SFPUC completes new seismic upgrades to Harry Tracy Water Treatment Plant

April 13, 2015
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission of California has announced the completion of a $278-million project to improve the seismic and operational reliability of the Harry Tracy Water Treatment Plant, located in the city of San Bruno.
SFPUC and partners celebrating the completion of the Harry Tracy Water Treatment Plant.


SAN FRANCISCO, CA, April 13, 2015 -- The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) of California has announced the completion of a $278-million project to improve the seismic and operational reliability of the Harry Tracy Water Treatment Plant, located in the city of San Bruno. The 43-year-old treatment plant is responsible for treating the drinking water for more than 1 million customers in San Mateo and San Francisco Counties.

The project is part of SFPUC's $4.8-billion Water System Improvement Program, which consists of 83 projects across seven counties designed to improve seismic and water supply reliability for 2.6 million people in the Bay Area (see "SF Nears End of $4.8M Improvement Program"). The largest part of the construction was a new 11-million-gallon treated water reservoir. During design, the discovery of the Serra Fault trace directly beneath crucial portions of the plant prompted a significant redesign of the project to relocate and completely rebuild the reservoir in its current location.

"The goal of the project is to provide 140 million gallons of water per day, for 60 days, within 24 hours of a major earthquake," said Daniel L. Wade, director of the Water System Improvement Program. "These plant upgrades, including the new treated water reservoir, have been seismically designed and reinforced to withstand a magnitude 7.9 earthquake on the nearby San Andreas Fault."

Harlan L. Kelly, Jr., general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, added, "The completion of each of these critical seismic projects helps ensure that we'll meet our goal of delivering water within 24 hours of a major earthquake. This particular treatment plant treats approximately 19 billion gallons of water stored at Crystal Springs Reservoir. More than one million residents on the Peninsula would not have access to this supply after an earthquake without these important upgrades."

Accordingly, Nicole Sandkulla, CEO of the state-authorized Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency, also explained, "Many of the communities on the Peninsula receive nearly 100 percent of their water from the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System, and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is more than 160 miles away. The investments being made in this system today will make local Bay Area communities more resilient and able to more quickly recover after an earthquake."

Both the ongoing $4.8-billion Water System Improvement Program and the 24/7 operations and maintenance of the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System are funded through the retail and wholesale customer rates.

See also:

"SFPUC announces completion of $340M Hetch Hetchy water tunnel project"

"SF Water System Improvement Program achieves over 7 million safe working hours"

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