San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, California, USA – Exploring Treated Water Augmentation
This is one of two locations for the PureWaterSF Project (see San Francisco: PureWater SF West).
The San Francisco Purified Water Project (PureWaterSF) is a concept that envisions providing new, local drinking water supply in San Francisco. The project would treat secondary effluent sourced from one or both of San Francisco’s all-weather wastewater treatment plants through a multi-stage, multi-barrier advanced treatment process to produce water that meets state and federal drinking water standards.
The treated water would then be blended at one or more of San Francisco’s drinking water reservoirs. This treatment and distribution process is referred to as treated water augmentation, and State regulations enabling this were passed in late 2023.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission led a research project for PureWaterSF, which included data collection and testing from 2018-2020. The project explored how we can treat and reliably produce purified water on a small (building) scale using wastewater generated onsite.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is currently planning a permanent onsite water reuse project at its headquarters that includes a sidestream treatment train, following the current Direct Potable Reuse regulations. It will be used for demonstration purposes, but the product water will be used to meet the non-potable needs onsite. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is also planning for a full-scale demonstration and outreach facility at the site of its future treatment facility.