In the minds of many San Franciscans, The City’s tap water is indelibly linked to the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. But recently, when the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission announced plans to drill new wells on the west side of The City, officials concluded that they might have oversold the Hetch Hetchy brand. Read More
Restore Hetch Hetchy operates out of a shabby fifth-floor office in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, across Mission Street from abandoned storefronts and a rundown SRO hotel. The small nonprofit's staff is forced to drink bottled water, because the aging buildings rusting pipes make tap water unpalatable. Read More
Yosemite National Park draws up to 4 million visitors each year. They come to admire the stunning granite of Yosemite Valley, hike in the Sierra Nevada and enjoy the unspoiled wilderness. Yet Yosemite also is the source of 85 percent of San Francisco’s drinking water. And that has made it the setting of one of the country’s longest-running environmental debates. Read More
Mayor Ed Lee recently took the San Francisco Unified School District to task for failing to sell or lease its surplus property. But a new report suggests The City has idle hands of its own when it comes to extracting revenue from surplus property. Read More
Big oil and eco-conscious San Francisco may sound like the strangest of bedfellows, but The City is on the verge of signing a contract with Shell Energy North America to launch a public-power program. Read More
A plumber with a valid medical marijuana prescription was denied work on a city project after testing positive for the drug, prompting a prominent San Francisco union boss to demand changes to a labor agreement. Read More
San Francisco and the 2.6 million Bay Area customers of the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System have a sustainable water system with storage reservoirs in place to maintain our water supply. We have worked hard to address the constant threats of drought, climate change, and earthquakes to our water. Read More
San Francisco’s beloved Golden Gate Park is no longer in the running to house a recycled-water treatment facility.The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the Recreation and Park Department announced Wednesday the facility is now planned for the Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Plant and a portion of the nearby California Army National Guard Armory property. Read More
As environmentalists said they will file paperwork today for a ballot initiative requiring city officials to plan for the possible removal of the O’Shaughnessy Dam and the draining of the Hetchy Hetch Reservoir, Mayor Ed Lee denounced their proposal.Restore Hetch Hetchy, a group devoted to returning the valley in Yosemite National Park to its original state, will need to gather 9,702 signatures by July 9 to put the initiative on November’s ballot. Read More
Cole Hardware has pleaded guilty to two felony counts in connection with a scheme by crooked city employees to defraud San Francisco of hundreds of thousands of dollars between 2003 and 2007.The plea last week was part of a settlement with the District Attorney’s Office that calls for the retailer to pay more than $51,000 in restitution to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Read More
