Bayview advocates and Sierra Club press SFPUC on community benefits, oppose desalination

At its Feb. session the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission heard public testimony urging the agency to prioritize community benefits in large water and sewer upgrades and to treat desalination as a last‑resort option. Yolanda Lewis, speaking for "the coalition," told commissioners the Bayview/Southeast sector should receive "true financial benefit" from multi‑billion‑dollar infrastructure projects and noted perceived inequities in the sector's sewer burden.

Commission leadership acknowledged recent activity at City Hall: the president referenced Supervisor John Avalos and colleagues raising local‑hiring provisions earlier in the day and encouraged watching the legislative process and continued outreach to labor organizations.

Environmental advocates also addressed the commission. Eric Brooks, identifying himself with the San Francisco Green Party and the Sierra Club Bay Chapter Water Committee, argued the Bay Area had not exhausted conservation and recycling options and warned against elevating a regional desalination project on par with lower‑impact measures. Brooks said technologies now being discussed use substantial energy and produce brine waste and read from Sierra Club guidelines that desalination "should not be used for water supply needs that can be met by water conservation, water recycling, and other water use efficiency practices." He cited a city report suggesting that replacing toilets with composting systems could save on the order of 5,000,000,000 gallons per year.

Brooks pressed for more frequent and robust public engagement on desalination alternatives, saying the commission and staff had presented too few public sessions to date. Commissioners asked clarifying questions; no regulatory action on desalination was taken at the meeting.