Features

Bay Area Briefs

Thursday October 10, 2002

Oakland car tricks continue 

OAKLAND – A Highland Hospital spokesman said a young man is in stable condition Wednesday after a south Oakland sideshow accident in which his car spun out of control, knocked down a small tree and then smashed into a telephone pole. 

The accident occurred only a few hours and a few miles apart from a separate incident in which alleged sideshow participants fired upon, but missed, a police officer as stopped their car for traffic violations. 

 

Water system on the brink 

SAN FRANCISCO — If a major earthquake hits the San Francisco Bay area and harms the Hetch Hetchy water system, the region could face an economic loss of more than $28 billion, the Bay Area Economic Forum reported. 

The report released Tuesday said the Hetch Hetchy system’s service disruption could leave customers without water or with severely rationed supplies for as long as two months. 

The group, which is an umbrella group of local government, business, labor and education representatives, encouraged adoption of a proposed $3.6 billion project to rebuild and expand the Hetch Hetchy waterworks that brings water to Bay Area residents. 

The Hetch Hetchy system, completed in 1934, is a 167-mile network of pipelines that collects and transports Tuolumne River runoff to the Bay Area. In 2000-01, it delivered nearly 260 million gallons of water per day to 29 water districts and 2.4 million residents and business customers.