Wastewater master plans are not new to San Francisco. Click here for Timeline. Following construction of the City’s first sewers in the mid 1800s, the first master plan was prepared in 1899 recommended consolidating all the sewers, reducing the number of outfalls and creating design standards of how sewers should be built in the future.
A 1935 master plan recommended the construction of three sewage treatment plants with deep water outfalls into the Bay and Ocean and consolidating sewer discharge locations. By that time the City had installed 700 miles of sewers. The first plant constructed, the Richmond-Sunset Water Pollution Control Plant in Golden Gate Park, went on-line in 1938 and has since been decommissioned. The other two plants, the North Point and the Southeast plants, were built in the early 1950s and are still in operation today.
A third wastewater master plan was adopted in 1974 to bring the City into compliance with new federal and state laws and reduce the number of combined sewer overflows. It resulted in a 25-year capital improvement and construction program that included the upgrade of the Southeast Plant to secondary treatment, and construction of the Oceanside Plant, a 4.5-mile ocean outfall, and the transport/storage boxes along the City’s edge.
Next: frequently asked questions
