16
SEWER SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM | Grey. Green. Clean.
TREATMENT
Southeast Treatment Plant
For several years we’ve provided up close and personal public tours of the Southeast
Treatment Plant , which consistently receive rave reviews for giving residents a peek
behind the curtain and to see, and smell, what happens after you flush.
With construction ramping up, and to ensure public
and worker safety, we are curtailing our public tours
program until the bulk of our construction is done.
We have been preparing for our tours to go on
hiatus and prepared The Story of Poo for students
and youth to learn more. We’re also developing
new videos to help explain the amazing work of
our wastewater treatment plans and the staff who
operate them.
Our SSIP Phase 1 investments will bring our facilities
up to seismic standards, improve efficiency, enhance
reliability, and prepare us for the challenges that
we’re already experiencing with climate change and
sea level rise. These efforts not only help to maintain
our standard of civilization but the investments
strengthen our communities and our economy. Our
vision is to transform San Francisco’s oldest and
largest all-weather treatment plant into a state-of-
the-art resource recovery facility that is a source of
pride for our staff, our ratepayers, and all who live,
work, and visit San Francisco.
During the period of this report we made major
strides in advancing the critical projects at SEP that
have been prioritized into Phase 1. Construction
was completed on upgrades to the Primary and
Secondary Clarifiers, which remove solid particulates
from liquid for thickening. As part of these
improvements the Primary Clarifiers were all covered
addressing some odor concerns, while eight of the
sixteen Secondary Clarifiers were retrofitted. The
Progressive Design-Build team for the Distributed
Control System (DCS) Upgrades, which will implement
modern computerized and automated technology
across the sewer system, continued coordination
this year with operations staff and as new projects
come online. Other priority projects at SEP include:
Oxygen Generation Plant (Liquid Oxygen facility),
Existing Digester Gas Handling, and 521/522 and
Disinfection Upgrades all made significant progress
in their construction and will be completed in 2019.
The Designs for Seismic Reliability and Condition
Assessment Improvements that address seismic,
conditional, and operational issues associated with
the existing facilities, were completed in 2018 and will
go into construction in 2019.
New Headworks Facility Project
One of our two largest projects, the New Headworks
Facility Project, began construction activities this
past year by setting up staging, which included
erecting security fences and trailers. As a reminder,
Headworks is where all wastewater flows converge,
and is the first step in the wastewater treatment
process where debris (such as baby wipes, which
should not be flushed) and grit (like sand and gravel)
are removed from wastewater at the beginning of
the treatment process. The Headworks project is
arguably the most complex in the SSIP since the
facility must remain in operation during construction
of the new facility, which will also occupy the same
footprint. To tackle these complexities Headworks
has been divided into three distinct scopes: