Sewage-damage payouts drain $612,000 from city
By: Brent Begin
Examiner Staff Writer
December 1, 2008
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| Chez Spencer owner Laurent Katgely looks out at the dining room of his restaurant, which was was flooded with up to four feet of water in 2004. (Cindy Chew/The Examiner) |
SAN FRANCISCO — Almost five years after San Francisco was rocked by a devastating winter storm that overtaxed its antiquated sewer system, The City is beginning to pay out millions of dollars in settlements to businesses and homeowners.
A home-furnishings store, popular French restaurant and dental office will receive $612,000 from The City, if approved in the coming weeks by the Board of Supervisors. The businesses, located in low-lying areas of the Mission district, Potrero Hill and the Excelsior, were inundated by raw sewage in 2004, when stormwater caused it to overflow.
More than 1,000 miles of brick sewers, many built more than a century ago, carry flushed waste from bathrooms and sinks beneath the surface to treatment plants. The sewers also fill with stormwater during rainstorms, which can overwhelm the system and cause it to overflow.
A San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled earlier this year that The City is liable for property damage caused by the toxic sewage that brimmed out of the combined system in 2004.
IMG Home was hit the worst, according to attorney Mark Epstein, who is representing more than 40 plaintiffs. About 4 feet of sewage and water seeped into the business, ruining stacks of imported rugs. The home store has since shut down its location at 16th and Carolina streets and will receive $500,000, if approved.
Chez Spencer, a restaurant near 14th and Folsom streets, lost its entire stock of food, wine and linens when the sewers overflowed. The restaurant has rebounded and is slated to receive $64,000.
The current crop of settlements are for tenant businesses, but at least 20 property owners are still waiting for their settlements, which are expected to cost millions more because the risk of flooding also tends to lower property values, according to Epstein.
“When cities fail to put in the proper time and energy to their aging infrastructures, the consequences are serious,” Epstein said. “It could be worse, but the good news is that The City has done a remarkable job of ripping up this old system.”
The Public Utilities Commission is nearing completion of an emergency plan to shore up the weakest points of the sewer system.
Between 2005 and this year, sewers on Shotwell, Cayuga and Vicente streets, as well as other problem areas, were improved, according to commission spokesman Tony Winnicker.
Also, underground storage boxes were constructed in some neighborhoods to hold excess stormwater, which can later be pumped to the treatment plant when it reaches capacity, said Winnicker, who referred the 2004 storm as a “100-year storm.”
