Public utilities commission unveils plans for recycled water facility

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The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir on the Tuolumne River in the Sierra Nevada mountains, where San Francisco gets most of its water. Conservationists want to lessen the city's use of the pristine water for irrigation. Creative Commons image by Flickr user Black.Dots.

 The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has proposed building a recycled water facility on the westside of Golden Gate Park near Ocean Beach to water city land.

The $152 million facility is capable of recycling 2 million gallons of water daily to irrigate 1,000 acres, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

The facility, known as the Westside Recycled Water Project, would mark a change in the city’s water use, as the utility has been drawing water from the Tuolumne River since the 1930s, CBS5 reported. The utility also services many cities on the peninsula.

The new water facility would be used for Golden Gate Park, the Presidio Golf Course and Lincoln Park.

Conservationists have been asking the city to not water plants and flush toilets with pristine Sierra Nevada water, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The city’s tap water is considered so pure that it doesn’t need to be filtered. 

Plans to use recycled water didn’t gain much support until the city began looking into seismically retrofitting the water system. Some 25 million more gallons of water would be needed for city and peninsula customers, which would harm already depleted fish stocks. The recycling facility will help the utility to save around 10 million gallons per day through recycling and conservation.

The public utilities commission will hold an open house regarding the proposed water facility tonight from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Golden Gate Park Senior Center, located at 6101 Fulton St. at 37th Avenue.

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