DRINKING Water

The Department of Utilities’ comprehensive drinking water programs focus on high quality drinking water, system improvements and water conservation.

• The Water Division treats more than 25 billion gallons of drinking water a year, maintains more than 1,500 miles of water mains and ensures that drinking water meets or exceeds all state and federal drinking water standards.

• The Capital Improvement Program focuses efforts on increased reliability and the reduction of maintenance costs by replacing inadequate or deteriorated systems.

• The Water Conservation team works to increase water efficiency throughout the City of Sacramento through education, incentives, resources, and information for home and business owners.

WATER PRODUCTION AND TREATMENT

The Water Production Team is responsible for treating precipitation runoff from 25,000 square miles of watershed to our surface water sources of the American and Sacramento rivers.

The Sacramento River Treatment Plant and E. A. Fairbairn Water Treatment Plant supply drinking water from specially designed processes.

In addition, the City operates two groundwater basins, north and south of the American River.

All sources are carefully treated to ensure safe and reliable water is delivered from the distribution system and storage reservoirs.

The reservoirs allow the treatment processes to operate consistently and provide an operational buffer for emergency situations.

A team of specially trained water treatment personnel operate these facilities with support from many specialized Citywide divisions.

WATER DISTRIBUTION

The Water Distribution Team serves almost one-half million customers within a 100-square-mile service area delivering 37 billion gallons of potable water per year.

The Team ensures we meet our goal of providing the community with safe and reliable water.

They are responsible for meter reading, testing and repairs, operations and maintenance of the distribution system including 1,700 miles of pipeline.

WATER QUALITY LABORATORY, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

The Water Quality Laboratory and Research and Development Team is responsible for water quality monitoring, regulatory reporting, research and development into water quality issues and treatment process optimization.

The team responds to customer water quality concerns, prepares the City’s drinking water regulatory reports.

These include the monthly drinking water report, annual Consumer Confidence Report, Public Health Goal Report, and Annual Drinking Water Report. This group also keeps the City’s Water Quality Data Portal up to date.

UTILITY CONSTRUCTION COORDINATION

The Construction Team is responsible for supporting coordination with the Water CIP Engineering section during the design and construction of all water infrastructure and development projects, e.g. design review, verification of existing infrastructure, updating or creating City standard details and specifications, providing input on construction issues related to the water distribution system.

The City accelerated its water meter program and is expected to complete it by the end of 2021 ahead of the state’s mandated deadline of January 2025.