NEWS RELEASE

Date: May 13, 2002

Pump station links Santa Clara County, San Francisco drinking water systems

MILPITAS - When the next large earthquake shakes up the Bay Area, it will be much easier to keep drinking water faucets flowing thanks to completion of a project to tie together water supplies of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission's Hetch Hetchy and Santa Clara Valley Water District systems.
Representatives from the agencies will be on hand May 15, 11 a.m., to celebrate completion of the project, which allows both to share water during a natural disaster or planned maintenance of either system.

"Connecting two entirely separate water systems was a technical challenge for the San Francisco PUC and Santa Clara Valley Water District," said Patricia E. Martel, general manager of SFPUC. "The intertie was 10 years in the making and attests to our joint commitment to supply reliable drinking water to Bay Area customers."

The intertie pump station has already benefited Santa Clara County residents. In fall 2000, one of the district's three water treatment plants was taken out of service for major construction to upgrade the treatment process. When water demand hit its peak last summer, the district was able to pull water from the partially completed intertie pump station to augment deliveries to areas in Milpitas and northern San José.

This partnership affords both our agencies the flexibility to perform scheduled maintenance and it protects us in the event of a natural disaster," said Rosemary Kamei, chairwoman of the water district board of directors.

The $9.8 million construction project began in October 2000, finishing in spring. The intertie contains four pumps, a chemical-injection system, a 2,000-kilowatt generator, two 4,000-gallon diesel fuel tanks, and remote monitoring and control equipment.
The station connects two of SFPUC's four pipelines that deliver water from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, tying it into Santa Clara Valley Water District's Milpitas Pipeline.

The project required about 1,000 feet of 42-inch diameter pipe to connect the Hetch Hetchy water system with the Milpitas Pipeline. The intertie's four pumps have the capacity to deliver 40 million gallons of water a day from either system to the other.
The dedication celebration is 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at the intertie station, 463 S. Milpitas Blvd. (one block south of Turquoise Street), Milpitas. Tours of the intertie facilities and a light lunch will be offered following a brief dedication ceremony.

RSVPs to the intertie dedication ceremony are requested by calling (408) 265-2607, ext. 3060.

The Santa Clara Valley Water District manages Santa Clara County's wholesale drinking water resources, coordinates flood protection for its 1.7 million residents and provides stewardship for the county's 10 reservoirs and more than 700 miles of streams.

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is a department of the City and County of San Francisco that provides high quality Hetch Hetchy drinking water to more than 2.4 million people in four Bay Area counties, collects and treats wastewater, and provides hydropower for city facilities and services such as traffic lights, police and fire stations.