Implementing an Interactive Stakeholder Engagement Program

Nationwide, utilities are grappling with aging infrastructure, and San Francisco is no exception. Our combined sewer system is 100 years old. It is crucial that we upgrade our system now, before it becomes a threat to our public health. Routine repairs are not sufficient to keep pace with our aging and seismically vulnerable infrastructure. It is important to invest now in larger capital improvements to avoid more costly emergency repairs, potential regulatory fines, and greater impacts on our communities. The longer upgrades are delayed, the more expensive they become. Our sewer system was not built to withstand a major earthquake or impacts of climate change, such as intense rainstorms that overwhelm our sewer system, as we treat both sewage and stormwater runoff.

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is implementing the Sewer System Improvement Program (SSIP) after eight years of master planning and gathering extensive public feedback along with expert third-party analyses. The SSIP is a 20 year multi-billion dollar citywide investment required to upgrade our aging sewer infrastructure, making it more reliable and seismically stronger now and for generations to come. Public outreach and stakeholder engagement and coordinated communications Is important to the implémentation of the SSIP. Ultimately, the SSIP is directly related to ‘”buy-in” of ratepayers. Ratepayer education, engagement, and support throughout the SSIP’s lifecycle are vital to accomplishing these necessary improvements. Engaged residents and businesses become champions for the program in their neighborhoods and across the City, therefore, it is important to involve residents and businesses, from the early stages of the program.

SSIP stakeholder engagement was initiated when the Program was validated in August … This report highlights the key activities undertaken and the response received in educating the public about the urgency and importance of this infrastructure investment. Stakeholder engagement has been fully embraced by the SFPUC since the initial master planning effort for the sewer system improvements. This effort would not have happened without the wholehearted endorsement by project managers (who incorporate community relations as an important element of delivery), executive leadership (who lead by example and are directly engaged with residents) and the external affairs and communications management (who are open to new idea and provide consistent direction).