The City is poised to approve a $14 million, three-year contract to buy 27 million pounds of bleach, a good portion of which will be poured into The City’s sewer systems to prevent San Francisco from smelling during the summer — or at least prevent it from smelling worse.
The bleach is injected at three major points in The City, primarily during warmer months, to help control sewer odor: around Bay Street and Embarcadero, in the Mission Creek area and in the Rich Read More
Determined park advocates have been encouraging the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to seriously consider alternatives to building a recycled-water treatment facility in Golden Gate Park.
In response, the SFPUC requested plausible alternatives, and now it has narrowed a long list of suggestions to six possible sites near Lake Merced and the San Francisco Zoo parking lot. Read More
San Francisco’s ambitious effort to sign a deal with an energy provider to compete directly with PG&E has failed for a second time in the past year, forcing The City to scale back its plans for public power.
This week, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission officials revealed that the four companies that submitted bids to run The City’s energy program, known as CleanPowerSF, "failed to meet minimum qualifications and minimum proposal requirements." Read More
The nonprofit Skyline Stables, evicted last year from its hillside home of 60 years to make way for a crucial upgrade to a water treatment plant, is hoping to find greener pastures in a nearby location.
Supporters are salvaging the last of their equipment from the 13 acres they had leased from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission as the agency prepares for construction in March on major improvements at the adjacent Harry Tracy Water Treatment Plant. Read More
While almost everyone in San Francisco receives electricity from PG&E, future residents of Hunters Point might realize the longtime dream of public-power aficionados by receiving cheap energy directly from The City. Read More
San Francisco wants to save millions of dollars a year in cleaning up sewers clogged from fats, oils and grease thrown down the drains by restaurants.
Legislation before the Board of Supervisors City Operations and Neighborhood Services Committee would require food serving businesses to install specific equipment to catch the waste. Read More
In late 2007, Mayor Gavin Newsom announced that every diesel-powered vehicle owned by The City — 1,500 in all — had been converted to run on a 20 percent biodiesel blend.When it came to environmental protection, Newsom said, “San Francisco is demonstrating leadership and commitment on every front.” But while Muni buses and Department of Public Works trucks still sport biodiesel stickers like little feathers in San Francisco’s green cap, they are not all using the fuel. Read More
There is a list of 11 criteria the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission considered when it decided it wanted to build a recycled water treatment facility at its dilapidated wastewater plant site in Golden Gate Park.But several environmental and neighborhood groups recently started raising concerns about the aesthetics, violating the park’s master plan and allowing the industrious facility in their historic urban backyard. Read More
Power from the San Francisco-owned Hetch Hetchy system is providing electricity for the redevelopment of the shuttered Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.
Eventually the hydroelectric power, which is generated from the Hetch Hetchy dam in Yosemite, will power the new homes and offices in the area. Read More
Mayor Gavin Newsom has nominated retired California State Senator Art Torres to serve on the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. His 20-year legislative experience will bring extensive experience in environmental, natural resource, consumer and labor issues to the SFPUC, Newsom said. Read More
