To provide reliable, high quality water services to our 1.4 million customers, we maintain and operate a large and complex infrastructure system spanning 90 miles from the Sierra Nevada foothills to the San Francisco Bay.
This diverse and extensive water supply network has an estimated replacement cost that exceeds $14.4 billion. The wastewater system serves approximately 685,000 people in an 88-square-mile area along the east shore of San Francisco Bay. EBMUD has a capital improvement program to upgrade aging infrastructure, make seismic improvements, protect natural resources, and ensure a future water supply.
Water infrastructure
The water system serves customers in 20 incorporated and 15 unincorporated communities and spans a 332 square-mile service area (see figure below).
Ninety percent of the water supply comes from the Mokelumne Watershed in the western Sierra Nevada mountains. The water is stored in two upcountry reservoirs: Pardee and Camanche. Water stored in Pardee Reservoir travels approximately 90 miles through three raw water aqueducts to the East Bay. In addition to the two upcountry reservoirs, the District owns and operates five local raw water reservoirs.
The raw water can be treated at one of the District’s six water treatment plants located throughout its service area. The District operates a large and complex water distribution system that includes approximately 4,200 miles of distribution pipeline, 164 drinking water reservoirs, 135 pumping plants, and 100 pressure regulators or rate control stations.
The District’s water distribution system spans the height of the East Bay hills from sea level to approximately 1,500 feet in elevation through 122 pressure zones. A pressure zone is an area of service supplied by one or more sources, such as a tank or pressure regulator, that provides a consistent pressure.
Before water reaches the tap, we take many steps to ensure its quality. This includes carefully managing watershed lands and reservoirs, treating the water, maintaining water quality through a complex system of distribution pipes, pumping plants, and reservoirs, testing water samples in our labs and in the field, and addressing customer concerns. These efforts ensure that all customers receive high quality drinking water that meets or surpasses all state and federal regulatory requirements.
Wastewater infrastructure
EBMUD's wastewater treatment plant provides service for 685,000 people along the eastern shore of the San Francisco Bay, and treats approximately 56 million gallons of municipal wastewater per day. Wastewater is collected from homes and businesses through privately owned sewer laterals that feed into a network of city and other regional sewers, which eventually join the EBMUD's sewer interceptors and pump stations. These facilities carry the wastewater to its treatment plant located in Oakland.
Stormwater is collected through separate community-owned systems. The plant treats sewage to meet stringent state and federal standards before recycling it or releasing it to the Bay. Prior to its construction, raw sewage was discharged directly into the Bay. As a partner in the stewardship of the Bay, EBMUD works with residents and businesses to help them keep contaminants out of the sewer system.
EBMUD has been recycling and producing renewable energy at its wastewater plant since the mid-1980s. EBMUD's plant transforms sewage and other organic wastes into green energy, nutrient-rich soil conditioner and recycled water. EBMUD produces sufficient renewable energy to meet its onsite power demands. Excess energy is sold to the neighboring Port of Oakland. On average, EBMUD produces 130 percent of the power it needs to run its wastewater operations.