GAVIN NEWSOM
MAYOR
ANN MOLLER CAEN
PRESIDENT
F.X. CROWLEY
VICE PRESIDENT
FRANCESCA VIETOR
COMMISSIONER
JULIET ELLIS
COMMISSIONER
ANSON B. MORAN
COMMISSIONER
ED HARRINGTON
GENERAL MANAGER
1155 Market St., 11th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103 • Tel. (415) 554-3155 • Fax (415) 554-3161 • TTY (415) 554.3488
October 24, 2009The Honorable Darrell SteinbergSenate President
Pro Tempore
State Capitol, Room 205Sacramento, California 95814Dear Senator Steinberg:I applaud your continued leadership on legislative proposals to address ecosystem andwater supply problems in the Bay Delta. It is vital that we restore the economichealth of the Central Valley and begin the process of restoring the environmentalhealth of the Delta.We believe it is in the best long-term interests of San Francisco and the Bay Area’swater reliability to achieve a statewide solution to the Delta crisis.Our agency and others opposed the package that emerged at the end of session onSeptember 11, because we believed the bill created a new state regulatory authorityover our local water system, asking Bay Area water customers to finance a state watersystem that does not benefit them, after having paid for the repair and safety of theirown system. We are proud of the extraordinary work being done at the local andregional level to finance and support our recent Water System Improvement Program(WSIP), a $4.3 billion seismic retrofit of a system that delivers 265 million gallons of water per day to 2.5 million people in five counties.In this context of responsible stewardship, we were heartened that legislators, who amonth ago had expressed strong arguments that the legislation would not affect SanFrancisco Bay Area water supply or rights, began to sit down with San Francisco todiscuss our concerns and incorporate changes that can be a part of the overall Deltacrisis solution. San Francisco has always been willing to contribute funding or waterto aid the failing Delta ecosystem, but costs and contributions should be assessedequitably, transparently and in proportion to a city’s impact on the Delta and thebenefits it receives from any new infrastructure.Mayor Gavin Newsom and his staff, with the SF Public Utilities Commission, haveworked closely with legislators, legislative staff and environmental interests inSacramento to support an amended bill that addresses San Francisco’s concerns withthe original bill. Those negotiations have now concluded and we believe, based on thenew proposed language, that we have achieved a fair solution to the issues raised.We now remove our opposition of SB 68 and support the legislation.
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