Results tagged “water”

Seeing as how this winter promises to be a wet one, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is offering big ol' barrels in which to catch precious rain water. San Francisco Sewers Blog reports, that as of this past Saturday, "San Francisco residents can purchase up to ten fully outfitted 60-gallon rain barrels at steep discounts, compliments of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s (SFPUC’s) Wastewater Enterprise."

In honor of typhoon Melor and the impending five inches of rain with which she'll blanket the Bay Area starting tonight, we present to you a demo of Stevie Nicks' "Storms," one of the greatest songs about a storm (and yet so much more) ever written.

If you plan on taking a late-night bubble bath tonight, Castro denizens, think again. Between midnight and early Tuesday morning AM, the SFPUC will connect a water main to their distribution system. What does that mean for you? It means the water will be shutoff in certain areas of the neighborhood. Said areas are:

Do you remember the first time you tasted the water in the Bay Area? We do. It was inside a dorm hall at UC Berkeley many, many moons ago. After drinking vile tap water from Southern California all of our life -- remember, this was before the bottled water craze and Britta revolution -- water from Hetch Hetchy tasted like it was filtered through the petal-soft hair of the Baby Jesus. It was that good.

San Franciscans will soon have to learn how to ration our precious Hetch Hetchy Reservoir water after a 25-year long deal with twelve other suburban cities expires in June. According to SF Weekly, San Francisco residents consume mere drops of water per capita compared to people in other cities, and locals are saying we were "sold down the river" in this latest deal: An average of 92 gallons per day will be guaranteed to individual water users outside the city, while merely 54 gallons per day will go to San Franciscans (down from the current 57 gallons).

Former Water Operations Supervisor for the City of Sonoma, Randall Cover, plead guilty in federal court today in San Francisco. For what? Glad you asked. He pleaded guilty to five counts of "using the mail to engage in a fraud scheme to deprive the people of the City of Sonoma to their right to honest services." According to the FBI's San Francisco site, "Cover admitted to personally receiving financial payments from a Parts Vendor with whom he had arranged contracts for the City of Sonoma." Randall received anywhere from a little under 40 "checks totaling nearly $150,000 and $1,500 in cash ... between 2002 and 2007." To which we say:, we know Ed Jew. Former Water Operations Supervisor of Sonoma, you're no Ed Jew. Anyway, Randall is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in San Francisco on August. He faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 years and a fine of $250,000.

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission surprise-attacked the city with a new plan to"increase water and sewer rates for both residential and commercial customers at its meeting Tuesday," according to reports. The reason? Seismic upgrades. Apparently it will cost the city of San Francisco $4.4 billion to make sure your poop, pee, and drinking water don't mix when the big one hits. So expect a 13% increase in your bill after July. Also, it is SFist's official stance that you do not reduce your time in the shower to save water. Instead, here are 100 99 other ways to conserve.

According to reports, "California teeters on the edge of the worst drought in the state's history." Which is nothing new those those of you born and raised in California. It seems we're always in the middle of the Worst Drought Ever. But this year the warnings are particularly ominous. Take, for example, January's rainfall, which was a delicate sprinkle here and there punctuated by summertime-like weather. What's worse, the "Sierra Nevada snowpack - the backbone of the state's water supply - is only 61 percent of normal. " And you know what this means -- water rationing. In Sonoma County, "water managers are expected to take a bold step Monday - telling residents to prepare for severe rationing within weeks." And there are good tips for conserving water. Some ideas we can get behind (watering plants less often, fixing leaks), some we simply cannot (turning off the water in between lathering and rinsing in the shower). Know any good water rationing tips? Let us know in the comments.

Newsom quietly signed a bill late Friday that moves $1.9 billion for the $4.4 billion Water System Improvement Program. The water system siphons water from Yosemite National Park's Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The plan, according to reports, will "upgrade the water system that supplies more than two million people in the San Francisco Bay Area with drinking water" and keep up hydrated, moisturized, and bathed clean in case of a major earthquake or drought.

Hmm, looks like there's been some sort of drought going on in California. In what's being called "the worst crisis in decades," the California Department of Water Resource plans on cutting the amount of water it distributes to water districts by 85 to 90 percent. While this wouldn't affect San Francisco since we do not receive state water -- we suck on the Hetch Hetchy teet, where water travels via Yosemite to the San Francisco Bay Area -- it would affect the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the Tri Valley/Zone 7 Water District, and the Alameda County Water District. About 29 state agencies will see major cutbacks beginning January 1, 2009. (CBS 5)

Ever since SFist first reported on the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco's plan to re-name the Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility in honor of our current POTUS, George W. Bush, it has spread--in the words of T. Wayne Pickering, chairman of the unofficial "Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco--like an "intestinal bug on a Carnival cruise ship."

Curbed SF tipped us off that our Greeny "McDreamy" McGreen mayor, Gavin Newsom, was at the Ferry Building today handing out aluminum water bottles in an effort to "Take Back the Tap." Take Back the Tap is an initiative trying to get more San Franciscans to drink tap water. They are also trying to convince San Francisco restaurants to serve tap water by passing out “A How-To Guide for the San Francisco Restaurant Switch to Tap Water." By getting restaurateurs to pledge use of the tap, San Francisco can help reduce waste by helping eliminate plastic bottles.

Although last week's test on the American tap water by chemists claims to have detected the sex hormone estradiol -- found such vertebrate animals as birds, reptiles, and fish -- a more recent test conducted by the American Waterworks Association Research Foundation, says that San Francisco's "best tasting" H20 has come up sparkling clean.

But, and we hate to admit it, they sure do look pretty together. (The image above has been set as our desktop background!) But as attractive as oil and water looks on rain-soaked driveways and in Carmel-y art pieces, it's not worth it when it's in our Bay. It tends to cause inexcusable damage. (Where, like, fish and mermaids and stuff totally die, you know.) Take, for example, this morning's container ship that rammed...

Perez Hilton already commented on this eons ago, but when you see it in your own backyard, it’s just that much more depressing. Way back when sitcoms were taped before a live studio audience, who would’ve thought Jennifer Aniston would be hawking bottled still water today. Sparkling water would’ve at least been a step in the right direction. We don’t know why, but this saddens up deeply, which is horrifying....