Integrated master plan

EBMUD is an industry leader in wastewater treatment, resource recovery, and environmental stewardship. Since 1951, EBMUD has provided wastewater treatment services at its Main Wastewater Treatment Plant (MWWTP) located in Oakland, California, to protect public health and the San Francisco Bay. This work is essential not only to provide a high quality of life for over 7 million people living across the region, but also to protect the fish, mammals, reptiles, birds, plants, and endangered species that live within the Bay.

Over the past 70 years, the wastewater industry has changed significantly as the environmental movement has evolved, population has grown, and climate change has emerged. To perform its core mission and remain at the forefront of the industry, EBMUD embarked on an Integrated Master Plan for the MWWTP.

The goal of the Integrated Master Plan was to inform an integrated, strategic, and adaptive 30-year roadmap for EBMUD’s capital improvement program (CIP). In recent decades, EBMUD has devoted around $50 million in annual spending to implement the CIP; however, spending is projected to increase significantly over the next ten years and beyond to manage aging infrastructure, prepare for new regulations, build climate change resiliency, and alleviate capacity constraints. The concept of a roadmap helps illustrate how current plans for the future can be altered by various triggers, which divert EBMUD’s course onto off-ramps. The roadmap is “integrated” because it holistically synthesizes all of EBMUD’s competing priorities, while remaining flexible for uncertainties.

The Integrated Master Plan in Brief provides an overview of the EBMUD wastewater system, guiding principles, drivers, integrated roadmap, site plans, and key takeaways.