The Newspaper of the San Francisco Bay Chapter
March - April 2007
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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San Francisco to reveal plans for Tuolumne River
San Francisco city officials will soon reveal whether they plan to increase diversions from the Tuolumne River to water lawns and maintain landscaping in Hayward and the San Francisco Peninsula.
San Francisco dams the Tuolumne at the mouth of Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. It takes water from the river near the park boundary and sends it through pipelines and tunnels to the Bay Area. The system is operated by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), which sells water to the departments and agencies that supply communities in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and southern Alameda Counties.
The system currently delivers about 170 million gallons per day to water-agency customers outside San Francisco, and about 90 million gallons per day to water users in San Francisco.
The SFPUC is engaged in a "Water System Improvement Program" to upgrade the system and improve its ability to withstand earthquakes. The program is also intended to provide an additional 35 million gallons per day to water-agency customers outside San Francisco. One-third of this increase is for the city of Hayward, which is completely dependent on the San Francisco regional system for its water supply.
The SFPUC projects that conservation and reclamation programs within San Francisco will save 10 million gallons per day by 2030, so that the city will actually use less water in 2030 than today.
The San Francisco Planning Department is conducting the environmental review for the program. It expects to release the draft of the Program Environmental Impact Report in March. The Program EIR should address the program's overall impacts, including its growth inducement potential and the effects of taking additional water from the Tuolumne.
Environmental advocates are monitoring the program through the Bay Area Water Stewards, a consortium that includes the Sierra Club, Tuolumne River Trust, Environmental Defense, Clean Water Action, Restore Hetch Hetchy, and Alameda Creek Alliance.
These organizations are particularly concerned about how the EIR will address - or ignore - several important questions.
- Will the EIR present alternatives that avoid taking more water from the Tuolumne? Future water needs can and should be met by increased water efficiency in Bay Area landscaping practices and by better management of existing supplies.
- Will the EIR address whether to continue using Hetch Hetchy Valley as a reservoir?
- Will the EIR describe the program's effects on the Alameda Creek watershed, which includes the Sunol-Ohlone Regional Wilderness and part of northern Santa Clara County? If the program includes an expansion of Calaveras Reservoir on Alameda Creek, the EIR should identify alternatives and mitigation measures.
WhatYouCanDo
To receive e-mail updates and action alerts about the San Francisco Water System Improvement Program and the Tuolumne River, go to the Tuolumne River Trust web site and click on "e-updates.
© 2007 San Francisco Sierra Club Yodeler