plant. we have thousand miles of pipe and much is over 70% old and half is over 100 years old and you have the instances where a street caves in or a bus or truck is there and that's the reason. we stepped up the program from three mimes a year to 15 miles a year to catch up. >> >> we are dealing also with climate change and in sense of creating the dramatic storms but also with sea level rise and the impacts that we're seeing by projections by 2100 we anticipate the bay will rise 36-inches and some scientists say that could be doubled and these are the challenges we're looking at and where to invest the money. we have started the grant program. again we have

under public law challenges with making improvements to private property using public funds. we found a way around that by creating this grant program which would allow residents to go out and purchase the water gates and we would reimburse them and put in the back flow preventers and we would reimburse them. the sand bags we provide to the residents during the storms. the flood insurance i talked about and operationally during the storms we're doing what we can. midterm actions we're looking at are we're evaluating the expansion of the grant program. we want to see more people take advantage of it. we heard some residents talk about some stumbling blocks given the limits on the program and looking to expand them. we are increasing the outreach to the diversity of the community that exists there and doing what we can from a scientific

perspective so right now given our radar detection capability we can see a storm with a four hour notice and have a general idea of how big the storm will be but not have an idea of how it will distribute in the city and the watersheds. we are working with the national atmosphereic association noah on a new program and put a new radar station in the bay area that would increase that window of warning from an four hour window to an eight hour window therefore giving us more time to react to storms and using a radar and what is san francisco today and how much rain will come from the watersheds and we can do real time analysis and

move water from one collection system to the other in order to reduce flooding in the city but obviously 17th and folsom being the highest priority right now. what would it take to eliminate flooding during a five year storm in our system? and what we're looking at we would need to make an investment they believe we need to make anyway which is a new central bay side collection system. today we have a force main that has failed twice during seismic events so we are investigating the construction of a large tunnel in order to increase the collection and conveyance during a storm. if we invest in that project would roughly cost $1 billion then we could build a connector 10 you will in the area that would be 17 feet in size that would move the water that hits the low point through an under ground tunnel to

central bay side tunnel therefore eliminating a flooding experience during a five year storm. the cost associated with that tunnel approximately $250 million, so if you look at the big picture the cost associated with eliminating flooding in the area during a five year storm is approximately $1.25 billion and we started work with the city attorney's office to see if there is a way to acquire private property that isn't impacted to deal with flooding situations, further the programs of the puc with system wide improvements if the owners are interested in that conversation, so we are working with the city attorneys just like when we started -- they have a grant program the initial reaction was no you can't do that. we found a way to do

that. we are hopeful we will find a way to do this as well. having said all of that the critical thing is that the system, our system overall is designed towards that five year storm and when we collect we collect approximately -- we can collect and store in one storm 775 million-gallons so basically if a three hour storm drops that amount we can handle that and that's a five year storm roughly. once we get beyond that our system simply cannot handle that so if you look back on december we had a 25 year storm and a hundred year storm. even if we spent a billion dollars we're going to flood during a 25 year storm and hundred year storm so those are some of the challenges we face as a city and the other thing i will say because it's pertinent we're looking at what else can

we do instead of the typical great infrastructure where we collect and treat water and investing in green infrastructure. what can we do to create permeable pavement, green roofs and to really help during a storm to reduce flooding and investing $400,000 in eight different projects in each of the watersheds to see which once are most effective and coming back to invest another $4 million in those types of projects to see if they improve the overall performance of the system so having said that we are committed to continue to work on that this. we have invested in this area and committed to another $10 million investment that didn't solve the problem and studying the connector tunnel and if that's the policy of the puc and the city to move

forward in that direction and continuing to look at short term improvements. i should mention looking at trying to make some improvements to private property up flow that would reduce the flooding more down flow and working with the city attorney to figure out how we can do that without violations of public law and again i believe we will get there. we are forcing a creative approach to try to deal with the problem. >> mr. cruz thank you very much for the presentation. before i turn it over to public comment i just wanted to ask a couple of quick questions. i know that -- i mean it's frustrating quite frankly to hear how challenging this is and even with the huge financial investment of 1.2 billion that you're still going to have issues. what is the timeline for the city deciding one this issue of the tunnel, the $250 million tunnel that could

be at least part of the permanent solution? and second on the issue of private property and imminent domain you're considering what is the timeline for when you're going to decide whether or not to pursue those? >> on the second thing which is the acquisition of property that's today. we are actively working today with the city attorney's office. we are pushing this as a potential option because we see that that while -- while there is no precedence for this there is the opportunity to occur acquisition of private property to have a natural collection basin and moving that neighborhood back to what it used to be or look at making flood resilient buildings if there is a way to acquire the property and design that type of building and build a building back over the area. we are looking at both of those and that is something we're

aggressively moving towards today and i can't give you a date as to when we were reach resolution with the city attorney's office but we're actively discussing it. we had another meeting on it yesterday so that is what i call immediately we're moving that and phrase two has new investment into the treatment plant and at oceanside and north point. phase two gets into the collection conveyance piece of the system and the earliest if the decision were made to move in that direction the earliest we would be in construction like that tunnel would be probably be 2020 so that is a real long-term solution. >> okay. great. supervisor mar. >> yeah, thank you mr. cruz and ms. harrison as well. 17th

and folsom i see from the maps that is a critical low point. are there others that you see -- other spots in the city where you would have to do similar capital improvements? >> 17th and folsom and the critical point in the city. it's the one area that we see flooding more consistently than anywhere else. we have seen flooding at 17th and [inaudible] and the improvements are there and no where as significant as 17th and folsom. we have additionally seen recent flooding at 15th and [inaudible] and historically a lake that was filled and unfortunately filled with unengineered fill so we're looking there as well so the three areas we're most liking

at with respect to flooding are those three. the most with technical challenges is 17th and folsom. >> and the slide showing the five year period with the four, five year storms and 110 year and 125 year storm it's alarming just in december 2014 we have those two huge storms and maybe better systems to identify the four hour notice but i know a lot was done to alert people during the december storms but i worry as you were saying from your great presentation the change -- climate change and when did you say? >> by 2100. >> and you alluded to super storms and the number of large storms coming so i think

projects like you're proposing i could see the urgency of it especially for people that live in the area but thank you for the great presentation. >> and just looking at our agency on the whole we have these challenges where we have these 25 and hundred year storm happening in the same year as a drought so we don't have enough potable water and yet we get the massive storms that hit us so hard we can't select it effectively to benefit the drought so market nature is being real. >> >> mother nature is challenging with us. >> thank you mr. cruz and the commission. i have a number of speaker cards and when i call your name please line up on your right, our left. [calling speaker names]

and anyone who want like to speak on this item please line up and please feel free to come forward and again i want to thank you all for coming out to city hall and i know people have crazy business schedules so it's greatly appreciated to see you here. >> before you start i was going to say the limit is two minutes and at 30 seconds to go there is a soft buzzy. >> thank you supervisors and thank you to supervisor david campos for calling this hearing. i am vice president and founder of the northeast business association. i want to thank mr. cruz for working through this problem with us. we've also had attention from the city from mr. abrams and attention from mohammed nuru but we are

concerned about this. the very people testifying previously about the fire were people who are employed in all ofure businesses on 17th street and folsom and my business on 16th street between folsom and harrison so the north east mission association represent all of the businesses and we need a solution as quickly as possible because we are harming the very people who have been in the fire and harming them by having to not employ them during that time so thank you very much for having the hearing. >> thank you very much. next speaker please. >> good afternoon supervisors. my name is donna marie and my neighbors and i represent adjacent districts under supervisor wiener and supervisor avalos. the flooding by the sewer system failure is a long

standing issue for us. like many of my neighbors my family lived in the area for nearly 25 years. for us this is the second major sewer system failure and the first happening in 2004. under gavin newsom we were assured by the city the problem would be solved only to have it repeated 10 years later. in december 2014 mayor lee, scott scott and harlin kelly met with us. my neighbors and i are here'd to begin discussions with the city specifically to address the long-term sustainable urban planning solutions. my neighbor blane will speak more on the details specific to our street and our residents. blane. >> thank you. i am blane bachelor and live in the

mission terrace neighborhood. thank you for organizing this meeting today. i am disappointed that our supervisor scott wiener isn't part of this. we didn't know about the meeting until last night. happy to be here and great presentation by mr. cruz. we're new homeowners in the area and three months later we were flooded out in the bottom unit and a nightmare and shopped that it's been happening for -- shocked it been happening for 20 years and neighbors have been dealing with it and you wouldn't believe the flooding on our street and when mr. cruz it is it was one of the worse areas we have it bad as well. so we're looking for long-term solutions. right now we are met with silence from the cities and claims are denied and no contact with supervisor wiener's office and we're frustrated and

disappointed. we pay a lot of money to live here and we love the city but not treated well so thank you for bringing us out today and know about it. we look forward to working towards long-term solutions and we need those, solutions, not sand bags. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> my name is jeff frai and a worker owner at rainbow grocery and on folsom and have been there since 1995, 10 years. every year there has been a flood. we have lost probably up to a million dollars lost product, lost customers, having to shut the store down, people sick, wages lost. we haven't filed a claim because we're hoping that something would change. we want these long-term solutions to happen now. sand bags are useless. they're a health hazard and we want the sewers to be rebuilt, maybe

separate the rainwater from the sewage and we want to expand the size of the pipes and we want to happen now, so gates are a possibility but come by and look at our huge store and see how cost prohibitive putting up gates would be. we are sick of this. we want things to happen right now. i'm upset that -- i thought that the thing underneath the park would at least help but that's been is no longer, so again whether it's a five year, 20 year flood whatever, it's happening every year and we would like things to really happening and it's affecting everyone and all of our neighbors and including the new restaurant around the corner from us. they spent over a

million dollars and they were delayed opening because of the flood, so it has to stop. thank you and thanks for your efforts so far. thank you supervisor. it's reached a critical moment. >> thank you sir. next speaker please. >> my name is chris hickey and i bought a building on folsom street in 2012 and the brokers told me there was flooding problems in the past and it had been fixed, a new road and plumbing and there were two floods this year and four floods since i have been there. i ended up after talking to the city and the neighbors it seems like the city was not going to do anything soon so i embarked moving all my tenant it is out and raised the slab for flooding and put flood gates in and pump system to protect my own building but the streets still

floods. something needs to happen and i propose that perhaps we could get a committee together from some of the stakeholders, the business owners of the neighborhood, building owners and something from the puc and have a small committee to brainstorm ideas and ideas from us and hear from them and we could perhaps that to somebody who can say yes and we can do these things because all we hear is no right now. thank you. >> thank you. thank you very much. i also want to call david hooper and anyone else that would like to speak come up. >> helloiff i am thomas [inaudible] and malcolm davis who is going to speak later i would like to live some of my time to him. we were told it was fixed in 2005 with the pump systems. we had five floods. i can't calculate how this affected my business but it will be affected all of this year because i lost all of the

christmas parties and holiday events that we get the business for future party. it's not calculatable and we don't have any options. >> thank you very much. thank you for being here. next speaker please. >> i am hans and have been running a auto shop in the mission district for years and on the block for 37 years. i have seen it at least 10, 12 flooding events while i have been there and most are recent. the first 15 years i never saw any flooding at all so it's more common. and this is the first year i asked for any city money. usually we mop it up and go back to work. i propose two approaches here. one is we need to upgrade the whole system and solve the problem. primarily i

think we need to increase the diameter of the pipe under tweet avenue that connects 17th and 18th and a few other streets to the main pipes under division, and i would say i would substitute the word "slow" for "low" because we're 15 feet above high tide average so the problem is it slowings down in our neighborhood. >> >> and we want to move it out to the creek faster. the second thing i suggest that the puc broaden their grant program now for barriers and restrictors so that individual businesses can get a little extra money to tailor the repairs to their own property to keep the water out and mine is a particular example. an extra $20,000 or $30,000 to raise the level of my parking lot would prevent water

from coming into my neighborhood and the stable cafe and thank you very much. >> thank you very much. next speaker. thank you for being here. >> [inaudible] and again i want to thank you you for calling the hearing and i'm a property and business owner and resident in the area, so i pretty much agree with what everybody said, and we do need a long-term thing but i think right away one of the helpful things you can do is expand the grant program like we told you. barely anybody could do the flood damage. it just didn't work and like i said sand bags don't work and if you drive around there it would look like a war zone and it's use flts useless anyway. you have to be present to put them up. a lot of people don't live there. they don't know ahead of time. you could out of town. you can't leave it up all the time. i cannot go

in with a dam there so they're useless. we talked to hem and you can't attach it to our building so you have to expand that and spend $20,000 for an individual property instead $50,000 to clean it up every year. it just makes practical sense and we need a long-term solution but that is useful and get a committee together with people that can come up with specific solutions and approve them rather than hand them off and say my department can't do it. the other department has to. we have to get together and come up with something immediate to start with. thank you. >> thank you very much. i have another name susan. >> hi i am carrie fisher (paused).

>> there is no other option.

you just can't say there is a part of the city that no one can live in but thank you very much for having this hearing. >> thank you very much. next speaker please. >> hello supervisors. thank you for addressing this issue and thank you mr. cruz for looking into it. i think we understand i'm an owner of the business. i am jerry and the property on 17th street since 1984. it is getting worse, and i think we understand because of the climate and the storms but even smaller storms used to be a problem because of maintenance so we would like to stress the urgency of a short term solution first. even a small storage tank would help some of the upper portion of 17th street [inaudible]. since the work was done there and 17th it affected us on 17th street lower part

worse since the work was done so we don't understand. we were not explained what was done. i have also proposal if the city can look into rezoning or give us some option. recently that area changed zoning and since the property is in such condition and it doesn't look like there will be a long-term solution soon if we can request looking back into rezoning so give us some opportunity to keep the property value, keep our businesses there and keep our people there as well i still like to again stress the short term some kind of relief to really become more urgent than just doing it like it was. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> hi. my name is marianne

robertson and i have a building at 17th and folsom street and i would like to stress the urgency of getting something done. we have flooded for the last significance years at least and. >> >> six years and it's been going on before that. sand bags don't work since the water comes in the building through pipe and it is toilets. sand bags are useless. the physical barriers are useless as well. we need to get solutions that work now. i understand it's expensive. i understand we're on a low lying area but what i don't understand since everyone has known this is a low lying area and a marsh for years and years why hasn't anything been done before now? it just seems very frustrating so i appreciate the meeting and i hope you guys can come up with some solution. the holding tank seems like the only viable

solution but apparently now it's not. there are other parking lots in the area. pg&e has a parking lot on tweet street and 18th and folsom. maybe something can put a holding tank under there. who knows but i would appreciate any attention that the issue can be given. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker. >> good afternoon. i am victoria sanchez and live [inaudible]. i wish these pictures -- >> you can put them up on the projector. >> [inaudible]

>> you can use the other mic too. >> [inaudible] >> okay. the cars were going up and down. i have been going through this for a long time and every time i see my house i go -- every time i go down the basement i get depressed because all that crap is coming up. it's not the water. it's the crap that comes up and i am tired of it, you know, and every time i call the inspectors they do -- i haven't heard from nobody. nobody has come around and said "mrs. sanchez do something" -- [inaudible] please do something about it because they haven't done anything, and even my yard i can't go in my yard because the crap is