Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Bay Delta Plan topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Public and advocates press SFPUC to back state plan to leave more water in rivers
Summary
Conservation groups and multiple public commenters urged the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to support the State Water Resources Control Board’s Bay‑Delta Plan and not to substitute habitat measures for flow protections; they criticized PUC staff briefings and asked for transparency and stronger leadership ahead of a January deadline.
Public commenters and environmental advocates told the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission on Dec. 13 that the commission should back the State Water Resources Control Board’s Bay‑Delta Plan and keep more water in California rivers rather than negotiating offsets that do not guarantee river flows.
Heinrich Albert, co‑chair of the Bay Chapter Sierra Club’s Water Committee, told commissioners the effort must ‘‘step up’’ and said staff appeared to be promoting settlements that emphasize habitat restoration over maintaining river flows. ‘‘If we don’t have water in the rivers, all of those other efforts are for not,’’ Albert said.
Hunter Cutting, a Sierra Club member, said the PUC cannot simply oppose the state board’s science without proposing a viable alternative. ‘‘We got to leave the water in the rivers,’’ Cutting said, noting a January 17 deadline for comment and urging the PUC to provide a clear policy position.
Multiple public speakers also challenged numbers and analyses in a staff briefing on the Bay‑Delta substitute environmental document (SED), including job‑loss and sales‑loss estimates. One commenter requested staff records of meetings shared with outside organizations under the Sunshine Ordinance and said some distributed figures appeared inflated compared with studies cited by speakers.
Commission staff and the city attorney repeatedly told commissioners the agency is still reviewing the state board’s document and will analyze potential impacts before further action. The commission did not adopt any formal position on the Bay‑Delta Plan at this meeting; commissioners said the topic warrants fuller agenda time in 2017.
What’s next: Staff said they expect a common‑comment deadline in mid‑January and will report more concrete analyses on any likely impacts to the PUC’s water supply assessments once that work is complete.
