San Francisco park floods, upsets residents
SAN FRANCISCO -- Water wasted when the state can least afford it. After the governor asked for cutbacks in water use, some San Franciscans were upset to see standing water and sidewalk runoff in one city park.
At South Beach Park, right by AT&T Park, there is about two inches of standing water in a section of the park. After we brought this to the harbormaster's attention, he promised an immediate fix.
His dog may not mind, but Jeremy Olssen finds the field so sloppy. He avoids it altogether. He told ABC7 News, "It's always wet. A lot of times I'll stick to the sidewalk and go down to the next park."
It's become a common complaint by nearby dog owners during this unseasonable drought, leading to serious questions about where is this water coming from and why is so much of it pooling along the Embarcadero?
"I guess it doesn't make a lot of sense, since they're telling us to cut back on everything else, I guess they should cut back on the grass watering as well," dog owner Nga Chiem said.
Thursday night several folks said they contacted the city about excess watering, only their complaints didn't lead anywhere because South Beach Park is under port jurisdiction, specifically South Beach Harbor.
"It's kind of surprising we're still having trouble," Harbormaster James Walter said.
Walter says they've dealt with irrigation problems in the past, identified by sharp spikes in the water bill. Just a month ago he had a crew come out to inspect the 8-year-old irrigation system. They didn't report anything like this standing water two inches deep. After learning about the problem from ABC7 News, Walter asked the landscaper to shut down the sprinkler system and other crews set up caution tape.
"It's a serious problem, it's not only wasting water that we don't have, it's costing money. I'm a manager, I'm not supposed to do that, so we'll do everything we can to correct it," said James Walter
South Beach Harbormaster
Olssen said his dog, "likes to roll around in the grass. It's better for me if it's dry grass than wet grass."
During this drought, dry grass is better all around.
