us together and what is rarely thought of as a political thing is history, and within the san francisco watershed lies lake po seatos and that most of the public don't know exists. this was the first potable water source for san francisco. this building wouldn't be here if that lake wasn't there and [inaudible] to the mountain and [inaudible] red road flume when san francisco was purchasing water by the barrel for gold so within that valley lies the lake and stone dam and great beautiful places that people don't know exists but are important to the history to the city and all of the great rock and roll out of the city and the things that wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the lakes and with history i would like to thank the bay area ridge council for the vision to see that the stewardship of people to manage land responsibly is tied to their emotional ownership of that land in the history of it. thank you. >> thank you very much. before the next speaker a few more cards. [calling speaker names] >> thanks supervisors. i want to thank you for this hearing and also thank supervisor avalos and wiener fo

us together and what is rarely thought of as a political thing is history, and within the san francisco watershed lies lake po seatos and that most of the public don't know exists. this was the first potable water source for san francisco. this building wouldn't be here if that lake wasn't there and [inaudible] to the mountain and [inaudible] red road flume when san francisco was purchasing water by the barrel for gold so within that valley lies the lake and stone dam and great beautiful places that people don't

while i appreciate the dosen lead program that establish stalled for the san francisco watershed more definitely needs to be done. and the public needs to feel that they have unrestricted access and i completely understand and echo some of the concerns about responsible planning and responsible use of this land and absolutely think that it should be done in responsible and strategic matter that allows for a balance of both sides but we absolutely need more access open to the san francisco watershed. thank you. >> thank you. before the next speaker i will call a few more cards. [calling speaker names] and i think we have him already. next speaker please. >> good afternoon supervisors. my name is mike ferrara. i'm the conservation chair of the loma prieta chapter of the sierra club and a member of the executive committee, and as some of you may know this project if we call it a project crosses two chapters of the sierra club chapter and the san francisco bay bay chapter and the loma prieta chapter and i am chosen to say the chapters of are one mind and extremely doubtful in going away f

watershed and commuting. it would be great. there are many of us that commute by bike to the peninsula in san francisco and other parts of the peninsula. we would appreciate opening the watershed. and freedom to roam was also mentioned earlier. i am originally from sweden where we have freedom to roam. it means you can go to most places in nature as well as you don't destroy anything you can walk there, ride bike there is and it's a wonderful way for everyone to get out and enjoy nature and this is true for public lands as well as private lands and it includes watersheds, and if that works out well in sweden i am sure there is something we can figure out that addresses the environmental concerns with the watershed and allowing people to have access to it than the much more limited form that is suggested here. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker please. >> . i have one more card and julia miller and come forward. thank you and anyone else that would like to comment please line up as well. >> [inaudible] (low audio). continuing this process and moving forward and thank you -- >> please speak more clearly into the mic. >> you

san francisco is a beautiful city because of its hill sides but that creates certain challenges for us during storms. in particular san francisco has eight independent watersheds or eight independent valleys that have collection points during storms so as a city we need to develop a system that can effectively collect from all of the eight watersheds and deal with the storms as they come. as a combined sewer system we actually capture 94% of the rain that hit it is the city -- hits the city and treat it and discharge. in that regard we're ahead of many cities in the united states and don't collect the storm water and therefore making a positive environmental change. if you look at this area it's a large watershed, one of the largest that we have and water actual collects all the way far northeast north of the panhandle and naturally flows down in the southeast direction down to 17th and folsom so it's a large collection area that is the natural topography of the city. also part of this as the supervisor said it's a natural low point in the city and was naf gattible waterways at one point and in this map you could get on a boat and go to oakland from 17th and f

i want to thank the members of open the watershed for bringing this issue to the attention of the board of supervisors here in san francisco as well as the board of supervisors in san mateo county, i think santa clara county as well, and there are multiple jurisdictions that are also going to be involved from the golden gate recreation area and other federal and state jurisdictions as well and i think we have some speakers here from some of them. but most of all i want to thank the public utilities commission for their work in planning the opening of the water front, watershed area in san mateo county. it's something that they have been working on for years and it just so happens we're seeing the confluence of the desire from people who want to have access to the watershed and the public utilities commission having made some solid planning. i think today in this hearing we will explore what the plans are, what needs to happen in terms of environmental review, and where are the gaps that are still needed to be able to fill in the plan, and i think overall we. to be create access and we want to see if we can expedite access

these projects and these take san francisco closer to the successful and responsible policies of peers in the area and marin and east bay that successfully managed their watersheds and provides much more access than we have right now in the peninsula watershed while maintaining the quality of the water and the integrity of the environment. let me say also i think going forward we need to have a focus on transparency and public input into the planning process. this -- today to my knowledge is the first time that all of the projects have been presented to the public in one place and i think even though many projects have been in the

watershed from the fresh water down to the brac can kish marshes. >> reporter: volunteers have collected more than 1,000 samples now being analyzed at a san franciscom and how they are related to each other. in san francisco, dan ashley abc 7 news. >>> if you want to report an otter sighting, volumenteer or donate to the project, we posted a link to our website. and a word of warning, the growing number of otters means they're now getting hit by cars. volunteers urge you to even your eye out for otters on the roadway. time now is 8:17. a cool start to the holiday weekend. let's head over to our meteorologist lisa argen with the accuweather forecast. hi, lisa. >> chris, we'll have a wet finish. in fact, the wet weather will continue into early next week with stead wrerier rain. we could see a half inch through us tuesday. here is a look at live doppler 7 hd and i've widened the perspective. you can see the area of lp lpow pressure pressure. this will take time but it eventually shifts into california and slides down the coast. so the first piece of energy headed our way tomorrow for easter sunday. plan are for the egg hunts inside. it's going to be