Lake Merced Update -- November 2002
To: Friends of Lake Merced
Elyse and I are back from our month Down Under. Had a great time, and while we were gone a lot has happened:
-- The PUC has added about a foot and a half of water to the lake.Gone for just 30 days, and all of that is accomplished. Maybe we should . . . Naw, I don't want to go there.
-- Daly City has started their conjunctive use program, and is now pumping from just one of their municipal wells.
-- The bids are in, and next Tuesday Daly City is planning to award the contracts for their recycled water plant.
This past Tuesday the voters approved SF Proposition A, providing $103 million earmarked for recycling. We had been tracking the progress on this issue on our web site. We'll shift gears now, and monitor progress on this all-important program.
Also passed Tuesday was the state Proposition 50, providing another large sum for water projects in the state. We're starting to do our homework as to what implications this may have for Lake Merced. Anyone with any suggestions, please send them in.
Within the next few days the Neighborhood Parks Council will publish their report, prepared by consulting hydrologist Katie Pilat, "Leaving a Lake Legacy." This report describes the current condition (plight?) of Pine Lake, Mountain Lake and Lake Merced, the three remaining lakes in San Francisco. Look for this on the web site soon.
Based on this report the NPC has begun a campaign to encourage better capture of rainwater in San Francisco. (See Isabel Wade's letter to the editor in the San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 1.) In Australia we stayed in a home that obtains all of its domestic water from the roof, and everyone else in the neighborhood does the same. We have a giant desalination plant here in the Bay area that we're not using very effectively.
November 19 the Supe's Rules Committee will have hearings on the new Natural Areas Program Citizen's Advisory Committee (known, of course, as NAP-CAC). As the largest of the natural areas I think Lake Merced should be represented, and have thrown my hat in the ring. Whether we are or not, we want to be sure that the committee is not comprised solely of representatives of special-interest groups.
A final detail: For some reason as yet unexplained, the PUC has added one foot to their reported lake level. In order to assure consistency with earlier data, we will take the simple remedy of subtracting one foot from the PUC reports from now on. Perhaps someday they'll let us know why they did that.
That's a long report, but as I said, it's been a busy month. Let's keep the momentum going!
John
