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San Francisco declares water scarcity emergency, asks metropolis customers to preserve 5%

San Francisco has some of the most environmentally conscious water users in California, and its reservoirs contain enviable reserves, a crucial resource two years after a nationwide drought.

Now the city is demanding even less consumption from its water customers.

Members of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission voted Tuesday to declare a water shortage emergency and adopt a system-wide reduction in water use by 10%.

They want to get there by urging city residents and businesses to cut water usage by 5%, and urging more than two dozen government agencies in Alameda, Santa Clara, and San Mateo counties that buy water from San Francisco to save even more by reducing water consumption by 14. reduce %.

The statement requires the city to add a temporary surcharge of up to 5% on city users’ water bills – the amount they charge customers – to ensure prices do not fall below what the city is paying for the Running their water systems costs. The surcharge is measured by water consumption in the 2019-2020 financial year, a period chosen before the pandemic. At most, consumer bills are expected to increase by about $ 6 per month.

Steven Ritchie, assistant director general for water at SFPUC, said at the meeting Tuesday that the planned cuts are intended to offset the long-term effects of the drought on the city’s water resources. The October storms brought temporary relief to northern California’s water reserves, but they weren’t enough to offset the effects of two dry winters.

“It doesn’t look like storms are on the horizon,” said Ritchie. “Sure, recent storms have helped, but the drought is still going on.”

A rainwater collection system helps save water in Zan Sterling’s house.

Stephen Lam / The Chronicle

San Francisco’s reservoir supply remains fairly robust at nearly 73% capacity, just below the 80% capacity typical for this time of year. But about a third of the supply is off-limits due to government restrictions imposed amid the drought.

Public Utilities Commission officials announced they would return to the commissioners next year to discuss the possibility of increasing prices for about two dozen wholesale customers including Alameda County and the towns of Hayward, Daly City and Sunnyvale who have their water buy from the city.

San Franciscans consume an average of about 42 gallons of water each day, less than the national average of 90 gallons.

Saving water means, among other things, turning off the tap while you lather your hands with soap and brush your teeth. On a larger scale, water collection systems can be used to collect rainwater for use in gardens.

Zan Sterling, who works to reduce water consumption at her Bernal Heights home, checks a clay pot that she uses on her plants.

Zan Sterling, who works to reduce water consumption at her Bernal Heights home, checks a clay crock that she uses for her plants.

Stephen Lam / The Chronicle

In Bernal Heights, Zan Sterling welcomes the call to save more water.

Sterling said some of her earliest memories of her childhood in South Bay were in the 1970s, when everyone stopped using sprinklers and the lawn turned brown.

“It went from flushing the toilet to ‘If it’s yellow, make it milder,'” said Sterling.

She has installed a special toilet with a tap on the tank that flushes with the water for hand washing. She built a system to collect the water that ran off an awning for use in her garden. She buried clay pots at the base of her backyard fruit trees, an age-old method of collecting rainwater and draining it into the ground when the ground is dry.

“We should all save water – 5% isn’t that much,” said Sterling.

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However, at Tuesday’s meeting, there were some concerns about the impact of the SFPUC’s decision.

The declaration of emergency could allow the SFPUC to bypass government restrictions on water abstraction due to the drought. The State Water Resources Control Board has ordered San Francisco to stop withdrawing water from the Tuolumne River to fill its reservoirs, but the declaration allows the city to apply for an exemption to withdraw some river water.

Peter Drekmeier, political director of the Tuolumne River Trust conservation group, has called on commissioners to withhold their vote so they can discuss in more depth the implications of their decisions for the rest of California. The salmon river has decreased in recent years and the flows in rivers have decreased, he said in a previous interview.

“Our concern is that the Tuolumne River is in really bad shape,” said Drekmeier. “It has the worst salmon yields on our Central Valley rivers.”

The commissioners did not respond to Drekmeier’s concerns. The five commissioners unanimously approved the declaration.

SFPUC President Anson Moran described the statement as a normal move during the drought. Ritchie, the PUC’s water manager, said it can be lifted once the city reaches its goals.

That would end the surcharge.

In an earlier version of this story, the process for a water user surcharge was misrepresented. The surcharge remains at 5% until the breaking news is canceled.

Julie Johnson is a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: julie.johnson@sfchronicle.com. Twitter @juliejohnson

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