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Feature Wastewater System Overview Items
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Nearly one million residents, businesses and visitors rely on the City’s sewer system to remove our wastewater and stormwater and protect public health and the surrounding marine environments.
Please see the System Map to learn about the City’s sewer system.
Here is an image of wastewater at various stages of the treatment process. The beaker on the left is what we receive at one of our treatment plants, the one in the middle is once the primary treatment is completed, and the third beaker is cleaned water sent back to the bay or ocean.
Every time you flush your toilet, wash your dishes and clothes, or take a shower, your wastewater empties through pipes in your home into San Francisco’s combined sewer system. Each day more than 80 million gallons of wastewater is collected and transported to treatment plants, where pollutants like human wastes, oil and pesticides are removed before reaching the San Francisco Bay and Pacific Ocean. In fact, every six days, San Francisco generates enough wastewater to fill a football stadium from top to bottom!
Currently, all wastewater and stormwater is transported through over 1,000 miles of pipelines and tunnels under the City, to 20 pump stations, several force mains, and ultimately to three wastewater treatment plants. Wastewater is treated at these plants to remove harmful pollutants, and the treated and cleaned wastewater is then transported through large pipes – or “outfalls” into the Bay or Ocean.
San Francisco’s hilly terrain reduces the need to use electrical and mechanical pumps to move wastewater, providing cost savings. It also creates an eastern or “Bayside” and western or “Westside” division in the wastewater system.
