CRISIS San Francisco Declares Water Emergency, 5% Surcharge on Users

San Francisco Declares Water Emergency, 5% Surcharge on Users
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Joel B. Pollak24 Nov 2021489

2:33


The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission voted Tuesday to declare a water shortage emergency amid a crushing drought in the state that threatens water supplies throughout the region, slapping a 5% surcharge on water users in the city.

California is in the midst of one of the worst droughts in its history.

The drought from 2011- 2017 was so intense that rainy seasons in 2017 and 2018 barely reversed the damage. Mountain snow in 2020 was not enough to fill the state’s reservoirs.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported:

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission members voted Tuesday to declare a water shortage emergency and adopt a system-wide reduction in water use of 10%.
They aim to get there by asking city residents and businesses to cut water use by 5% and requesting that more than two dozen agencies in Alameda, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties that buy water from San Francisco conserve even more by slashing water use by 14%.

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The declaration requires the city to levy a temporary surcharge on city users’ water bills of up to 5% — the amount they are asking customers to cut — to ensure rates don’t fall below what it costs for the city to operate its water systems. The surcharge will decrease as citywide water consumption goes down to meet the reduction goal, measured against water use during the fiscal year 2019-2020, a time frame chosen before the pandemic. At most, it is expected to add $6 per month to residential customer bills.

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Critics also note that California has done almost nothing to increase reservoir shortage, despite a large budget surplus, and that environmentalists have opposed the expansion of energy-intensive desalination plants, of which there are only a few.

and they want a train instead of a dam............?

scroll through the pictures. it gets worse.


http://instagr.am/p/CWvpjKjPgjp/ View: https://www.instagram.com/p/CWvpjKjPgjp/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

and CA shuts down electricity when it is windy and/or too hot...........and wants electric cars?

Intestinal Fortitude said:

and CA shuts down electricity when it is windy and/or too hot...........and wants electric cars?

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Large parts of California were never what you'd call great on rational thought.

And while I'm on the topic, isn't it awesome that California regulatory boards will suffer no loss in revenue even as they provide less to their constituents?

A dam does no good when there is no water to fill it - now a major project for desalination would help. A better plan would be to pass emergency legislation (no "governor's orders) for a special water tax that ONLY goes to build those plants and as quickly as possible.

There are fairly recent (last 900 years) droughts in the US West and Southwest that lasted decades, sometimes centuries - no one knows how long this one will last, but it would be foolish not to address the problem now.

Otherwise, if this goes on for a few more years, well the first two or three attempts to build a European Village in the Los Angeles area died off from thirst.

There's already a site out near Maxwell. Plan is to take water from the Sacrament River to fill the impound, then pump it out as needed. Bond measure passed a few years back for the water project, but you know politicians...
The water from that river is only gonna end up in the Pacific anyway.

9idrr said:

There's already a site out near Maxwell. Plan is to take water from the Sacrament River to fill the impound, then pump it out as needed. Bond measure passed a few years back for the water project, but you know politicians...
The water from that river is only gonna end up in the Pacific anyway.

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to save a fish that is non native

And an enemy will capitalize on their vulnerability to forest fires. If they haven't already. The Japanese did with a couple of sub launched aircraft attacks and their Fugu balloons.

It's ass a nine, part of the plan to destroy.....sickening..death by a thousand cuts and then some. Really pisses me off the reach the .govs of the states keep taking...I suspect it's happening to a lot of folks as well...as they keep turning up the burner..