The contractor demolishing Candlestick Park temporarily halted work on the project Friday amid an uproar over its use of millions of gallons of drinking water to douse the dust from the massive rubble during California’s punishing drought.
But it now appears public health regulations limit Lennar Corp. in its ability to use recycled water instead of drinking water on the project. A San Francisco Public Utilities Commission spokesman said Friday he was not clear when he told this newspaper earlier that Lennar could have used water trucked in from a city sewage treatment plant less than 2 two miles away.
The newspaper published a front-page story Friday in which residents and water conservation activists called the company’s use of pristine water from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir “reprehensible.”
But on Friday afternoon, SFPUC spokesman Tyrone Jue said the utility notified Lennar last fall “that state law prohibits the use of recycled water in aerial spraying to control dust,” because of health concerns. Most of the water being used in the project is being sprayed from high elevations, though not all of it.
Jennifer Clary, who monitors San Francisco water use for the watchdog group Clean Water Action, earlier this week called Lennar’s use of potable water for dust control “outrageous.” On Friday, she said she still believes Lennar should be seeking, and the SFPUC should be enforcing, use of recycled water for anything other than aerial spraying.
“Aren’t they under the same requirements we are to restrict water use?” Clary said, adding Lennar should still have to explain why journalists saw standing pools of water at the Candlestick work site. “It’s not easy for any of us to restrict water use, and it shouldn’t be easy for them either.”
http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_28124880/san-francisco-puc-reverses-course-says-recycled-water