Ground broken on California's largest UV water treatment plant (26/05/09)
Mayor Gavin Newsom joined San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors Chairman Leroy Ornellas, California Public Health officials, regional labour leaders and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) recently to break ground on what will be California’s largest ultraviolet (UV) water disinfection facility when completed in 2011.
The $112 million project will use state-of-the-art UV disinfection technology to further protect the water supplies of 2.5 million Bay Area residents and create hundreds of thousands of jobs for building and construction trade workers in San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties.
‘Today we break ground on more than just an innovative major new water treatment plant,’ said Mayor Newsom. ‘Today we begin a new partnership between the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley that will bring the latest technologies to protect our water supplies and create thousands of good jobs in San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties at a time when they’re urgently needed.’
The new Tesla Water Treatment Facility will use state-of-the-art UV treatment equipment to provide advanced disinfection for Bay Area drinking water from the Hetch Hetchy regional water system serving 2.5 million customers. The facility will treat as much as 315 million gallons of water per day (mgd) – making it the largest UV water treatment plant in California.
‘This new ultraviolet water treatment facility will be the largest in California and one of just a handful currently in the United States,’ said SFPUC General Manager Ed Harrington. ‘It will add another advanced level of protection to our water quality and ensure we continue delivering great water to our customers.’
‘San Francisco’s water projects in the San Joaquin Valley will benefit both your water customers and our residents,’ said San Joaquin County Board of Supervisor Chair Leroy Ornellas. ‘Hundreds of thousands of hours for our skilled workers over the next several years represent a significant economic boost for this area. Thank you for your active outreach to small businesses in this region to involve them in your construction activities.’
This project is the first of many water infrastructure improvement contracts that the SFPUC will undertake in the San Joaquin region, including San Joaquin pipeline improvements and facilities. The projects are expected to create thousands of jobs and 900,000 ‘craft hours’ of carpentry, painting, concrete, roofing, electrical, pipefitters, heavy equipment operation, masonry, trucking and hauling and other trades in San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties. The Tesla Treatment Facility Project is one of 85 projects within the SFPUC’s Water System Improvement Program (WSIP), to repair, replace and retrofit aging pipelines, tunnels, reservoirs and other water delivery facilities. Overall, these projects will generate about 11 million craft hours and 28,000 jobs throughout the greater Bay Area and the Central Valley in the next five years.
‘Infrastructure programmes like the SFPUC’s Water System Improvement Program are the key to restoring economic vitality to California,’ said Carl Goff, Vice President of Operating Engineers Local 3. ‘On behalf of all organized labour in the construction trades, we are committed to doing our part to support and encourage investment in our infrastructure, and job training and skills development for the next generation of construction labour.’
