PG&E is asking the city to pay just over $1 million after a huge sinkhole incident last year in San Francisco’s Union Street shopping district.
The incident could cost the city up to $7 million in claims from local residents and businesses in the Cow Hollow neighborhood after a cavernous hole opened up at the intersection of Fillmore and Green streets on Sept. 10, sending mud and water surging downhill and flooding properties.
The city has received 46 claims related to the incident, which was caused by a broken water main installed in 1949.
The utility company's bill to the city totals $1,067,987.75. It has yet to be approved by the City's Attorney's Office, which supplied The Standard with an incomplete breakdown of all the sinkhole claims the city received.
The Board of Supervisors is expected to approve around $7 million to cover all the claims of damages related to the incident, which affected some 43 residential and commercial properties, according to Jen Kwart, a spokesperson for the City Attorney’s Office.
“Our claims investigators were on the scene almost immediately, offering resources and information about remediation,” Kwart wrote previously in an email. “We are proposing this settlement ordinance to expedite the settlement process and ensure those impacted by the incident receive prompt payment.”
Kwart added that about two-thirds of the claims are below $25,000, while three are in the six figures.
The City Attorney's Office and PG&E have yet to provide details requested by The Standard on the damages PG&E is claiming as a result of the sinkhole
The claims come on the heels of a historic rate hike by the utility, which raised customers' rates by 13%—around $34.50 for the typical gas and electricity customer—starting Jan. 1.