SFWATER.ORG : Peninsula Watershed Management Plan (Final)

Peninsula Watershed Management Plan (Final)

Published: 10/21/2004 | Updated: 01/11/2008
Published By: Land and Natural Resources Division

Over 130 years ago the predecessor of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission's (SFPUC), Spring Valley Water Works, had a vision of protected watershed lands that would provide a pure and reliable water supply for the developing economy of San Francisco. In the last half of the 19th century, Spring Valley Water Works began purchasing the watershed lands that are now managed by the SFPUC. They first acquired the 23,000-acre San Francisco Peninsula Watershed and then the 40,000-acre Alameda Creek Watershed in the East Bay. Today, these two watersheds remain largely protected and continue to serve their primary purpose-to collect and store a reliable supply of high quality water for the homes and businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The SFPUC’s mission for managing the Peninsula and Alameda Watersheds is "to provide the best environment for the production, collection, and storage of the highest quality water for the City and County of San Francisco (CCSF) and suburban customers." The SFPUC seeks to accomplish this by "developing, implementing, and monitoring a resource management program which addresses all watershed activities." The watershed management program will "apply best management practices for the protection of water and natural resources and their conservation, enhancement, restoration, and maintenance while balancing financial costs and benefits" (SFPUC 1993). In response to this mission statement and because existing SFPUC policies do not address the management of watershed lands in a comprehensive or integrated manner, the Peninsula and Alameda Watershed Management Plans ("Plans") have been prepared.

The purpose of the Plans is to provide a policy framework for the SFPUC to make consistent decisions about the activities, practices, and procedures that are appropriate on SFPUC watershed lands. To aid the SFPUC in their decision-making, the Plans provide a comprehensive set of goals, policies, and management actions which integrate all watershed resources and reflect the unique qualities of the watersheds.

In addition to serving as a long-term regulatory framework for decision-making by the SFPUC, the Plans are also intended to be used as watershed man- agement implementation guides by the SFPUC’s Land and Resource Management Section (LRMS) staff. The Plans provide the LRMS manager and staff with management actions designed to implement the established goals and policies for water quality, water supply, ecological and cultural resource protection, fire and safety management, watershed activities, public awareness, and revenue enhancement. The Plans also enable LRMS staff to address and plan for future management of issues such as fire management, erosion control, range management, public access, security, development encroachment, and ecological resource management.

The Plans stress the long-term balanced management of the watersheds and look beyond the immediate desires of the present generation to the needs of future generations. As the population of the Bay Area expands and water regulations become increasingly strict, future generations will be challenged to provide a clean and reliable water supply. Paramount to maintaining high quality water and protecting water supplies in the long term is control over watershed activities and preservation of watershed resources. The Plans recognize that to move toward a more balanced environment, all decisions regarding use of the watershed must be evaluated against the principals of natural resource conservation.

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