Lake Merced Update -- May 2003
To: Friends and Stewards of Lake Merced
There is a lot going on at Lake Merced.
During April the PUC added another 6 inches of Hetch-Hetchy water to the lake. That, together with unseasonably high rainfall, has pushed the lake level above where it was a year ago. While the Independent report was a little optimistic, we still haven't quite regained the two-year-ago seasonal high let alone twelve, at least the decline in lake level has been stemmed. That's a good start.
Ground-breaking began on the renovation of the east end of South Lake, near the Impound Bridge. Scheduled is a new fishing pier and, according to the workmen who put up the barriers, a restroom facility, observation deck, and other amenities. If and when we are provided with more detail as to what is intended I'll post it to the web site.
The web site, by the way, is going great guns. I'm not sure what is going on, but our visitor count was up over 6,000 in April. That's the second month in a row with a significant increase, and our year-to-date total already stands over 22,000. I doubt that's happening to us alone; maybe it's time to buy some dot.com stock (that's not a recommendation!).
The PUC has hired a hydrogeologist, Greg Bartow, who has started to work with us on Lake Merced issues. Greg is familiar with the lake, having served on the peer review team looking at the Westside Basin plans, and in his previous job at the Regional Water Quality Control Board. Welcome to Greg.
The Daly City AB303 effort is nearing completion of its first phase. Included in the project scope has been development of a new model of the Westside Basin, including its interaction with Lake Merced. It is intended that this model will become the accepted tool for evaluating policy questions in terms of their impact on both Lake Merced and our sustainable supply of domestic water. We need to work with the other agencies involved to help make this happen.
Friends of Lake Merced has joined a broad coalition of community organizations, including the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods, the Alliance for a Clean Waterfront, and the Neighborhood Parks Council, interested in supporting a recycled water program for San Francisco. You may remember that $103 million in Proposition A funds are earmarked for this purpose. I had a very productive conversation with Beverly Hennessey, Director of Communications for the PUC, who will help us get underway. I'm optimistic that we are finally getting this effort off to a productive start, and look forward to working with Beverly, Cheryl Munoz who is immediately responsible for this effort, and others at the PUC to assure its success.
For the past several weeks I've had the opportunity to work with the California Recycled Water Task Force as a participant in their Public Information, Education and Outreach Workgroup. Their final report, which I think is quite useful, is available in draft form at their web site, http://www.owue.water.ca.gov/recycle/taskforce/taskforce.cfm. The final version will be available there soon.
Also this month LAFCO (I don't know what the acronym stands for; at first I thought it was LaughCO :)) had a review of issues related to our water supply. I think that the message came through that issues of groundwater, surface water and recycled water are all closely intertwined, and that without community support it is at best difficult to implement a comprehensive water program. What happens next is an open question.
Coming up: The California Dragon Boat Association will be holding races at the lake May 17 & 18. They get off to an early start, 7:30 A.M., so get out there early and enjoy the fun.
That's all, folks.
John
