Committee amends and advances ordinance to boost park water-efficiency and reclaimed-water use

The Government Audit & Oversight Committee advanced an amended ordinance intended to require the Recreation & Park Department to maximize water-use efficiency and reuse recycled water where available.

Katie Patruccione, of the Recreation & Park Department, told supervisors Rec and Park supports the ordinance and has entered a memorandum of understanding with the Public Utilities Commission to develop a parks water conservation plan identifying top water-consuming parks and a budget and timeline for repairs or retrofits.

Laura Spangen of the Public Utilities Commission said all parks are metered and the PUC will use meter data to establish a baseline. Spangen said two golf‑course projects (Sharp Park and Harding Park) are expected to reduce use by roughly 0.5 million gallons per day combined, and that the PUC’s target is to conserve 10,000,000 gallons per day by 2018. Supervisors discussed earlier estimates that Rec and Park projects could supplant roughly 2 to 2.5 million gallons per day of potable use.

Spangen offered preliminary retrofit cost estimates: about $9,000,000 for Sharp Park, $7,000,000 for Harding Park and close to $80,000,000 to convert Golden Gate Park to recycled water; assessments for the zoo and Lincoln Park were ongoing.

An amendment of the whole read into the record requires Rec and Park to develop a park water conservation plan by September 2009 that identifies top water-consuming parks (excluding lands already slated for recycled water or turf conversion) and to produce by December 2009 an irrigation systems retrofits report assessing capital costs required under Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations to enable irrigation with recycled water.

The committee called for a motion, received no public comment on the amendment, and moved the ordinance forward as amended with a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors; the transcript does not show a roll-call or vote tally.