By Ted Fischer
October 8, 2007

The United States Conference of Mayors Water Council met in San Francisco to discuss water issues facing the nation’s cities September 26-27. San Francisco city staff took meeting attendees on a tour of the Pulgas Temple, Crystal Springs Dam and the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir just south of San Francisco.

The San Francisco Public Utility Commission’s water system serves over 2.4 million people. The most important factor for their water quality is its source. Most of the drinking water comes from 459 square miles of protected watershed of the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park. Sierra Nevada snowmelt flows down the Tuolumne River into the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. City staff discussed water supply issues in the San Francisco Bay area and their concerns of global warming and an area drought.

San Francisco and surrounding communities get water from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir approximately 160 miles away via the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct. Water once made the journey to the Pulgas Water Temple and flowed over a small C'shaped waterfall within the water temple itself where it continued approximately 800 feet down a canal to the west into Upper Crystal Springs Reservoir.

David Briggs, Division Manager of Water Supply, and Dee Cutino, Superintendent of West Bay Facilities, spoke about seismic safety and water supply issues. Mayors and attendees were given a full tour of the facility and shown how San Francisco is leading the way in water treatment techniques including the use of ozone to clean and treat the water for drinking. For more information, visit the website usmayors.org