed it serving with this commission. >>i would like to call for public comment if there is any. >> [inaudible] there are lots of people in san francisco that are very proud of your work. >> thank you. >> and when we look at a documentaries and when you mentioned willie brown we see you in those documentaries while he is addressing and challenging the constituents of california and san francisco to do this, that and the other, which you have done a lot, and as a general manager mentioned it always pays, and it always does

san franciscans right when we have experienced people whose heart is in the right place. i have not known you for too long, but i have known you coming here to city hall, but i have seen you in action in sacramento while you were on the podium and i was in the audience, so this came as a surprise and anson moran using the rules in order to entertain this process that we're having, so i would like to thank you on behalf of all san franciscans for contributing a lot. for example, when we had

this debate on the survey that was taken solar, cac and so on and so forth. you truly saw that segments of the population of san francisco that were not included in the survey in a meaningful way, but you brought it to the attention of those doing the survey that should be revisited. whenever we talk about quality of life issues we should empower those that need help most, and you know that because before you were a young senator you were involved in a lot of what we call today environmental issues, and if you are involved in environmental issues, and you always are in touch with those that need

help, poor people mostly, you will be blessed, so i wish you and your son, who i know very well, all the best. >> thank you. >> and i know even as you leave us that you will be in touch with us because we do need your help and your expertise. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> [inaudible]. art, it's been a pleasure watching you in action. i think you're a great leader and have a fabulous sense of humor and it comes as a shock you are departing. i hadn't heard that so it takes some getting use on but i think you're leaving the sfpuc in good shape. i have been impressed over the years how things are coming together and hopefully we get a chance to take you out on

rafting trips and outdoor time and thank you for your service and good luck in what you do next. >> thank you for what you do. >> yes. next speaker, the rafting trip i am trying to picture it. >> i cannot compete with a rafting trip on the river. commissioner torres i too am surprised by the news and sad to see you go because i think your experience both here and both your prior experience in the legislature speaks well to you focusing on the policy discussion and that is truly what a policy body should do and it's hard sometimes in an intricate bill and operations that we work on sometimes and to focus on that has been well received by me, on behalf of your wholesale customers and certainly the customers they serve so thank you very much for your service to the public. we will be sad to see you go but

hope you enjoy your retirement. >> i'm not retiring. >> you're next venue. >> we're still looking for the cures. >> yes. your next venue. >> thank you. >> thank you for your thoughts. all right then let's move on to the report of the general manager. >> okay. so the first thing they want to just go back to your question commissioner. on the recent annual report in page one basically the table talks about -- it talks about planning environmental design, and construction efforts and it gives a percentage of each one of the phases and so it talks about the planning is 99% complete so all the projects that are in planning 99% of all the work that's in planning and

then environmental is 97.one. design 97.one and construction effort is 80% complete so when you look at all those phases and take them into consideration it's 81.4 percent complete. now there are two columns that says planned and actual. planned is off the schedule. actual is what you're actually achieving in the field and there's the difference in the numbers are coming from. >> still how does it relate to the 80%? >> the 80% is just construction. when you look at the work that is in construction because there are projects what have not yet reached construction that you got to take into consideration. >> so what is that is saying that environmental is 97.1% and design is the same. >> yes. >> thank you very much. >> okay. so the next item give you an update on the drought.

steve ritchie. >> thank you general manager kelly commissioner caen and other commissioners. i will update you again on the drought with the slides that are available if we could have those brought up please. there are good news in here and challenges ahead. first a lot of these things that are familiar pictures. this is the storage in our system. hetch hetchy as you can see has been steadily coming down this year as it does every summer and less than 80% full right now and 285,000-acre feet. water bank has been steadily rising as well because we have been generating hydro power water from cherry and converting to rafting flows in cherry creek and in the river and ends up in the water bank

so the water bank grown about 38,000-acre feet from the low point and trying to bring it back up so it can do the job as in prior years but the storage is 59% currently. the precipitation chart -- again it's flattened out. you notice the other dry years about bump up towards the end of the years and rumor thursday and friday there might be rain and maybe be the bump up this year. we will see if that occurs or not. but again we achieved the level of precipitation and important with this slide and the snow impact slide and the red is 2014 and the blue is 2007 so the amount of precipitation of the two years is equal the amount of snowfall in 2007 was more significant than 2014 and that difference makes a difference

in the hydrology, how much water we actually get out of it. it comes as rain it's harder to get water out of it. if it's snow and melts later in the year we get water and there are peaks that we could collect so the difference that the city could take is higher under 2007 conditions than 2014 even though the precipitation is the same and keep in mind going into the future if we have more rainfall our system of operation has to change to deal with the water is coming at a lower stream rather than peaks that we can capture for ourselves. total delivery. this is a really good looking chart right now. the green dots are the ones that represent total system demand as measured through the regional meters and from june 1 on basically into mid-- late september now that number has steadily been going

down. people have been reducing water use out there and i think we're seeing the effects, certainly here in san francisco, recreation and parks department has done a good job at reducing irrigation and more by hand than automated systems that over splay and people are doing good work and the wholesale customers more than the city and they're achieving that and again with total amount of savings. here is where we want to be above the black dashed line. we're are in that line to achieve the target level of 209 million-gallons a day so everyone over the last months has done a wonderful job conserving out there and the customers deserve credit for that. this is the driest three

year period in our record. when you use tree ring analysis and cord lait the tree ring with hydrology and look at a longer length of time and the trees that cut down and the waters and degrange and hasn't been this dry so basically since the revolutionary war is since it was this low and [inaudible] this year because it was so dry and again utilizing the water bank, managing the storage and reducing demand left us prepared for the future. i will talk about the future in a second but first set it up with a picture that was publish yesterday of reservoirs around the state. the yellow bars are the amount of vacant space. the red line

is typically where the reservoirs are at this time of year and blue is where they actually are, and you will see that almost every big reservoir has a lot of yellow and a little blue and the blue is definitely below the red line. the big one at the top is shasta reservoir which is way down. the one on the right-hand side is don pedro reservoir and it's very low and 37% of capacity or something like that right now. fortunately our water bank water is in the county mechanism so even if it leaves the reservoir for the districts to use we get credit because we put it there for their use at the right time of the year and the rest of the state is in hurting shape and this is a state water project so we look at concerns going into the next year so what about next year? so we have done some

modeling going forward. the first note if it's above or at median precipitation we're -- [inaudible] average year that is enough to fill hetch hetchy three times so an average year would be really nice to have. if it's similar to 2007 and low precipitation and at least some snowfall and dryer than normal but the results will keep us at 10% reduction and something that we can sustain in the future. if it's the lowest bar with precipitation and see those conditions in april and may we will talk to our customers because we will plan for a 20% reduction in the coming months, whenever that might be, and one thing we need to talk to them is we all conserved a lot. the