Labor Day Holiday Construction Hours

PPSU Project Will Close Whitman Way for Pipeline Work

Beginning as early as Thursday, September 3, Whitman Way will be closed between Shelter Creek Lane and Courtland Drive from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for back filling and repaving across Whitman Way as part of the Peninsula Pipeline Seismic Upgrade (PPSU) Project. Whitman Way will reopen at the end of each work day at 3:30 p.m. 

Whitman Way will be closed during the following time periods: 

· Thursday, September 3 and Friday, September 4

· Tuesday, September 8 through Friday, September 11 

· Monday, September 14 through Friday, September 18

During this closure, all traffic will be detoured to San Bruno Avenue via Shelter Creek Lane, Madison Avenue and Crestmoor Drive. For more information and updates about this closure, please call the 24-hour answering service at (866) 973-1476 or subscribe to this blog to receive project updates.

The full closure of Whitman Way anticipates starting as early as Thursday, September 3 inside the orange rectangle pictured above.

The PPSU project includes seismically upgrading three Hetch Hetchy regional water delivery pipelines located in Northern San Mateo County. This project will ensure the pipelines can continue to deliver water to customers after an emergency. 

Treatment of Locally Stored Peninsula Water Keeps Quality High

The just upgraded Harry Tracy Water Treatment Plant features a new and seismically resistant 11-million-gallon treated water reservoir, along with three new ozone generators and five new filters. 

The improved San Bruno facility now has the capacity to provide 140 million gallons of water per day for 60 days within 24 hours of a major earthquake—enough to supply nearly one million people during that time.

On an average day, Harry Tracy treats about 35 million gallons of water that have been pumped up from storage in the Peninsula Watershed reservoirs below. Within only an hour or so, the raw water undergoes disinfection by ozone, isolation of the solids, filtration and finally post-treatment at the new treated water reservoir. 

The first stop is the ozone station, where this oxidant quickly eats away bacteria and other microbes along with inactivating viruses. Ozone also aids in taste and odor control.

Chemicals are now added to induce particles in the water to coagulate. As the water circulates through a series of rectangular open-air basins, the solids keep merging into increasingly larger clumps called “floc.” 

These are removed in filtration, when the flocculated water passes through two layers-- anthracite (a hard natural goal) and then sand.  (The five newly installed filters raise the plant’s total number to 15.)

Finally, the filtrated water goes to our new treated water reservoir for fluoridation, disinfection, and corrosion control. Now it is ready for distribution to customers in northern San Mateo and San Francisco counties.

The new treated water reservoir rests on 50- to 70-foot-deep pilings, and the entire plant is now capable of withstanding a 7.9 magnitude earthquake. 

PPSU Completes Construction at Millbrae Project Site

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has finished construction at the PPSU Project’s construction area in Millbrae. Construction at this site started in August 2014 and the contractor has successfully replaced and seismically upgraded more than 950 feet of aging pipeline.

The project team is thankful to the community for their continued patience and partnering spirit throughout construction. These upgrades are critical to ensuring a reliable water supply to millions of Bay Area residents, even after an earthquake. We couldn’t have completed it without your support!

While construction is complete in Millbrae, we encourage you to continue your subscription to this blog or call the 24-hour answering service with any questions to stay informed about Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System.

Thank you!

Construction Notice: Regional Groundwater Project to Begin 24-hour Well Drilling in Colma

On Monday, August 10, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission's (SFPUC) Regional Groundwater Storage and Recovery (GSR) Project will begin preparing the Colma Boulevard site for construction activities. Beginning as early as Monday, August 17, the GSR Project will begin drilling a new groundwater well that will be 690 feet deep near Colma Boulevard in Colma. Please reference the map below for the exact location.

24-hour well drilling work near Colma Boulevard anticipates starting on  

Monday, August 17 inside the blue rectangle pictured above. 

Once well drilling begins, work will occur continuously for 24-hours a day for up to one month in duration. To minimize noise impacts, the contractor will monitor noise levels and install sound blankets to ensure the levels do not exceed the local noise ordinance.  During night work, the contractor will rotate construction lighting to direct it away from properties near well drilling activities. 

Our Drinking Water: Some of the Best in the Land

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.   

Regional Groundwater Storage & Recovery Project to Begin Drilling in South San Francisco

Beginning as early as Wednesday, July 15, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s Regional Groundwater Storage and Recovery (GSR) project will begin drilling a new groundwater well to a depth of 620 feet deep at Garden Chapel Funeral Home in South San Francisco.

24-hour well drilling work will occur continuously for up to one month inside the blue rectangle pictured above. 

To minimize noise impacts, the contractor will monitor noise levels and install sound blankets to ensure it does not exceed the local noise ordinance. During night work, the contractor will rotate construction lighting to direct it away from homes near well drilling work. 

Questions?

For more information about this project, please call the 24-hour answering service at 866-973-1476, or visit the Project webpage at sfwater.org/GSR.