Lake Merced Storm Report, February 26, 2004

To Friends and Stewards of Lake Merced
 
It sure did rain!  And while Lake Merced received a lot of water, it suffered quite a bit of serious damage as well.
 
Major erosion occurred at the usual places along John Muir Drive.  A new landslide took out the walking path along Lake Merced Boulevard just east of the Impound Lake.  The newly graded area near the recently installed fishing pier suffered even more damage, and the fishing pier is now closed.
 
The lids flew off the sewer line escape vents on the eastern end of the Impound Bridge, and raw sewage geysered four feet into the air.  The earthen shoulders built up alongside that bridge have virtually disappeared, leaving dangerous drop-offs along much of its edge where no retaining structure is in place.  That bridge has also now been closed to pedestrian traffic.
 
Given the extent of this damage, it was at least comforting to see the attention being paid the lake by various city officials.  Patrick Sweetland, Manager of Water and Wastewater Resources for Daly City came out, together with Mark Baker, head of operations.  Lisa Wayne was there with four of the Natural Areas Program gardeners, seeing if anything could be done to stem additional erosion.  A cadre of DPW workers was out cleaning the road and securing downed power lines.  I spent an hour with Greg Bartow, PUC hydrologist, doing a complete tour of the lake looking for additional problems.  Fortunately, we didn't find any.
 
Friends of Lake Merced appreciates the high priority given the lake by responsible city managers.  We look forward to working together to find solutions to these very serious problems.
 
John