The Water Enterprise delivers water to 2.4 million customers in the Bay Area. From Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, situated in a designated wilderness area inside Yosemite National Park, 170 mile long system of reservoirs, tunnels, pipelines, and treatment plants, the Enterprise delivers water to San Francisco and 28 wholesale water agencies in San Mateo, Alameda, and Santa Clara Counties. This system is most unique in at least two respects : the water delivered from high in the Sierra mountains is among the cleanest drinking water supplies in the nation; and the physical system for delivering this water to the Bay Area is almost entirely gravity fed, requiring almost no fossil fuel consumption at a time when global climate change has become such a concern.
We also distribute water directly to residential, commercial, and industrial customers in San Francisco, Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island through our City Distribution Division. The Water Enterprise's City Distribution Division manages over 1,300 miles of pipeline, thirteen storage reservoirs, eight storage tanks, twenty pump stations, and seventeen disinfection stations.
The Water Enterprise sells water to its 28 suburban wholesale customer agencies organized as the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency (BAWSCA). These agencies represent commercial customers in Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties (including those in Silicon Valley) who, according to BAWSCA, are responsible for over $207 billion in manufacturing output annually, of which $173 billion is generated by industries for which water quality and supply reliability are critical.
The SFPUC 's regional water supply system draws approximately 85 percent of its water from the Upper Tuolumne River watershed. The remaining water supply is drawn from local surface waters in the Alameda Creek and Peninsula watersheds. This Regional Water system consists of over 280 miles of pipelines, sixty miles of tunnels, eleven reservoirs, five pump stations and two water treatment plants.
In addition, the Enterprise manages generation of clean affordable hydroelectric power at O'Shaughnessy Dam which meets almost all of the City and County of San Francisco's annual municipal needs. While the Hetch Hetchy system operates under a "water first" policy, the average 1600 gigawatt hours of electricity generated at Hetch Hetchy supplants other energy sources that might contribute to climate change.
In all, nearly 2.4 million people rely on water supplied by the Water Enterprise to meet their daily water needs. This makes the SFPUC the third largest municipal water agency in California.
The Water Enterprise consists of the following Divisions:
Natural Resources
The Natural Resources Division is responsible for monitoring, protecting and restoring those lands and ecological resources under the management of the SFPUC. Natural Resources is responsible for management of the significant resources within the Tuolumne River, Alameda Creek and Peninsula watersheds, and also reflects the high priority the SFPUC gives to its role as the steward of these natural resources for current and future generations.
Hetch Hetchy Water & Power
The Hetch Hetchy Water and Power system is a conglomerate of six dams, four hydroelectric plants, three reservoirs and almost 170 miles of pipelines and tunnels operated by the SFPUC. Eighty -five percent of San Francisco's drinking water starts out as snow falling on more than 650 square miles of watershed land in Yosemite National Park and the Stanislaus National Forest. As the snow melts, it collects in Hetch Hetchy's three storage reservoirs. The water is pure enough to be exempted from costly water filtration requirements -only a few systems in the country meet this federal government standard.
Water Quality
The mission of the Water Quality Division is to ensure that the SFPUC complies with all current and future water quality regulations and customer expectations through sampling and laboratory analyses, process engineering, applied research, inspections, field service oversight, regulatory reporting and support to treatment plant operations. In addition, the Water Quality Division mission includes analysis of discharges (into the sewer system, Bay and Ocean), assessing environmental impacts, reporting to regulatory agencies, recommending/overseeing any necessary mitigation, and responding to and resolving customer inquiries about the quality of drinking and receiving waters.
Water Supply and Treatment
The mission of the SFPUC's Water Supply & Treatment Division (WS&T) to responsibly maintain watershed lands and reservoirs, water treatment procedures and facilities, and water transmission facilities. WS&T division assumes responsibility for water from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir at the Telsa Portal in San Joaquin County. From there, the water is conveyed through four pipelines to our wholesale customers WS&T operates 63,000 acres of SFPUC watershed property. Over the years, the Division has carefully protevcted these lands that generate water, resulting in outtanding source water quality for our customers. WS&T also maintains 150 miles of pipelines which exist on right-of-ways in urban areas.
City Distribution
The City Distribution Division distributes high quality treated water to San Francisco customers. On average, the City Distribution Division delivers approximately 80 million gallons of water a day to nearly 770,000 people in San Francisco. It structurally maintains the water distribution system within the City, which consists of 13 reservoirs, 20 pumping stations, a network of approximately 1,300 miles of pipeline and 12,000 water valves.
Water Resources Management Division
The Water Resources Planning Section conducts local and regional water supply planning studies to identify new water supplies from groundwater, recycled water and desalination. Services include development of master plans for individual water supplies for implementation on a local and regional level. Additionally, Water Resources Planning coordinates with bureaus and divisions within the SFPUC, other City departments, Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency (BAWSCA), and SFPUC member agencies in the development of these water supply planning studies.
The Water Resources Policy group is responsible for ensuring that (1) San Francisco's water supply and resources interests are represented in several local, state and federal activities and programs and (2) San Franncisco has a grant program to leverage local dollars for implementaion of water projects including capital, water supply and watershed projects. The Water Resources Policy group represents the SFPUC interests in (1) the Bay Area related to regional water resource planning and management (2) the Bay-Delta particularly as it relates to the SFPUC water supply system, bay-delta ecosystem restoration and water quality, (3) inter-relationships of the SFPUC water system with the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project, and (4) grant funding for leveraging local dollars.
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AGM Water Enterprise
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(415) 934-5787
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