Southeast Water Pollution Control Plant

The Southeast plant is where most of San Francisco's sewage goes, and the record around it is a long argument about capacity — and about what the Bayview got in return. A 1973 evaluation of the city's wastewater master plan describes it treating an average dry-weather flow of about 19 million gallons a day, with a peak hydraulic capacity of 70 million, discharging into the Bay 500 feet from shore at a depth of 40 feet. Environmental reports of the period are blunter about the limits: a 1976 study calculates one development's peak wet-weather runoff at roughly 91 percent of the plant's capacity, and states that the plant is often unable to handle peak wet-weather flow, with excess untreated sewage discharged into the Bay. Twenty years later, objectors to the Mission Bay plan were still telling the city the plant was already strained. The community's compensation is documented in its own right: a 1979 facilities plan sets out a community facility at the Southeast Treatment Plant, with a greenhouse and skills training building, and a study of the effects of the sewage plant on the surrounding community. The plant is now being rebuilt. A new headworks facility, contracted to a Sundt/Walsh joint venture, has been paid $667.6 million against $570.4 million agreed, with further contracts for boost-station and maintenance-building improvements.