The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is a public agency of the City and County of San Francisco that provides water, wastewater, and electric power services to the city. The SFPUC also provides wholesale water service to an additional 1.9 million customers in three other

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

counties.

Functions

The SFPUC manages a complex water supply system consisting of reservoirs, tunnels, pipelines and treatment facilities and is the third largest municipal utility agency in California. The SFPUC provides fresh water from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and other sources to 2.7 million customers for residential, commercial, and industrial uses. About one-third of its delivered water is sent to customers within San Francisco, while the remaining two-thirds are sent to customers in Alameda, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties. The SFPUC has been an clean power provider for more than 100 years, when it began generating hydro power for the construction of the O'Shaughnessy Dam. The SFPUC Power Enterprise includes two power programs: Hetch Hetchy Power and CleanPowerSF. Hetch Hetchy Power generates and delivers 100% greenhouse gas-free energy to more than 6,300 customer accounts, including municipal buildings and facilities, such as San Francisco General Hospital,

San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport is the primary international airport for the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. Owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco, the airport has a San Francisco mailing ...

, schools, libraries and the Muni transit system. Hetch Hetchy Power also provides electricity to some commercial and residential developments, including affordable housing sites. The SFPUC also administers and operates CleanPowerSF, a Community Choice Aggregation program within the guidelines of California State law. Together, the SFPUC’s two power programs meet over 75% of the electricity demand in San Francisco. In 2023, CleanPowerSF and Hetch Hetchy Power collectively saved customers more than $170 million on electric bills compared to for-profit utility PG&E. The SFPUC manages an extensive wastewater system that collects, conveys, and provides secondary treatment to combined sewage flows (both stormwater and sewage) within the City & County of San Francisco before discharging it into the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The Southeast Water Pollution Control Plant handles about 80% of the city's wastewater, while the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant handles the remaining 20%. A third facility, the North Point Wet-Weather Facility, only operates during wet weather to provide primary treatment to combined sewage prior to discharging to the San Francisco Bay.

Historical origins

From the mid-19th Century, much of the

Alameda County Alameda County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and 21st most populous nationally. The county seat is Oakland. A ...

watershed was owned by the Spring Valley Water Company (SVWC), a private enterprise which held a monopoly on water service to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. In 1906, William Bowers Bourn II, a major stockholder in the SVWC, and owner of the giant Empire Mine, hired Willis Polk to design a "water temple" atop the spot where three subterranean water mains converge, from the Arroyo de la Laguna and

Alameda Creek Alameda Creek () is a large perennial stream in the San Francisco Bay Area. The creek runs for from a lake northeast of Packard Ridge to the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay by way of Niles Canyon and a flood control channel. Along its course, ...

s, the Sunol infiltration galleries, and a 30-inch pipeline from the

artesian well An artesian well is a well that brings groundwater to the surface without pumping because it is under pressure within a body of rock or sediment known as an aquifer. When trapped water in an aquifer is surrounded by layers of Permeability (ea ...

field of Pleasanton. Municipal efforts to buy out the SVWC had been a source of constant controversy from as early as 1873, when the first attempt to purchase it was turned down by San Francisco voters because the price was too high. Other sources claim that as one born into wealth and classically educated, Bourn was partially motivated by a sense of civic responsibility. Prior to completion of the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct in 1934, half of San Francisco's water supply, approximately 6 million gallons per day passed through the Sunol temple. The SVWC, including the temple, was purchased by the city of San Francisco in 1930 for US$40 million. In 1932, a new city charter was adopted which established the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. At the time of its formation, the commission was responsible for the

Hetch Hetchy Project Hetch Hetchy is a valley, reservoir, and water system in California in the United States. The glacial Hetch Hetchy Valley lies in the northwestern part of Yosemite National Park and is drained by the Tuolumne River. For thousands of years before ...

San Francisco Municipal Railway The San Francisco Municipal Railway (SF Muni or Muni ) is the primary public transit system within San Francisco, California. It operates a system of List of San Francisco Municipal Railway lines, bus routes (including Trolleybuses in San Franc ...

, Water Department, and

Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

. The Airport was later transferred out of the SFPUC to the newly formed Airport Commission in 1971. Similarly, in 1994 the Municipal Railway was moved out to the separate Public Transportation Commission.

Structure and leadership

The SFPUC is headed by a board consisting of five Commissioners, who are nominated by the

Mayor of San Francisco The mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of the Government of San Francisco, San Francisco city and county government. The officeholder has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either appro ...

and confirmed by the

San Francisco Board of Supervisors The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the board of supervisors, legislative body within the government of San Francisco, government of the San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco in the U.S. state of California. Government and polit ...

. Each of the five Commissioners is chosen according to criteria set forth in the San Francisco City Charter:

Seat 1 on the Commission shall be a member with experience in environmental policy and an understanding of
environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement that addresses injustice that occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has gene ...
issues. Seat 2 shall be a member with experience in ratepayer or consumer advocacy. Seat 3 shall be a member with experience in project finance. Seat 4 shall be a member with expertise in water systems, power systems, or public utility management, and Seat 5 shall be an at-large member.

The Commission meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month. Their responsibility is to provide operational oversight in such areas as rates and charges for services, approval of contracts, and organizational policy. The board appoints a General Manager as the chief executive of the SFPUC, with each division headed by an Assistant General Manager (AGM). The six divisions are: Business Services, External Affairs, Infrastructure, Power Enterprise, Water Enterprise, and Wastewater Enterprise.

Controversy

Then-SFPUC director Harlan Kelly resigned on November 30, 2020, charged with accepting bribes from a contractor. Kelly's trial began in June 2023. Kelly was convicted in July 2023 of felony bribery and bank fraud and sentenced to four years in prison.

Environmental sustainability

With the goal of improving

sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

and the city of San Francisco's goal to become a "zero emission city" by 2030, the SFPUC is implementing a number of projects in all of its core businesses: water, power and sewer. * Water: SFPUC is applying a "Water System Improvement Program" (WSIP) to manage a wide range of projects focusing on the optimization of pipelines, pump stations and water tanks usage. * Power: SFPUC is generating and providing different typologies of clean energy (hydroelectric, solar and

biogas Biogas is a gaseous renewable energy source produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste, Wastewater treatment, wastewater, and food waste. Biogas is produced by anaerobic ...

) for municipal services and citizens needs. Moreover, in collaboration with Paradox Engineering is seeking to exploit street light pole developing an integrated infrastructure with the specific scope of monitor the usage of urban services, optimize the power consumption and consequently reduce waste. * Sewer: SFPUC is applying the "Sewer System Improvement Program" (SSIP) to manage a wide range of projects that includes optimization of pump stations and

wastewater treatment Wastewater treatment is a process which removes and eliminates contaminants from wastewater. It thus converts it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once back in the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on ...

processes. In addition, SFPUC has applied over $50M of funding to pilot and are constructing various Low Impact Designs (LID) through their "Early Implementation Projects" to test if LID features such as bio-retention systems or creek daylighting projects would reduce the volume of stormwater that would be collected, conveyed and treated. By reducing the stormwater flows to the

plants, energy consumption may be reduced. SFPUC is equally committed to environmental justice causes and will address sewage flooding at many flood-prone neighborhoods in San Francisco: (1
Cayuga Avenue
(2) Alemany Circle, (3) Folsom and 17th Streets, (4) Toland Street, (5) Foerster Street, (6) Urbano Dr and Victoria Street, (7) Wawona Ave and 15th Ave. The low-lying areas of San Francisco along the San Francisco Bay is vulnerable to periodic flooding from runoff and wastewater during winter storms. Continued land subsidence,

sea level rise The sea level has been rising from the end of the last ice age, which was around 20,000 years ago. Between 1901 and 2018, the average sea level rose by , with an increase of per year since the 1970s. This was faster than the sea level had e ...

, and urban growth in hitherto industrial neighborhoods will continue to challenge the runoff and sewage collection and conveyance system.

References

External links

official website
{{authority control 1932 establishments in California Government agencies established in 1932

Public Utilities A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and r ...

Hetch Hetchy Project Public utilities of the United States Water management authorities in California History of the San Francisco Bay Area Energy in the San Francisco Bay Area Water in California Water companies of the United States Government of Alameda County, California Government of San Mateo County, California Government of Santa Clara County, California