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PUC presents Water Quality Protection Plan and expert-panel recommendations; commissioners urge clear public messaging
Summary
Staff presented a mayor-directed Water Quality Protection Plan peer-reviewed by a national expert panel. The plan lists 11 recommendations to protect Hetch Hetchy and address emerging contaminants, monitoring, advanced treatment and distribution-system water-quality issues.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission received a presentation on the Water Quality Protection Plan on May 27, 2008. Andrew Abrazo of the Water Quality Division said staff prepared the plan under a mayoral directive and convened a national expert panel to peer-review recommendations.
Abrazo said the panel emphasized protecting source water and continuing protection of local reservoirs. He noted advances in detection technology that reveal trace levels of pharmaceuticals and other emerging contaminants and said the plan calls for a clarified monitoring framework and an integrated risk-management approach to prioritize responses. "The expert panel came up with 11 recommendations," Abrazo told commissioners, summarizing actions such as evaluating advanced treatment, assessing online monitoring technology and reviewing distribution-system operations.
Commissioners praised staff for the rapid work but asked that the plan emphasize the strength of San Francisco's current program so the public does not infer that local water quality is poor. Commissioner comments focused on balancing recognition of a high-performing system with the need to adopt improvements and new monitoring priorities.
Public commenters including representatives from Clean Water Action lauded the plan but urged that low-impact development and source-protection funding (noted as $20 million in WSIP allocations) be integrated and protected from future budget cuts.
Next steps: staff will revise the plan to reflect commissioner feedback, coordinate with the public-health reporting cycle (triennial reporting and hearings), and submit a final plan to the mayor with recommended priority items and potential budget requests.
