San Francisco Shores Up Local Reservoirs For Quake Preparedness
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – San Francisco's water managers say there shouldn't be water access issues in the event of a giant earthquake, now that they've completed billions of dollars in seismic upgrades to local reservoirs such as Crystal Springs Reservoir in San Mateo County.
As part of a $4.6 billion project, Lower Crystal Springs Dam has been raised three feet. The reservoir can hold another three billion gallons of water piped in from Hetch Hetchy, according to Ed Harrington, head of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
KCBS' Doug Sovern Reports:
"We've now created a dam that allows us to store a total of 22 billion gallons of water in San Mateo County, which means that we can serve a lot of our customers should something happen to our pipelines coming down from the mountains," said Harrington.
"It's important not just to San Francisco residents, but it's important to our neighbors through the whole alignment of our water system," said San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee.
He said that the water system crosses three major fault lines, but now he's confident that even in a 1906-sized quake, the water will start flowing again within 24 hours.
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