Supervisors approve revenue bonds for water system improvements

February 15, 2006

By Angela Hokanson, Bay City News Service

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved the issuance of up to $525 million in water revenue bonds by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to finance the next phase of improvements to the Hetch Hetchy water system, the SFPUC reported.

The revenue bonds will finance design, engineering, environmental review and construction work on seismic repair and improvement projects to the water system over the next 18 months.

"Seismic repairs and major improvements to the Hetch Hetchy water system are under way and now we are working to accelerate that work in every possible way," said SFPUC general manager Susan Leal. "The board's authorization to issue these voter-approved revenue bonds will keep the program to rebuild and improve the Hetch Hetchy system on track.''

The funding will go toward the more than 70 seismic repair and improvement projects in San Francisco and around the Bay Area that are part of the $4.3 billion Water System Improvement Program.

The projects include the SFPUC-East Bay Municipal Utility District Emergency Intertie in Hayward, the Sunset Reservoir in San Francisco, and the Lincoln Way Transmission Main in San Francisco.

Voters in San Francisco gave the SFPUC the authority to issue revenue bonds to fund the capital improvement program for the Hetch Hetchy system in 2002, the SFPUC reported.

The bonds will be repaid over 30 years through money received from SFPUC retail customers in San Francisco and from 28 wholesale customers around the Bay Area who purchase water from the Hetch Hetchy water system.

Drinking water is delivered through the Hetch Hetchy system to more than 2.4 million Bay Area residents in the counties of Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara, according to the SFPUC.

The Board of Supervisors also approved the sale of up to $125 million in additional bonds to refund and refinance past debt issuances, according to the SFPUC. This sale will save the SFPUC Water Enterprise $4 million on a net present value basis.

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