Tell SF Water to stop abuse at Laguna Honda Lake and hillside

Laguna Honda Lake/Reservoir sits at the base of a hillside, a shank of Mount Sutro, that contains the most undisturbed coastal-scrub habitat in San Francisco. It is under the jurisdiction of the city's Water Department.

Recently, for reasons not made public, the path along the two sides of the lake closest to the hillside was paved with crushed concrete/asphalt and made into a 12 - 15-foot roadway. The paving will allow traffic around the lake of a sort that has never been there before. In addition, at the southern end of the lake, the Water Department built a large crushed concrete/asphalt parking area for heavy construction equipment used in the department's water-supply-system rebuilding. Asphalt itself, vehicles on the roadway, and the heavy construction equipment will bring pollutants into the lake. The vehicles can introduce more weeds into the hitherto protected hillside.

To add insult to injury, the Water Department recently used a backhoe to bulldoze a downward swath of the hillside and eliminate the streambed below a spring. What in the world is the Water Department thinking? Is that how we treat water in the city's precious natural landscapes?

WhatYouCanDo

The Water Department is overseen by the Public Utilities Commission. Contact the PUC at:

Ryan Brooks, President of the PUC
rlbrooks@sfwater.org
(415) 554-3163; and:

Office of General Manager Susan Leal
(415) 554-3155 or (415)554-3110.

Protest the destruction of the habitat around Laguna Honda Lake, and urge the city to:

monitor the habitat status of the lake and the hillside;
not place or store heavy equipment near the lake;
begin immediately restoring the hillside to preserve and extend this exquisite example of San Francisco coastal scrub.

Pinky Kushner, vice chair, Sierra Club San Francisco Group