How will the city fill the fire hoses during the big earthquake?

By Adam Shanks

Examiner team writer

Is San Francisco ready for the next big event?

Another major battle over the city’s infrastructure centers around the auxiliary network of high-pressure water pipes designed to put out fires that pose a formidable danger in the aftermath of the great earthquake.

A small but enthusiastic group of activists is pushing the city to step up its efforts to expand this pipeline and ensure there is enough water to feed them. They claim that a plan recently released by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission may fail to avert disaster because it would limit the western side’s water supply only from fresh water sources, such as Lake Merced, rather than investing in costly infrastructure to draw water from the sea.

City officials counter that withdrawing water from the Pacific would be too costly, difficult to allow, and not necessary to provide adequate protection. They chart a different path, which they say offers the same firefighting capability at a lower cost.

The plan has not been fully funded, and the Public Utilities Commission, which oversees the system, has not yet determined where the money will come from.

Westside activists are warning that they will get a second-tier version of the protections already enjoyed by residents of San Francisco’s northeast corner.

It’s a battle with no fixed deadline, as no one is sure when the next earthquake of the 1906, or even 1989, scale will shake San Francisco.

Those calling for strict precautions imagine a city on fire once again, unable and unwilling to take advantage of the endless supply of water that surrounds it on three sides.

“We have to get all the water we might need so we don’t get burned again,” Nancy Werfel, among the community’s most vocal advocates, told the Board of Supervisors committee during a hearing to discuss the PUC’s plan in April.

Gordon Marr, the San Francisco superintendent, who represents the Sunset District, has committed to pushing officials to find ways to fund the expansion of the emergency firefighting system.

But in a city with competing and cumbersome infrastructure needs, he will have to make a compelling case.

The Public Utilities Commission’s more conservative plan to cover the rest of the city, which would bypass seawater and primarily draw from Lake Merced for emergency firefighting, would cost an estimated $4.1 billion to complete by 2046. The cost of building a system that draws seawater from the west side It would be $5.7 billion.

Such an argument would likely center on the assumption that no matter how much it cost to build a complex network of pipes and water supplies to fill it, repairing damage from a severe earthquake and subsequent fires would likely cost more.

The US Geological Survey estimates that there is a 72% chance that the next earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or greater will occur in the next 30 years. (For reference, the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake that killed 67 people and caused more than $5 billion in damage was 6.7.)

A significant source of damage in 1906 was not from vibration, but subsequent fires. The earthquake split the water and gas lines, leaving the city a powder keg while cutting off its means to put out the flames.

A large fire hydrant on High Street that is part of the San Francisco Fire Department’s auxiliary water supply system. Built in 1909 in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake to provide reliable, high-pressure water for firefighting in the aftermath of the earthquake, the system never extended into the western and southern areas of the city. (Kevin N. Hume/The Examiner)

the system

Built in the years immediately following the 1906 earthquake, the city has an additional water system consisting of about 135 miles of high-pressure pipes designed to withstand the earthquake, ensuring a continuous supply of emergency water.

It relies on fresh water supplies stored in more than 200 cisterns and reservoirs, backed by two East Bay seawater pumping stations that have only been used twice – once in 1983 during maintenance and a second an hour after the 1989 earthquake.

But it’s not just about fighting fires after a natural disaster – high pressure pipes are tapped about 10 times a year to fight major fires.

The problem, as highlighted in a 2019 report by the city’s civil grand jury, is that emergency fire-fighting water supplies mostly serve the northeastern quarter of the city.

That report appealed to the city “to take immediate and resolute action to expand and strengthen our defenses against the inevitable fires in the aftermath of the earthquake before it is too late.”

“All parts of the city – north and south, east and west, rich and poor, downtown and residential neighborhoods – deserve to be well protected against these catastrophic risks,” the report stated.

In response to the report, the Board of Supervisors declared a state of emergency and tasked the city with developing an action plan to expand the emergency firefighting water system.

City officials are working to expand reliable fire coverage to unprotected areas of the city.

In contrast to the city’s existing auxiliary water system—which serves one purpose in fighting fires—the plan for the new system calls for an emergency potable water system. During normal times, these tubes would be used as conveyance tubes for drinking water, but would automatically depressurize in the aftermath of an earthquake. The pipes will return to normal pressure and provide drinking water after the fires are put out, according to the PUC. The emergency firefighting system with drinking water will be similar to the system used in Tokyo, Japan, and has proven to be effective.

“It’s one of the few places in the world with the seismic challenges and intensity that San Francisco has,” John Scarpola, director of local, regional and government policy and government affairs at PUC, explained during the hearing.

The city will add to its existing supply of potable water to be able to meet emergency water demand.

“This system operates and meets fire requirements across the city in a robust manner,” Scarpulla said.

But those fighting for equal protection for the west side note that the PUC’s plan does not call for a completely separate water supply as the northeastern corner of the city can count on.

“You can’t put all your eggs in one basket,” Werfall said.

Activists also hope that PUC will install new pumping stations that can take advantage of the endless supply of salt water located next to Ocean Beach, rather than relying on potable water sources.

But the cost of installing two such wells would be prohibitive, according to the city, and the process of allowing them in California could take decades. It will be built in a quicksand tsunami zone, and the corrosive salt water cannot be allowed to stagnate in the pipes.

The Southern Basin of the Sunset Reservoir, seen empty in July 2019. The reservoir is one of several supplies of fresh water the SFPUC is calling for firefighting reliance. (Theophile Larcher / Examiner)

City officials believe Lake Merced, along with smaller backup drinking water sources, is sufficient to cover the western side.

The PUC report notes that Lake Merced “has an estimated stockpile of 1.7 billion gallons, providing an essentially unlimited supply for firefighting.”

Some of the city’s plans are funded through voter-approved bonds, but many are not. Implementing a more expensive version, by pulling out of the ocean, would only exacerbate the funding challenge.

But for Wuerful, the cost is well worth it.

“Which projects are more important than saving lives, property and businesses with proven technology and unlimited sea water, conserving locally stored drinking water for hospitals, human uses and sanitation?”

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