The PureWaterSF project is a research project that explores how we can treat and reliably produce purified water on a small (building) scale using wastewater generated onsite. For this project, the SFPUC will be taking approximately 80% of the recycled water currently produced by the constructed wetland treatment system called the Living Machine™ at the SFPUC headquarters. The PureWaterSF process will further purify this water, bringing it to a level that is expected to meet or exceed drinking water standards. Data from this process will be collected and analyzed, and the water produced will

Welcome to the Discover Your Watershed Mapping Project of San Francisco Every person lives in a watershed. A watershed is an area of land from which all stormwater drain to a shared body of water. In San Francisco, we have eight distinct urban watersheds, three on the Westside where stormwater flows towards the Pacific Ocean, and five on the Bayside where stormwater flows towards the San Francisco Bay. This project is intended to help foster a connection between you and your watershed, a natural resource worth exploring. Click on the map to explore the past, present and future of our

Learn how our Biosolids program recycles nutrients from wastewater into a high quality fertilizer that helps reduce water use, pulls carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, and improves California’s farm soils.

What is green infrastructure? We partner with plants and soil to slow down and clean stormwater. Green infrastructure takes advantage of the natural processes of soils and plants to slow down and filter stormwater in an effort to keep it from exceeding the capacity of our sewer system. Examples of Green Infrastructure

We protect our beautiful San Francisco beaches. We love this beautiful city and we live, work and play here, too. We all want clean beaches, and we take seriously our responsibility to protect and monitor our city’s shorelines. We partner with the SF Department of Public Health to collect water samples from beaches in SF every week, year round, and test them for bacteria levels to ensure they meet state standards for water recreation. We share our methods and publish our findings on a public map. See our real-time map of San Francisco Beach Water Quality Get more details on how we monitor our

San Francisco's Public Power Utility For over 100 years, Hetch Hetchy Power has generated clean, 100% greenhouse gas-free electricity for San Francisco. We power municipal services such as Muni and San Francisco General Hospital, redeveloped neighborhoods like The Shipyard, and some large developments such as the Salesforce Transit Center. We're proud to provide nearly 20% of the City's electricity with clean Hetch Hetchy Power. Whether you’re a developer interested in Hetch Hetchy Power or an existing residential customer looking to save money on your electricity bill, or simply wanting to

We promote the exploration of new ways to conserve water, recover resources, and diversify our water supply. Through our Innovations Program, we encourage testing of forward-thinking ideas. We partner with the community, industry, developers, technology vendors, and others who play key roles in ensuring the long-term sustainability of San Francisco. The Innovations Program is exploring several innovative efforts, including: Atmospheric Water Generation (AWG) : We are testing AWG technology that extracts water from the air to produce water fit for irrigation and drinking. In May 2023, we

We protect, store, and utilize our local groundwater, which is a critical resource for our city. Groundwater is an essential part of our state and national water supply. In fact, 80 percent of Californians depend on groundwater for all or part of their drinking water, and this has been true for generations. Where Does Groundwater Come From? While surface water supplies are visible in reservoirs, you can’t see groundwater. As rainfall and surface water slowly move downward beneath the ground surface, it collects deep underground in the spaces found between rocks, gravel, and sand. Geologic

We must use this precious resource more than once. Recycled water is a dependable, local supply that can be used for non-drinking demands such as irrigation and toilet flushing. Using recycled water for non-drinking purposes allows us to use the right resource for the right use. Our programs foster the use of recycled water to help meet non-drinking demands while enabling us to conserve drinking water and address emerging water supply challenges. What is Recycled Water? Recycled water is wastewater that has been carefully treated to be safe for a variety of non-drinking uses. Our recycled