A water main break in South San Francisco created quite the show Friday morning, with water spewing 50-feet in the air. The main, which ruptured around 9:45 a.m., caused widespread flooding at Elm Street and Tamarack Lane. Six houses had to be evacuated during the 3-hour water spectacle. more ›

Break out a new Brita filter, folks. San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has received several complaints about the taste and odor of their tap water. It seems, according to SFPUC, an algae bloom in one of their reservoirs is to blame. But fret not, worrywart. Neither the taste nor rank-ass odor poses a health hazard. "Customers can remove taste and odor by using carbon and reverse osmosis filters, and refrigeration of tap water should reduce taste and odor." more ›

"Water Plume" (at Bowdoin and Burrows) by peephole / Brady Lea. more ›

If you're one of those types who enjoy the glacial waters along the bayside in San Francisco (e.g., surfing, kayaking, fishing, clam foraging, wind surfing, or swimming), please take the SFPUC survey at once! It will help them learn how much these places are used and in turn help them better serve you. It also has something to do with sewage overlap, so brace yourselves. more ›

Oh what glacial joy! Josh Sullivan (aka SullyStyle) stumbled upon this water show on his way to work this morning at the corner of Belden and Bush, right in front of Sam's Grill. more ›

Raise your Perriers and Dasanis in a toast to the city's purported water bottle ban slipping down the drain to certain death. According to The Chronicle, last night's Environment Commission policy subcommittee meeting was a bust for the ban. more ›

Senator John McCain made a jingoistic off-cuff joke during President Obama's health summit yesterday. "There's two examples right now of medical malpractice reform that is working. One's called California, the other called -- called Texas," he said. "I won't talk about California, because the Arizonans hate California, because they've stolen our water," he said before going on about Texas. more ›

Update II: Sorry, y'all, last night's update needs an update -- we were a little out of it from the Super Bowl imbibing. It's not clear whether the person using the wheelchair lift was actually in a wheelchair, just that they fell from the lift and were taken to the hospital. [Cue the Benny Hill soundtrack here.] Twenty minutes later, during the initial investigation, the bus lurched forward for some unknown reason, and nailed the fire hydrant with the wheelchair lift. Then the airborne hydrant hit the Muni investigator in the head, who was treated at the scene. Water from the hydrant caused flooding in at least one of the nearby buildings. See SF Appeal for more info. more ›

Turns out that all the miserable weather we've endured lately isn't miserable enough. Despite an abundance of snowfall in the state, there still is not enough water in the frozen Sierra Nevada range to ease drought conditions. Up to 60% of California's water is contained in the Sierra snow. "What we're finding this year is really pretty close to last year," said Frank Gehrke, chief of snow surveys for the California Department of Water Resources. And the water content of the snow was only 85% of normal. Somebody, please, rain on my parade! (Amy Crocker) more ›

Water customers in San Francisco, the East Bay, South Bay, and the Peninsula might notice something funky looking with heir tap water. It might look a wee bit cloudy. But relax. According to SFPUC, the cause of the cloudy water is an influx of tiny air bubbles. (But to squelch our paranoia, we're passing our water through the Britta twice.) more ›

In an effort to get people to use the (delicious!) Hetch Hetchy tap water and reduce the amount of plastic water bottle waste, the San Francisco Department of the Environment (SFE) and San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) announced the city plans to install a bunch of water-bottle refilling stations. (In our day, we called those "faucets.") more ›

This past July, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission announced their 'I Love SF Water' video contest. The winner? Alexis van Gelder for her first place video titled Shower Your Garden, which features a woman using the toilet, showering and shaving her legs. There's even a reference to fecal matter. (However, we cannot abide by its advice to avoid flushing. All waste must be flushed. It is non-negotiable.) more ›

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." more ›

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. more ›

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: more ›

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. more ›

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). more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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)
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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." more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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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... more ›

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.... more ›