December 03, 2003

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Shortly after the city temporarily switched the source of its drinking water, resident Jean Slocum had an allergic reaction.

"I came down with a gigantic rash and hives," Slocum said. "Was it a coincidental juxtaposition? I don't know."

The city's drinking water typically originates from the Hetch Hetchy system, but since Nov. 15, it has been coming from two local reservoirs. That's to allow crews to do annual maintenance on Hetch Hetchy, and switch over to a new disinfectant.

A spokesperson for the city's utility company could not rule out the possibility that Slocum's reaction was due to the new water.

"There may be a correlation; there may be not," said public relations manager Linda Clerkson, who noted that the new water is subject to the same safety regulations as the old.

Shortly after getting Slocum's complaint, the city tested the water near her home and found nothing unusual. "It was way within all of the standards," Clerkson said.

Slocum suspects copper sulfate added to the water was to blame for her outbreak. Clerkson said the chemical is added to the water to contain algae blooms, but that it is "resolved" by the time the water is released to the public.

"It's a very, very small amount that's put in in the first place," Clerkson said.

That's small consolation to Slocum. "I know I have allergies and I try to avoid it -- but that's hard when they put it in the water," she said.

Other residents have complained about the taste and odor of the temporary water. The city will revert back to Hetch Hetchy water in early February. --Bill D'Agostino
Go slow on Charleston changes

Initial reaction from City Council members last week on proposed changes to Charleston and Arastradero roads was to be cautious. A staff proposal to reduce through travel lanes from four to a three on both roads (two through lanes and left-turn lanes) was met with some resistance, and some acceptance, from residents.

"My preference is to do something but to move cautiously," said Councilman Vic Ojakian. That sentiment was echoed by other council members.

Changes are being proposed to the Charleston corridor to increase bicycle and pedestrian safety and reduce the speed of motorists, while not increasing travel times. Greater traffic signal coordination can increase the efficiency of the roads even with lane reductions, said Joe Kott, the city's chief transportation official.

Any changes to the two roads will be first trial tested before being made permanent, said Steve Emslie, the city's planning director.

The Planning and Transportation Commission will make recommendations on the Charleston corridor changes at its Dec. 10 meeting, while the City Council is scheduled to make a final decision Jan. 20. --Don Kazak
Stanford, USGS to dig into fault

Stanford and United States Geological Survey scientists will try to figure out the forces at play in the 800-mile-long San Andreas fault by digging an observatory 2.4 miles below ground, the equivalent of more than 12,000 feet deep.

The San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth will be a five-year, $219 million project funded by the National Science Foundation. The observatory will be dug at Parkfield, a small town roughly halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco which has recorded a series of 6.0 earthquakes every 22 years between 1857 and 1966.

The project will be headed by Mark Zoback, Stanford professor of geophysics, and Steve Hickman and Bill Ellsworth of the USGS Earthquake Hazards Team in Menlo Park.

"Faults may rupture at the surface in large earthquakes, but the places where the forces are stored and released are deep within the fault," said Ellsworth. The observatory's "hole will go deep enough to get at the heart of the fault zone, where earthquakes really begin."

After the drilling is completed in 2007, it will be cast in cement to allow insertion of monitoring instruments, while also allowing the collection of deep, subsurface rocks.

Parkfield is already one of the most-studied earthquake areas in the world because of the frequency of more moderate quakes there. The 1985 Parkfield Experiment by the USGS and the state deployed a large number of surface instruments, which continue to record data. --Don Kazak

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