San Francisco bolsters flood resilience in face of climate change
By Dominic Fracassa
With last week’s heat wave done and gone, replaced by cooler temperatures and rain in the forecast for later this week, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is making the winter rainy season a top-of-mind issue.
Last week, the agency vastly expanded a grant program that reimburses flood victims who want to install improvements like doorway seals, flood gates or plumbing upgrades to lessen or prevent future flood damage from rainstorms. The move served as a prelude to the kickoff Tuesday of the PUC’s RainReadySF initiative, an annual campaign to get out the word about preparing for floods.
The PUC also is working with other city departments to build additional flood-resilience measures into San Francisco’s planning and design codes.
In recent years, the PUC’s annual rain-readiness program has taken on a new sense of urgency as the city focuses on mitigating the effects of climate change. Sea level rise and the persistent threat of stronger winter storms, like the ones last season, make San Francisco’s aged sewer system particularly vulnerable to flooding. Unlike other coastal cities in the state, San Francisco’s sewers collect and treat wastewater and storm runoff in the same system, which means the system can be strained during periods of sustained heavy rainfall.
The PUC has a number of major infrastructure upgrades planned through 2032, including extensive renovations of the city’s water treatment plants, and replacement of sewer pipes. But the rain-readiness campaign is aimed at closing the gap between the city’s efforts to mitigate flooding and what individual home and business owners can do, said PUC General Manager Harlan Kelly Jr.
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