Improving Water Quality in San Francisco Bay through I&I Reduction

East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) owns and operates a regional Interceptor System that collects, conveys and treats municipal wastewater from seven Satellite agencies. The separated sanitary system has an average dry weather flow of 52 million gallons per day (MGD), measured at the Main Wastewater Treatment Plant (MWWTP), yet can experience wet weather flows with system-wide peaks over 700 MGD. Due to the elevated wet weather flows, the use of peak excess flow treatment facilities, also known as Wet Weather Facilities (WWFs), is currently necessary to relieve stress on the system. In September 2014, EBMUD and its Satellite agencies (the Cities of Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland, and Piedmont, plus Stege Sanitary District, which serves El Cerrito, Kensington, and Richmond Annex) entered into an asset management-based Consent Decree (CD) which defines the inflow and infiltration (I&I) reduction targets resulting in the elimination of discharges from the WWFs predicted to occur from a prescribed high-intensity rain event.