Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/556412
ByKristinJ.Bender TheAssociatedPress SAN FRANCISCO Public urination has gotten so bad in San Francisco that the city has painted nine walls with a repellent paint that makes pee spray back on the offender. It's the latest effort to address a chronic problem in a city where the head of public works calls himself Mr. Clean: Walls are coated with a clear, liquid repel- lent material that goes on much like paint. Any urine that hits it splashes back on a person's shoes and pants Mohammed Nuru, direc- tor of San Francisco's pub- lic works department, says offenders will need to make the mistake only once to get the idea. "If you have to go," he said, "go in the right place." Nuru got the idea from Germany, where walls in Hamburg's St. Pauli quar- ter are painted with the material to encourage late- night beer drinkers to find a bathroom rather than an alleyway. Public urination has long been a problem in San Fran- cisco, where a light pole cor- roded by urine recently fell on a car. The city appears to be the only one in the na- tion using Ultra-Ever Dry from a Florida-based com- pany, and it's already re- ceiving a stream of queries about the product's success. "We are getting calls from all over the place: Washington, D.C., Hawaii and Oakland," said Nuru, who Tweets under the han- dle @MrCleanSF. Potential offenders get fair warning about the con- sequences of urinating on the coated walls that sit on public and private property around the city. Signs hanging above some walls read: "Hold it! This wall is not a public re- stroom. Please respect San Francisco and seek relief in an appropriate place." Other efforts also are un- derway to stop or curb pub- lic urination. Solar-powered toilets roll through city streets several afternoons a week, atten- dants are manning public toilets to encourage peo- ple to use them, and city crews will check thousands of light posts to make sure they won't topple. Public urination is a health concern, and keep- ing the city clean is a 24-7 battle, said Kevin Sporer, superintendent of the build- ing repair bureau. The new paint is paying off. "There's a lot less activ- ity, and the result is notice- able," Sporer said. Public urination is ille- gal, but a fine of up to $500 passed in San Francisco in 2002 has seen little success. On a recent weekday, res- ident Jon Kolb was in a pub- lic transit plaza in the Mis- sion district, where crews recently painted a low wall with the liquid repellant paint. Kolb said he believes the idea is a good one. He has seen people who sleep in the plaza become visibly upset when others do their busi- ness on the walls. "People will actually get violent about it," Kolb said. But will the paint really be a deterrent? "It would be to me," he said. The paint and the labor to apply the material have cost the city only a few hun- dred dollars, as opposed to the $80 an hour to steam clean walls and sidewalks. Since January, there have been 375 requests to steam clean urine from sidewalks and other areas. But that's a 17 percent drop in the past year. Another addition is atten- dants in a few of the 25 green Pit Stop public bathrooms around San Francisco. They clean and restock supplies and make sure people don't use drugs or sleep inside the restrooms. "We want people to have clean and safe bathrooms, so having an attendant there has made all the dif- ference in the world," Nuru said. "We want everyone to become educated. Don't unzip. Hold it, and use the bathroom that is available." Meanwhile, the pub- lic utilities commission is checking the city's 25,000 light posts for corrosion and other problems and re- placing the ones that need it. This comes amid a recent tumble of a three-story-tall light post that was old, cor- roded with a likely mix of human and dog urine, and weighted down by a large banner. CHRONIC PROBLEM Sa n Fr an ci sc o us es p ai nt to fight public urination ERICRISBERG—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A sign above a wall asks people to hold it outside a Mission District transit station in San Francisco. The Associated Press FRESNO Tons of rain- bow trout had to be res- cued from a Central Cal- ifornia fish hatchery and moved by truck to cooler lake water, sparing them from the state's relentless drought, wildlife officials said Wednesday. About 80,000 pounds of trout were scooped up from the San Joaquin Hatchery near Fresno and hauled 30 miles uphill to Shaver Lake in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Temperatures in Millerton Lake, which flow through into the hatchery on the San Joaquin River, had reached nearly 70 de- grees, threatening the trout's survival, The Fresno Bee reported. "The drought is hav- ing a devastating effect," California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokes- man Andrew Hughan said. "We're really making an ef- fort to save as many fish as we can and get them into cold water before it gets any warmer." The first round of trout was shipped by wa- ter tanks to Shaver Lake on Wednesday. Another 50,000 pounds of trout will be moved to surround- ing lakes in Fresno and Madera counties. This marks the first evacuation of fish from the San Joaquin Hatchery be- cause of the drought. Other California hatcheries have gone through the process two years in a row. In June, wildlife officials trucked millions of young Chinook salmon from a hatchery near Redding to the San Francisco Bay 200 miles away. The drought depleted rivers that the mi- gratory fish normally travel to the Pacific Ocean, wild- life officials said. Wildlife officials also in June scooped up en- dangered Coho salmon and threatened steelhead trout struggling to survive in dwindling tributaries to the Russian River in So- noma County. Information from: The Fresno Bee, http://www. fresnobee.com DROUGHT Tr ou t tr uc ke d fr om h at ch er y to cooler water of Sierra lake By Scott Smith The Associated Press FRESNO A 67-year-old man fought off a black bear that attacked him on his porch Thursday as the state sees an uptick in encounters, likely a re- sult of California's relent- less drought that's send- ing bears into populated areas to forage for food, officials said. The man, who stepped outside in the pre-dawn hours, probably startled the bear feeding on bags of trash about 20 feet from the man's door, said Lt. Chris Stoots of the Cal- ifornia Department of Fish and Wildlife. The man lives in Midpines, a foothill com- munity west of Yosemite National Park. "Anyplace you have a lure for a bear, you're go- ing to likely have a bear," Stoots said. After standing on his porch for a few minutes, Stoots said, the bear at- tacked the man from be- hind, knocking him down. The man, whose name was not released, struggled to fight off the bear and re- turned inside his house before driving himself to a hospital. He was bitten and scratched on his arms, legs and stomach, but able to talk with investigators, Stoots said. Such attacks are rare, but he said that black bear encounters statewide are on the rise, likely because of drought. He said black bears are increasingly roaming into cities and ur- ban areas in search of food and water. Investigators found bags of trash ripped open near the man's door, he said. A search continues for the bear, which will likely be euthanized due to the significance and persis- tence of the attack, Stoots said. The Mariposa County Sheriff's Office is warning residents to watch their children and pets, and dial 911 if they encounter a bear. YOSEMITE Man fights off black bear attack "We want people to have clean and safe bathrooms, so having an attendant there has made all the difference in the world. We want everyone to become educated. Don't unzip. Hold it, and use the bathroom that is available." — Mohammed Nuru, director of San Francisco's public works department Paramásdetallesllameal1-800-660-6789 • 詳情請致電 1-800-893-9555 NOTICE OF EVIDENTIARY HEARINGS REGARDING PACIFIC GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY'S 2015 GAS TRANSMISSION AND STORAGE REQUEST (A.13-12-012 / I.14-06-016) * Tentatively scheduled September 1, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. at the address below: California Public Utilities Commission Courtroom State Office Building 505 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, CA 94102 BACKGROUND ON THE 2015 GAS, TRANSMISSION, AND STORAGE RATE CASE PG&E is requesting a revenue requirement increase of $555 million for 2015 over the currently authorized level for 2014 of $731 million for a total of $1.286 billion. PG&E also requests additional base revenue requirement increases of $61 million for 2016 and $168 million for 2017. The application requests that the CPUC authorize the increase to maintain and further modernize PG&E' s g as transmission system. PG&E proposes to allocate costs to each customer class for operation of transmission and storage. PG&E will use the requested revenue to improve PG&E's gas transmission and storage system, in accordance with Senate Bill 705, which governs California's new gas safety standards for all pipeline operators. PG&E's comprehensive safety plan includes: • Replacing older pipelines that could pose risks in case of land movement. • Continuing to test pipelines that have not previously been strength tested. • Continuing to control deterioration to avoid underground leaks. • Installing more automated safety valves that quickly turn off the flow of gas in an emergency. • Inspecting the interior of more pipelines to spot hidden flaws. • Lessening the risks associated with pipelines close to levee and water crossings. • Maintaining underground gas storage facilities that help PG&E meet peak-hour demand. • Modernizing infrastructure control systems, databases and risk analysis programs. EVIDENTIARY HEARINGS In accordance with the Assigned Commissioner and Administrative Law Judge's (Judge) Ruling, parties will notify the Judge on August 14, 2015, whether or not hearings are necessary.Hearings on the main case were held earlier this year.This hearing will address overlap issues between orders adopted in D.15-04-024 and PG&E's application. At the evidentiary hearings noted above, PG&E and other formal parties to the proceeding will present their evidence through testimony and will be subject to cross-examination before a Judge. The hearings are open to the public, but only those who are formal parties are permitted to present evidence and/or cross-examine witnesses. After considering all proposals and evidence presented during the formal process, the Judge will issue a proposed decision which may accept PG&E's proposal, modify it or deny it. The Commissioners may also issue alternate decisions based on the record. The proposed decision and any alternates will be acted upon at a CPUC Voting Meeting where the Commissioners will decide whether to adopt the proposed or an alternate decision. CPUC PROCESS As a party of record, the Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA) reviewed this application. ORA is the independent consumer advocate within the CPUC with a legislative mandate to represent investor- owned utility customers to obtain the lowest possible rate for service consistent with reliable and safe service levels. ORA has a multi-disciplinary staff with expertise in economics, finance, accounting and engineering. For more information about ORA, please call (415) 703-1584, e-mail ora@cpuc.ca.gov or visit ORA's website at http://ora.ca.gov/default.aspx. If you would like a copy of PG&E's application filing and exhibits, please write to: PG&E, GTS Rate Case 2015 (A.13-12-012), P.O. Box 7442, San Francisco, CA 94120.A copy of PG&E's filing and exhibits are also available for review at the CPUC, 505 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102, Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. - noon. PG&E's filing (without exhibits) is available on the CPUC's website at www.cpuc.ca.gov/puc. Please note: The Commission Courtroom is wheelchair accessible. If you wish to attend and need specialized accommodations, please contact the Public Advisor's Office (PAO) at least five business days prior to the hearing date. Any changes to the dates, times, and locations of the hearings will be posted to the CPUC's Daily Calendar. If you would like to follow this proceeding, or any other issue before the CPUC, you may use the CPUC's free subscription service. Sign up at: http://subscribecpuc.cpuc.ca.gov/. If you would like to learn how you can participate in the proceeding, or if you have informal comments or questions about the CPUC processes, you may access the CPUC's PAO webpage at www.cpuc.ca.gov/puc and click on "Public Advisor" from the CPUC Information Menu.You may also contact the PAO as follows: Write: CPUC Public Advisor's Office, Room 2103 505 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, CA 94102 Email: public.advisor@cpuc.ca.gov Phone: 1-866-849-8390 (toll-free) or 1-415-703-2074 TTY: 1-866-836-7825 (toll-free) or 1-415-703-5282 *NOTE:The CPUC has tentatively scheduled Evidentiary Hearings (EHs) at 10 a.m.September 1,2015. To confirm the proceeding's date and time please go to the CPUC's website at www.cpuc.ca.gov/puc. FacebookPage 4,244fans + 80 this week .. and growing, every week! Daily News Facebook fans receive special posts of breaking news, sports, weather and road closures, clicking right to full stories and photos published on redbluffdailynews.com ... 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