Citizens' Advisory Committee
Water Subcommittee

MINUTES

October 24, 2007
1155 Market Street, San Francisco
4th Floor Conference Room
5:00- 7:00 p.m.

Members

Jennifer Clary – Chair	Art Jensen
Tim Colen	Richard Hansen
David Dawdy	Robert Varni
Staff: Ben Chan

ORDER OF BUSINESS

Roll Call
Present:  Clary, Hansen, Jensen, Dawdy
Absent:  Varni, Colen.

1.Call to order
   Jennifer Clary, Chair, called the meeting to order at 5:05 p.m.

2. Approval of minutes
   Minutes from September 26, 2007 were approved with clarification.

    In item 6, the beginning of the third sentence in the second paragraph, the year “2908” would be corrected as “2008.”

   In the same paragraph, an original sentence reads, “The plan will not directly adders WSIP, an infrastructure program.” It would be changed to “The plan will not address WSIP in detail.”

   In the second last paragraph under item 6, the sentence read, “The Subcommittee further agreed that the Business Plan would be a standing agenda item. The term “Business Plan” would be replaced with “protection of system assets.”

3. Announcements by members and reports on other meetings
   * Ms Clary passed out brochures and encourage participation to the California Water Policy Conference’s event called “Climate of Change –From Sizzle to Substance”, to be held on November 14 and 15, 2007 and presented by Public Officials for Water and Environmental Reform. ” Sample attached
   * Mr. Hansen submitted a news clip headlined “Local Management, Leadership Critical to International Clean Water Effort.” He requested copies available to members of the committee. Sample attached
  * Mr. Hansen requested subscription for the committee bimonthly publication called Underground Infrastructure Management, or UIM. Sample attached.
  * Paula Kehoe of Water Resources announced an invitation – only workshop called Interagency Partnership for Water Reuse, organized by the Bay Area Clean water Agencies, to be held at Officer’s Club in Presidio on Monday, October 29, 2007. She encouraged participation. Via email attachments.

4. Public comment—matters within Subcommittee’s scope, not on today’s agenda
   A citizen complained about water waste at the Civic Center area. Joan Girardot from the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods distributed a letter entitled, “Charter Mandated Reconstruction & Replacement Funds” at the end of public comment.

5. Presentations

a. Water Balance and Audit for In-City Operations, FY 2004/05 and Proposed Leak
      Detection & Repair Program - Joan Ryan, Water Enterprise

Water Balance Study. Presenters Joan Ryan and Dana Haasz outlined the three- phase study that is designed to reduce water waste by finding out where water goes, what is unaccounted for, how feasible it is to recapture water loss by undertaking leak detection repair, and related analysis.
  * Phase One identifies all the water coming to San Francisco and where it goes; the apparent and real losses.
  * Phase Two, which is on-going, involves auditing nine reservoirs and developing a proactive leak detection repair program, among other things.
Joan Ryan reported that a draft will be ready next month.
  * Phase Three will outline a plan that will reduce leak detection process from two years to six months; a program that will provide leak detection training for staff at the City Distribution Division; and a budget funding this program.

Ms. Ryan said the findings of Phase One can be viewed on-line at sfwater.org.
Ms Haasz said that SFPUC has received a $300,000 grant from the Bureau of Reclamation for the application of Permalogger, a technology that helps SFPUC identify leaks within certain radius. She said SFPUC is the only utility in California that implements such a study. The study also includes audits water use in each city department. Overall, Ms Clary agreed that SFPUC should set up a new monitoring system to measure water loss, including city departments’ water use patterns and how their consumptions are paid for. She said future agenda should cover conservation programs and guidelines for each city department, including incentives.

b. Water Enterprise R&R Budgets -- 2006-07 to present - David Behar, Water Enterprise
           In-City linear asset replacement estimate based on assumed funding, 2008-09

David Behar presented an overview of linear asset replacement funding in the City Distribution Department over the last several years, and indicated that the coming year funding level had not yet been determined.

c.  Overview of water rates and water use by City departments, post-Prop 218 –
      David Behar, Water Enterprise

David Behar presented tables showing water use levels, and rates, for city departments.  The data was organized by Department and Group Code. 

6. Discussion and possible action on the continuation of September discussion regarding how to best use the Water Subcommittee’s advisory position to advocate to the Mayor and Board of Supervisors the need to protect and maintain the City's assets.

Ms Clary said item 6 would not be covered until Mr. Varni is present.

7. CAC Water Subcommittee Annual Report 
       Item not discussed.

8. Discussion about future agenda items, including budget items that the Water Subcommittee would like to monitor and acquire more information about at future meetings

Mr. Dawdy asked that a representation on chloramine be put on future agenda. Ms Clary said it would be more appropriate to put this issue under water quality study.

9. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 7:00 p.m.