SFPUC: Rim Fire burned roughly 254,000 acres; water delivery intact as recovery work begins

Deputy General Manager Michael Carlin told the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission that the Rim Fire, which began Aug. 17, had grown to about 254,000 acres and was roughly 80 percent contained, with 100 percent containment expected around Sept. 20. "It is the third largest wildfire in the State of California's history," Carlin said, and he asked commissioners to recognize the scale of the incident and the multiagency response.

Carlin said Hetch Hetchy operations continued through the incident. "There was no disruption in service," he said, and staff reported no diminution in finished-water quality delivered to customers. Extensive sampling from surface and depth at O'Shaughnessy showed turbidity readings in the range of about 0.2–0.4, with normal operating turbidity around 0.2, indicating no substantial change in clarity.

The utility reported limited direct impacts to core infrastructure: large transmission towers were undamaged, but many smaller wooden distribution poles and lines serving Camp Mather, Cherry Lake and O'Shaughnessy were damaged. Carlin said the system lost roughly 300–400 wooden poles of the approximately 1,200 poles the utility owns in the affected area and that crews are replacing poles and using diesel generators to maintain site power while repairs proceed.

Carlin described active coordination with the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service under a unified command, use of Camp Mather as a restoration base camp, and liaisons from the San Francisco Fire Department embedded with incident command. He said Hetch Hetchy personnel and contractors are in assessment and recovery mode and that slope stabilization and erosion-control work are immediate priorities before winter.

On financing the recovery, staff told the commission they expect to pursue multiple sources: property insurance, FEMA and state disaster assistance. The utility carries a property insurance program with a $1,000,000,000 aggregate policy led by Lexington and a consortium of insurers; staff reported a policy premium on that program of about $839,000 and said the utility will advance claims and pursue reimbursements through the appropriate recovery channels. Commissioners were warned that timing, not eligibility, will be the near-term problem: reimbursements can lag, so the utility may need to reallocate reserves or defer noncritical capital projects to secure cash flow for urgent stabilization and restoration work.

Commissioners asked about contingencies if water quality were to worsen; Carlin said contingency plans exist, including running additional treatment plants and coordinating with wholesale partners such as East Bay MUD and the Santa Clara Valley Water District to supplement supply if required. He emphasized that, to date, monitoring supports the conclusion that customers continue to receive water meeting state and federal standards.

The commission thanked staff for the emergency response and asked to be returned decision documents in the coming weeks that lay out recommended short-term cash-flow options and any proposed reprogramming of capital funds.