Today marks the one year anniversary since San Francisco enacted its stay at home order in response to COVID-19. Though the general public stayed home, many essential workers continued to report in for work, including hundreds of SFPUC employees to keep water, power and sewer services running 24/7. Since Mayor Breed called a state of…
Category: Response
How Chandini Gaur Began Her First Year at the SFPUC Supporting COVID Response
Time during the COVID-19 pandemic seems to crawl and sprint simultaneously. Last week feels like last year, while the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 seems like it was yesterday. Now imagine serving as a Disaster Service Worker (DSW) in a stressful environment for seven months during the pandemic; that is a very long…
SF’s High-Pressure Water System Helps Put Out 5-Alarm Fire in SOMA/Mission
Earlier this morning, a five alarm fire broke out near 13th Street at Folsom in San Francisco. SFPUC crews were one of the first on-site to respond and support the fire department as they battled the flames. The blaze rapidly grew from a second alarm to fifth alarm fire within minutes. SFFD crews attacked flames…
An Essential Worker & Father’s Message to Wear a Mask
Tomio Nakadegawa is a Chief Stationary Engineer at the SFPUC’s Southeast Water Pollution Control Plant. On March 19, 2020, Governor Newsom issued an Executive Order directing all residents to stay home, except as needed to maintain continuity of operations of essential critical infrastructure sectors. This order included the wastewater sector. For months, Nakadegawa has been getting up each morning…
A Fifth Generation San Franciscan’s Journey in Public Service During COVID-19
“Normal is not how I would describe these times,” said John Scarpulla. During “normal” times, Scarpulla serves as the SFPUC’s Manager of Local and Regional Policy and Government Affairs, where he is the main liaison between the agency, Board of Supervisors, and the Mayor’s Office. On March 5, Scarpulla was activated as a disaster service…
New Financial Assistance Program Helps Small Business and Nonprofits Pay Water and Sewer Bills
With many customers facing the tough reality that the COVID-19 pandemic is not going away anytime soon, and the SFPUC understood the kind of pressures that puts on the business and nonprofit communities as they work to recover. Last week, the SFPUC launched a new program that will provide 20 percent discounts off water and…