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Committee approves reserve release recommendation and CEQA findings for Harry Tracy Water Treatment Plant project; settlement with Skyline Stables recommended
Summary
The committee recommended release of reserves for the Harry Tracy Water Treatment Plant Long-Term Improvement Project and approved CEQA findings to send to the full Board; the PUC described a newly discovered fault strand requiring reservoir relocation and a negotiated settlement with Skyline Stables, which the committee accepted and moved to close-session procedures including a non-disclosure motion.
The Budget & Finance Committee considered PUC requests to release construction reserves and to adopt CEQA findings and a mitigation monitoring program for the Harry Tracy Water Treatment Plant Long-Term Improvement Project (CUW 367/CUW 36701), including an associated settlement with Skyline Stable Corporation.
Ed Harrington, general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, introduced Julie Labonte, director of the Water System Improvement Program, who described the project as a critical seismic and reliability upgrade. Labonte told the committee that during design the project team identified a previously unknown strand of the San Andreas Fault that requires relocating two treated-water reservoirs to a new reservoir site; the new reservoir footprint conflicts with an existing lease area used by Skyline Stables. The PUC said it has negotiated a settlement with Skyline Stables and asked the committee to approve the CEQA findings and release reserves so construction can proceed.
Labonte outlined the scope: seismic and structural improvements across the plant, five new filters, a new wash-water tank, upgrades to the raw-water pump station and ozonation system, and a large treated-water reservoir intended to allow decommissioning of two seismically vulnerable reservoirs. She also provided a schedule: contract documents had been advertised in mid-October, bids are due in early December, and construction is expected to start in March with a construction duration just under four years.
On budget, Labonte stated the correct construction reserve requested is $298,000,000 (she clarified that an earlier figure in department paperwork had been misstated). She reported the project-level engineer's estimate forecasts delivery $7,600,000 under the approved budget and that program-level savings are projected at about $63,000,000. The Budget Analyst recommended placing funds on a controller's reserve, releasing construction funds after bids are received (bid amount plus a 10% contingency), and releasing an estimated non-construction amount while returning any remaining unneeded funds to a committee reserve.
Public comment included Christine Hansen, president of the Board of Skyline Stables, who described the stables' six-decade history, public contributions to its maintenance, and concerns about losing appeal rights on the EIR. In closed-session procedure the committee voted to withhold disclosure and then to accept the negotiated settlement with Skyline Stable Corporation; the CEQA findings were recommended to the full Board. The committee took the motions without objection and adjourned.
The committee record contains several numeric transcription inconsistencies in departmental paperwork and analyst comments; the committee relied on the corrected figures presented by PUC staff at the meeting when taking action.
