The Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System, operated by the San
Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), provides its 2.6 million
customers with some of the highest-quality water in the country.
It originates as pristine snowmelt and precipitation from
the protected Tuolumne Watershed in the Yosemite National Park wilderness, and
flows into Hetch Hetchy Reservoir’s granite basin for storage.
In fact, waters
collected here so consistently meet and exceed Federal and State standards for
safe drinking water that no filtration is required. (The SFPUC is one of the
few water utility districts in the country to be granted this exemption.)
Hetch Hetchy water makes up about 85% of your tap water,
with the rest coming from Bay Area reservoirs that capture and store rainfall
and runoff from the SFPUC’s Alameda and Peninsula watersheds. Both watersheds
are carefully managed to preserve both the quality of the waters and the variety
of natural habitats that support an abundance of native plant and animal life.
Local reservoir water is treated by one of two state-of-the-art
treatment plants. On the Peninsula, it’s the newly upgraded Harry Tracy Water
Treatment Plant where waters from the Peninsula Watershed’s Lower Crystal Springs, Upper Crystal Springs,
and San Andreas reservoirs are pumped in for disinfection, filtering and
post-treatment before delivery to about 1 million customers. More on those treatment steps in an upcoming
blog.
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