The Hayward Rogers Fault
Some, so called Supervisors, our failing Department of Building Inspection - joined by others who are mandated to appear - at the "dog and pony" press conferences - with the Mayor Edwin M. Lee spewing - hot air and diatribe - about doing something - in China Town - where buildings lack the basic - seismic retrofits.
Talk is cheap - action speaks volumes - again and again when this City and County has had major catastrophes - those talking too much - are no where to be found.
The Office of Emergency Services in San Francisco - is a JOKE.
I say that because I have been monitoring the the City and County of San Francisco since before 1989. In 1989 we had a major Earthquake and this City and County of San Francisco - has its hands tied.
At that time we had no Office of Emergency Services - the City and County failed miserably - in 1989.
Sixth U.S. Army and Presidio of San Francisco came to the rescue of the City and County of San Francisco. Addressing all the major impacts - mostly in the Marina District - where the impact was mostly felt. The Mayor at that time was Mayor Art Agnos.
Today, in San Francisco we have thousands of homes in the Sunset - sitting on poor foundations - most on sand - that will topple down like matchstick boxes - if we experience an earthquake - a magnitude 6.9 and above.
More on a fault like the Hayward fault that is closer to San Francisco and last experience a major earthquake in 1868 - said to register at 7.0 :
https://web.stanford.edu/dept/EHS/prod/general/erprep/documents/1868_Hayward_Earthquake_Retrospective_000.pdf
Experts have been talking about this fault - that has been very active - and so far has send out some quakes -lasting for short times - but all the same - getting - stronger.
We in San Francisco must be concerned because a large earthquake will surely impact those areas in San Francisco - that the Department of Building Inspection has empirical data on - but does not have the resources - nor the man power to do a good job - addressing urgent seismic retrofits.
As I said thousands of homes - sitting on poor foundations - more sand - will topple down - mostly in the Sunset area. We know about this - and we talk a lot - but it has been years and no one is addressing this emergency situation - on a war footing.
Distance from San Francisco - epicenter.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is playing with fire - having failed to address the serious concerns at Mountain Tunnel closer to the Hetcy Hetchy Reservoir.
Right now Mountain Tunnel is in jeopardy. The SF Public Utilities Commission has heard the concerns - the General Manager hears the concerns, the Mayor Edwin M. Lee hears the concerns - but there is no Blue Print to address the concerns. More there is no plan - with time-lines in place to address the urgent - issues at hand.
The Irwington Tunnel that has some very serious problems with its huge pipes - deep under ground pipes - that were compressed - by pressure from the water and related factors.
Most importantly the Calavares Dam where millions have been spent - with very poor engineering - and glaring pitfalls.
Failure to address - previous faults - from previous earthquakes - knowing that the faults were there somewhere - lacking the boring holes - which is one way to find out - where the faults - really were.
Bottom line -right now if the Hayward Rogers Creek Fault - activates - all of the above infrastructure.
All critical to the delivery of clean drinking water to San Francisco and the neighboring region - some 2.4 millions customers - will be adversely, impacted.
I have been bring this to the notice of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission for many years.
Recently, Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency (BAWSCA and others have been addressing the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission about Mountain Tunnel and related issues - the pleas falling of deaf ears.
www.bawsca.org
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) turns the matter to the inept, shallow, and misinformed - SFPUC staff - who will be caught with their hand in the cookie jar - as they have before.
Mother Nature has a way to inform us about bigger things to come.
The recent drought has forced greedy landowners who operate huge agriculture fields - tapping into the ground water - expanding millions of gallons of water a day.
Depleting the watershed has severe consequences and trigger tremors and quakes - a prolonged tremor is a quake.
We will see more of this soon - as if saw a few months ago - not too long ago - in the Napa area.
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