July, 2008

San Francisco’s Sewer System in Line for a Make-Over

By Alex Lantsberg

This year almost 20 inches of rain will fall on San Francisco.  Most of it will land on City streets, where it’ll mix with road waste and flow into a 900-mile network of pipes, pumps, and treatment plants before being discharged into the bay or ocean.  With clean water increasingly scarce, the San Francisco Public Utility Commission (SFPUC) is currently developing a Sewer System Master Plan, with the goal of creating a more environmentally just and sustainable water use system.

The planning process for the $3.5 billion Master Plan began six years ago, after the San Francisco Sustainable Watersheds Alliance (SWAle, formerly the Alliance for a Clean Waterfront) and other environmental groups persuaded SFPUC that it needed community participation as part of Plan development to win public support for the extensive investment needed to rebuild the City’s wastewater infrastructure.

The draft Plan contains a number of innovative proposals, including rebuilding portions of the Southeast Treatment Plant – which processes 80 percent of the City’s sewage – reducing sewer discharges into the Bay and the Pacific Ocean by nearly half through plumbing changes and “green infrastructure” projects such as vegetated swales, permeable pavement, stormwater harvesting, and green roofs; and implementing a stormwater treatment and retention program that will retain and reuse rain water.

While many of the proposals, which were prompted by years of community effort, reflect good progress towards a most sustainable future, more needs to be done.  For example, environmental advocates are calling for inclusion of measurable goals for the green-infrastructure program; more wetlands and habitat restoration; and a stronger commitment to water recycling.

Over the next year the SFPUC will hold a series of hearings and outreach meetings to further refine the Plan.  For more information visit www.sfsewers.org, or sign-up for the SWAle action alert list:  alex@sfswale.org.