Barbara Boxer re-election run looking unlikely

Sen. Barbara Boxer says she has yet to make up her mind about seeking a fifth term in 2016, but there's no shortage of signs that the Democrat may be opting out.

It's not just that she has less than $200,000 in her campaign account, compared with $3.5 million at this stage before her last election fight. Some comments from those who know the 73-year-old senator are also telling.

"She is not running for re-election," said one longtime Democratic fundraiser with deep ties to Boxer, who spoke only on background.

State Democratic Party Chairman John Burton, Boxer's longtime friend and mentor, says she has not informed him of her intentions. But at a Democratic Party fundraiser in San Francisco on Thursday night, co-hosted by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Kamala Harris, Burton told the crowd, "When we meet here four years from tonight, we could be looking at one California governor and one U.S. senator."

Newsom and Harris are merely at the top of what could be a very long list of candidates vying for the Senate seat should Boxer decide not to run.

On the Democratic side, there's billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, outgoing Controller John Chiang and University of California President Janet Napolitano, a former Arizona governor and homeland security chief.

Republicans have had a hard time winning statewide office in recent years, but they've got two potential self-funding millionaires who might well run: Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista (San Diego County) and former business executive Carly Fiorina, who lost to Boxer four years ago.

Dig deep: State and federal agencies have been sent back to the starting line after the draft of the required report on the environmental effects of Gov. Jerry Brown's giant water-diversion tunnels came up short.

The California Department of Water Resources, the federal Bureau of Reclamation, and state and federal fish and wildlife agencies spent three years producing a 45,000-page draft for the federal Environmental Protection Agency to review.

The report said the project would violate federal environmental standards - something that came as a surprise to the heads of some of the agencies that produced it.

At that point, the EPA concluded that the report wasn't clear on how problems caused by the tunnels, which would divert Sacramento River water around the delta for the Central Valley and Southern California, would be mitigated - and kicked the report back for a redo.

All of which means at least another six months of work before the state can even start talking to the Army Corps of Engineers - which has the final say on water projects of this magnitude.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on the final two-plus years of the tunnel-sympathetic Obama administration.

Green acres: It's green versus green out at the pristine Presidio, where a fight is brewing between a popular "green laundry" and park officials who want $86,000 in greenbacks for rent due and damages.

For the past seven years, Bill Alber's SF Green Clean has been operating its eco-friendly service out of Building 222 - a historic 1910 warehouse on Halleck Street in the heart of the park.

One of Alber's laundry machines sprang a leak last year, sending water cascading onto a downstairs tenant and causing about $18,000 damage. Alber says the bill should have been covered by the Presidio Trust's insurance - not his.

Presidio officials counter that Green Clean should not only pay those damages, but tens of thousands of dollars for problems caused by more than a dozen other leaks since 2007.

It was only the latest set-to in a long feud between the Presidio Trust and Green Clean. Among other things, Alber claims park higher-ups reneged on a promise to help him relocate to a quieter section of the park when the Doyle Drive reconstruction turned his part of the Presidio into a dusty mess.

Now his lease has expired, and the park just wants him out.

Despite an arbitration ruling ordering Alber to pack up and leave, Presidio Trust officials say he's refused to go - instead demanding $300,000 in moving expenses and starting a social media campaign that has enlisted more than 300 supporters.

So the trust is threatening to send the U.S. marshals to padlock the place.

"People love the business, but he is not taking responsibility for the damage to the building or the rent he owes us," said trust spokeswoman Dana Polk, who says she's been a customer. "He is not being a good partner."

Alber says he's not giving up - and, despite mounting legal costs, has vowed to take his case to the state Supreme Court if necessary.

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or e-mail matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross