At least $11 billion would be needed to upgrade wastewater treatment facilities across the Bay Area if regulators impose anticipated stricter environmental rules, according to a regional water board that seeks to protect the San Francisco Bay.
The upgrades at dozens of sewage treatment plants, needed to prevent toxic algae blooms and protect fish, would cost an average of $4,000 per household, and consumers may end up funding the improvements, the Bay Area Clean Water Agencies — a group of the five largest wastewater treatment agencies in the Bay Area — said in a statement.
The key culprit? Nitrogen found in urine and fecal matter, which feeds the growth of algae. While algae can be beneficial at low levels, excessive growth, which the Bay Area saw in 2022, can be harmful to fish and other marine life. Currently, only 14 of 37 plants across the region are capable of removing adequate amounts of nitrogen.
Sometime this spring, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, a key water regulator, is expected to issue an updated watershed permit — in other words, new regulations that would set new limits on nutrients, including nitrogen, released into the bay.
This news organization reached out to the board, but has not yet received answers to queries on the watershed permit.
What does this mean for Bay Area consumers? Without external financing, residents could end up paying for the improvements through increases in their wastewater bills. How much is still unclear.
BACWA’s estimated total cost for upgrades to the Bay Area’s water treatment facilities is $11 billion. When divided by the number of households, this amounts to $4,000 per household. The impact on households’ water bills will depend on how much money can be secured from other sources to fund the upgrades.
“We are going to try to attract federal and state investment in our region in the form of grants,” said Lorien Fono, executive director of Bay Area Clean Water Agencies. “But in the absence of those, wastewater projects are paid for by wastewater rates, which are the bills that the public pays to their agencies. These will have to rise to accommodate the upgrades.”
In Palo Alto, officials aren’t waiting for regulators to act before upgrading the city’s water treatment plant, and residents may see the impact on their bills sooner than in the rest of the Bay Area.
“We’re early adapters,” said Karin North, Palo Alto’s assistant director of public works. The city’s plant on Embarcadero Way currently serves approximately 200,000 residents, and treats 18 million gallons of wastewater per day from Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and portions of East Palo Alto.
Construction of nutrient reduction upgrades began in 2022 and is expected to last until at least 2028. Of $369 million in facility upgrades in the works on the Palo Alto plant, at least $193 million will go toward meeting nutrient reduction targets. In additional to removing nitrogen and other nutrients, such as phosphorous, upgrades are being made to improve the plant’s aging infrastructure, which began operations in 1934.
“We would have done a lot of this anyway, but we have to design it, and build it, to remove the nitrogen,” plant manager James Allen told reporters on a recent tour of the massive facility.
The facility upgrades are also being designed with population growth in mind, Allen said.
Upcoming wastewater fee increases in Palo Alto serve as a snapshot of what lies ahead across the region.
Two different plans for rate increases have been proposed: one suggests increases of 15% in 2025, 9% in 2026 and 2027, followed by 8% in 2028 and 2029. Alternatively, a single 9% increase from 2025 through 2029 has been proposed.
A 15% increase would raise the monthly wastewater service charges from $48.64 to $55.93 by July, while a 9% increase would elevate current bills to $53.01.
Palo Alto’s finance committee will review the rate proposals next month. The City Council is expected to vote on them before July.
“It is incumbent upon the clean water community to protect both the bay and ratepayers,” the Bay Area Clean Water Agencies said in a statement. “Investment in our wastewater infrastructure by the state and federal government would help lessen the impact of these rate increases in Bay Area communities.”
