Public Comment

If you haven’t taken a walk around downtown Berkeley and neighborhoods in the last few weeks, please do so as soon as possible. The drought is taking a toll on our mature trees and young trees too. While we work hard to decrease our water usage and stop watering, the fallout is dying mature trees and the number is rapidly increasing. The impact can easily be seen on McKinley behind the Police Station at 2100 Martin Luther King Jr Way and along many streets and even on UC Berkeley Campus. If you are one of the conscientious citizens conserving water, you may have drought stressed trees and dying trees in your own yard and/or neighborhood.

This situation brings us to rain water capture, gray water reuse. The climate scientists tell us we can expect perpetual drought with an occasional wet year. Climate change with increasing temperatures is accelerating and it is critical that rainwater capture and gray water reuse is included in all new construction from first design and not an inadequate gesture as an after thought from public pressure.

Two large buildings under review have the potential for significant rainwater capture should those desired rains ever come. The Center Street Garage in a normal rain year would have over 500,000 gallons of rainwater for potential capture. 2211 Harold Way would have over 400,000 gallons of rainwater for potential capture. 100% rainwater capture is not realistic, but certainly the proposed 7500 gallon cistern at the Center Street Garage and promised 20,000 gallon cistern at 2211 Harold Way are wholly inadequate. 

Capturing rainwater is not only a smart response to drought, it also reduces the load on the fragile sewer system which is already noted as inadequate with problems popping up at BHS (Berkeley High School) and Shattuck Hotel. The EBMUD letter in the 2211 Harold Way FEIR (Final Environmental Impact Report) on pages 31-34 coupled with the BUSD (Berkeley Unified School District) and BHS responses to the FEIR noting back up of sewage on the athletic field puts warnings in writing. Connecting an 8” lateral from the proposed 2211 Harold Way project to a 12” main doesn’t solve the sewer problem. It just means that all the sewage from the expected Harold Way occupants estimated to be somewhere between 500 (developer) and 1200 (community experience of packing students in to meet the market rate-luxury pricing) will get all building sewage into the overstressed sewer system. 

On Friday, August 28 as the 2211 Harold Way site tour sponsored by Save Shattuck Cinemas rounded the corner onto Allston Way, they were met with the unpleasant sewage smell and a construction hole in search of the broken sewer pipe. It is apparently fixed now, but it is yet another warning that infrastructure needs fixing before more stress is added. 

The much enjoyed book fair over the summer received support from City Council for a repeat next year. Why aren’t we planning multiple fairs for the community on rainwater capture, gray water reuse and renewable energy? Citizens could benefit in learning how to update their existing homes and it looks like the developers, architects, builders and contractors need this even more than the public. Conservation and renewable energy is not just the right thing to do, it is sound economics for the future. And, of course, we need to make sure our infrastructure is in order, before we add more stress