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Planning Commission certifies EIR for SFPUC—s Water System Improvement Program amid debate over river diversions
Summary
The San Francisco Planning Commission on Oct. 30, 2008 certified the final program environmental impact report for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission—s Water System Improvement Program after hours of testimony from students, environmental groups, labor and business leaders over proposed diversions and mitigation. The vote followed questions about monitoring, mitigation triggers and a future 2018 review.
The San Francisco Planning Commission voted Oct. 30 to certify the final program environmental impact report (EIR) for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission—s Water System Improvement Program (WSIP), clearing the way for project-level environmental reviews and construction of seismic and reliability upgrades.
Ed Harrington, general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, described the WSIP as a program of more than 80 projects with an estimated cost of about $4,400,000,000 and said it serves roughly 2,500,000 customers in the Bay Area. "This really is a milestone for our Water System Improvement program," Harrington said in his presentation, adding that the PUC—s staff recommends a phased variant that would cap watershed water sales at roughly 265,000,000 gallons per day through 2018.
The certification motion followed an extended public-comment period in which speakers were sharply divided. Middle-school students from the Nueva School warned that "taking…
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