The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) operates two of the 37 wastewater treatment plants across the region that discharge into San Francisco Bay. Our plants operate under federal and state permits. As climate change alters conditions in the bay, we are actively participating in a coalition of wastewater utilities , regulators, and scientists studying the bay and assessing the level to which nutrients, including nitrogen, should be reduced to protect the health of the bay. This is a regional issue, and it requires a regional approach. Leading on Nutrient Removal Even before

Up and down California, when it rains, urban storm runoff picks up trash and contaminants as it flows untreated into the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco Bay, and other bodies of water. San Francisco, however, doesn’t do that. While other coastal cities in California have separate sewer and stormwater systems, most of San Francisco is served by a combined sewer system . This combined system provides greater environmental benefits because it captures and treats most stormwater to the same high standards that apply to wastewater from homes and businesses before releasing it to the bay or ocean

If you’re looking for a way to learn about job options and gain career experience, you’re in the right place. We provide career opportunities and training to residents from our local communities. These programs offer opportunities to earn a salary while learning the skills necessary to succeed in high demand careers within the City and County of San Francisco. We partner with unions, the City and County of San Francisco, and other stakeholders to support apprenticeships and pre-apprentice training programs in the skilled trades. These programs are critical to ensuring a skilled and reliable

With climate change, it’s important to better understand the frequency and strength of precipitation events and how they may affect inland flooding. San Francisco undertook a unique collaboration between a municipality, climate scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and climate consultants at Pathways Climate Institute to create a research team that focused on a better understanding of future precipitation events through climate modeling. Using supercomputing resources at LBNL’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, the research team found that the effect of