We've been lulled into thinking this past year that San Francisco's precious, Sierra Nevada-borne water supply at Hetch Hetchy was under no threat of depleting despite the dought-related suffering that's happening all across the state. But no, we are being affected too.
As we warned you back in April, the SF Public Utilities Commission is moving forward with a plan to start blending a small percentage of local groundwater into the pristine Hetch Hetchy supply that feeds into homes and businesses in the western part of the city.
As the Chron and CBS report, reacting to the drought and the potential for water shortages in the coming years and the current lowered supply in Hetch Hetchy it is at 52 percent of capacity right now and it's normally at 80 percent at this time of year the SFPUC will begin this blending of up to 15 percent groundwater into the supply in late 2016. The water will be taken from a 45-square-mile basin that extends from below Golden Gate Park down the Peninsula, and from where SF used to get its water before the Hetch Hetchy system was built in the 1930s. Unfortunately, on its own, the water has unsafe nitrate levels in it, but blended at 15 percent or below it's apparently just fine to drink.
60 percent of the city will ultimately get this blended water, roughly on the west side of town, but in drought years all of the city will be getting it.
And as part of the PR effort, the SFPUC has gone around having blind tastings of the water, including one with the Chronicle food team.
Wine guy Jon Bonné, restaurant blogger Paolo Lucchesi, and writers Sarah Fritche, Jonathan Kauffman, and Tara Duggan all participated in the tasting, which involved comparisons of the existing Hetch Hetchy water, the blended water with 13.5% local groundwater, and Arrowhead bottled water. In the end the panel was split, with some people liking the new blended water better because it had a few more minerals in the after-taste. Jon Bonné told the PUC what they wanted to hear, though: "It tastes like what you want spring water to taste like."
