PUC head confronts Lake Merced issues
New GM works with task force, 'Friends' group

By Tiffany Maleshefski
November 20, 2001

Describing her appointment to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission as signaling a "new era" for the agency, new PUC general manager Pat Martel met with residents Thursday to discuss Lake Merced.
The meeting — a town-hall session that took place during the quarterly meeting of the city's Lake Merced Task Force — was hosted by the advocacy group Friends of Lake Merced.

Martel addressed issues frequently raised by Lake Merced advocates, such as the use of the lake’s underground water aquifer. Some believe that too much water has been drawn from the aquifer and that this is responsible for the lake’s sinking water levels.

Other questions involved the PUC’s ability to implement a reclaimed-water program and to work with nearby golf courses to find irrigation sources other than the aquifer for the upkeep of their grounds.  Having been on the job for only 45 workdays, Martel reminded attendees that she was unable to provide detailed answers to most questions, as she was still working with PUC department heads, learning the ins and outs of her position.

She did say, however, that the PUC was undertaking a $4.4 billion capital-improvement plan and that "Lake Merced is symbolic of the larger water issues we face in this city."

Identifying herself as a "friend of Lake Merced," Martel said she planned to "encourage the use of recycled water" — a position that the Lake Merced Task Force, Friends of Lake Merced, and the Committee to Save Lake Merced have long urged the PUC to consider.

Martel said that while no policy was close to becoming adopted, a draft plan was in the works and the commission was working toward garnering support from city departments for a reclaimed-water policy.
Martel told residents that she was aware of the difficulty of getting government bureaucracies to "work in unison to implement some of these strategies that have been laid out."

According to Martel, PUC staff will conduct a series of meetings with Recreation and Park Department general manager Elizabeth Goldstein to discuss overall water-resource management.

Hydrology study

Also at the meeting, PUC project manager Michael Carlin  announced the development of a conceptual hydrology model designed to determine the reason for Lake Merced’s dropping water levels and to study the Westside groundwater basin.

Carlin said the $150,000 allocated for the project would fund the drilling of shallow water-monitor wells and the conducting of habitat studies in collaboration with the Recreation and Park Department.  "The wells are put in for monitoring purposes," said Carlin. "We are trying to complete a geological picture between Pine Lake [in nearby Stern Grove] and Lake Merced."  Martel and Carlin emphasized that this project was one of many studies planned for power supplies throughout the city.

Martel also addressed the November 6 election results showing that voters were split nearly down the middle as to whether the city’s power distribution should be placed in public hands.  "The voters of San Francisco came close to issuing a mandate when it comes to public power — we take that very seriously," Martel said.

Residents satisfied

Residents said they were pleased that  Martel had reached out to them and  had begun to reverse the reputation the PUC had attained as an agency not responsive to public input.  John Plummer, a member of Friends of Lake Merced, said Martel’s efforts so far had convinced him and other Lake Merced advocates to join the "Pat Martel fan club."

Martel acknowledged that the PUC, as a public agency, might not have been responsive enough to the public. She said that she had often heard residents comment that "the PUC doesn’t respond to the community’s issues."  "My interest is going to be pervasive at the PUC," said Martel, in regard to public involvement in PUC issues. "We don’t want to deliver projects as a done deal without soliciting options we have not considered."

Martel said the PUC also was working to form citizen advisory groups, was redesigning its Web site to make it easier for the public to navigate, and was planning to hold frequent public forums focusing on Lake Merced.

"I am a friend of Lake Merced and have been so for a very long time," said Martel. "What a value this treasure is to the residents of San Francisco, but a regional treasure as well."