Upgraded Treatment Plant’s Performing Better than All Standards

The District’s multi-year, major wastewater treatment plant upgrade has resulted in substantial improvements in capacity and processing limits and the quality of water discharged to the San Francisco Bay.

Here are a few examples:

• Suspended solids in treated wastewater are at about one-third of the allowable level, or half the level prior to the upgrade.
• Biological oxygen demand, which is monitored to ensure that oxygen remains available for animals living in the Bay, has also been cut in half.

In addition to the vastly improved treatment performance, the plant costs less to operate.

Plant Meets Extreme Storm Test Successfully

The epic rainfall over the weekend of October 23rd and 24th, 2021 raised flows into the District’s treatment plant about 900% above average. The flow was at a rate of 11 million gallons per day for up to eight hours straight. The newly upgraded plant managed the exceptional high flows well with no problems.

District Lab Ensures Environment is Protected

Each year our lab completes over 4,200 analyses related to permit compliance and pro­cess control, and contracts out 133 more complex analyses to ensure compliance with the District’s water quality permit.

The lab technician provides important quality data to the operations staff daily to operate the treatment plant effectively and demonstrate compliance with strict permit requirements to regulatory agencies.