Conflagration Redux: Public Safety Redlining

Preliminary Mitigated Negative Declaration. Whatever that means.

Public Notice went out Wednesday, October 29th. I have embedded that notice below because I want people to know about this, one way or another, and to comment and participate in this process, one way or another.

“Project Description:

A PMND has been prepared by San Francisco Planning in connection with this project as required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to study the project’s potential physical environmental effects.

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is proposing construction of the Westside Potable Emergency Firefighting Water System project (project), which would add a dual-purpose, earthquake-resistant high-pressure water transmission pipeline within existing public streets to provide both fire protection and redundancy for potable water conveyance to western San Francisco.

The project would include installation of approximately 16 miles of belowground pipeline and associated appurtenances. In addition, improvements would be installed at existing SFPUC facilities as follows: 1) pump station upgrades at the Lake Merced Pump Station; and 2) two new emergency pump stations at the existing Central Pump Station/Merced Manor Reservoir and at Sunset Reservoir. The project would be designed and constructed in phases as funding becomes available, with construction over approximately 15 years from 2026 through 2040. The project would extend generally from Lake Merced in the south to Lincoln Park and the Presidio in the north, generally bounded by Park Presidio Boulevard and 19th Avenue on the east and the Great Highway on the west. More information from the SFPUC may be found at: www.sfpuc.gov/emergencywater.”

San Francisco Planning, Public Notice, October 29, 2025

The most obvious question that comes to mind is whether or not this is a sufficient seismically resilient firefighting water system to deliver water for fighting fires after a massive earthquake (a.k.a The Big One)?

Sincerely, I do not think so. I have written previously about the glaring absence of Auxiliary Water Supply System (AWSS) in the western and southern neighborhoods of San Francisco — Conflagration! and Follow the Fire Hydrant Money. SFPUC has attempted to foist a combined emergency firefighting and potable water transmission system before.

“As with any good story about bad decisions, there is always someone willing to add insult to injury. In this case, quite a number of someones. Not only have 112 years passed but in the last 15 years the voters of San Francisco have passed three Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response (ESER) capital bonds and yet, nary an AWSS hydrant in any of those 15 aforementioned neighborhoods, certainly none in The Sunset where I live.”

Conflagration! Though The Heavens Fall, John Crabtree

I guess the SFPUC would prefer that I and everyone else just forget about that history. But I don’t think that I will. I understand that I have to do my due diligence and review the combined potable and emergency firefighting water system proposal that they have brought forward this year, and I will.

However, there is no way that any of us should ignore 15 years of mismanagement of at least $312 million in bond revenues. SFPUC has never embraced or even accepted the mission of expanding AWSS coverage to the western and southern neighborhoods where it is lacking. They have squandered the ESER capital bond funds attempting to perpetrate a fraudulent shell-game on San Francisco taxpayers because they would rather spend their time and the resources available to them to on replacing things like aging potable water mains.

That shell-game has gone on ever since 2010 when Governor Gavin Newsom, who was the mayor of San Francisco then, transferred the authority over the city’s AWSS from SFFD to the SFPUC. The city, and SPFUC especially, needs to understand that the residents of the westside will, for as long as it takes, enter processes such as this one with a skepticism born of decades of deception and neglect.

When government draws a line around a district or a community and refuses to provide a public service that is afforded other districts, there is a word for that. When public and private financial institutions have done the same to people seeking home ownership mortgages it is called redlining. Is it really any different when a city does the same thing with doling out public safety? I certainly do not think so — Public Safety Redlining.

Armed with well-deserved skepticism I will set about figuring out if this new SFPUC plan is worth the paper it is written on. I encourage all of my readers to do the same. There is much at stake because “The Big One” is coming, we cannot know when, but it is coming. We should do everything possible to hold SFPUC’s and the city’s feet to the fire on this matter or fire is what we will all see in the end.

As always, your thoughts on this proposed project as well as the Planning Department’s Preliminary Mitigated Negative Declaration are welcome and most appreciated… john