The system upgrade, which has a price tag of $4.4 billion, will pay for improvements throughout the whole system. According to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the projects scope includes repairing, replacing, and seismically upgrading the system’s deteriorating pipelines, tunnels, reservoirs, pump stations, storage tanks, and dams. The program is funded by a bond measure that was approved by San Francisco voters in November 2002 and includes more than 80 projects throughout the service area – from San Francisco to Hetch Hetchy – to be completed by the end of 2015.
According to the SF Gate the project will have significant water recycling and water conservation efforts as well.
The study focused on keeping deliveries to 265 million gallons per day - the current amount - until at least 2018. The aims are twofold: limit water drawn from the ecologically sensitive Tuolumne River watershed; and press the regional water agencies to conserve and recycle water.This project should be a boon to local employment as well. It is covered by a project labor agreement that requires that 50 percent of the craft hours are worked by local residents. I know the staff that is implementing the agreement and have faith that the project will meet its water supply, environmental and workforce goals.
To meet that goal, however, the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency, which represents the 27 South and East Bay contractors, would have to cut water consumption by 25 million gallons per day. Under the original plan, those agencies had to cut use by 15 million gallons per day. San Francisco would be required to conserve or recycle 10 million gallons per day, the same total in the proposal's first draft.
