The Crystal Springs/San Andreas distribution system has a new heart!

The SFPUC will soon be operating the new Crystal Springs Pump Station on the Peninsula, which replaces the old pump station built downstream of the Lower Crystal Springs Dam in the 1930s. The function of the pump station is to move water supply from the Crystal Springs Reservoir to the San Andreas Reservoir, and then to the Harry Tracy Water Treatment Plant, and then on to customers. A project of the Water System Improvement Program, the new pump station is seismically hardened and has additional capacity.


The new pump station under construction

below I-280’s Eugene A. Doran Bridge

Serving as the heart of the Crystal Springs/San Andreas water distribution system, the new facility’s hydraulic capacity has been increased from 80 million gallons per day (mgd) to 120 mgd. “This is a major improvement – it has a third more capacity than the old pump station, which allows SFPUC to replenish San Andreas reservoir in less time than before” noted Tasso Mavroudis, Senior Project Manager on the Peninsula.

The new pump station’s underground pipes (infrastructure) were literally built on top of the existing plumbing in order to keep the old facility in operation until the new facility was ready. This new infrastructure connects to recently retrofitted and seismically reinforced outlet structures in the Crystal Springs Reservoir to draw water into the pump station. Four powerful new 2500 horsepower pumps include equipment to regulate the distribution, providing more variable flow options than before.

Construction Inspector Wyman Lee walks

alongside a dissipation pool (right) toward

the new pump station.

Pump operations can now be controlled remotely which means most key functions are now automated. Eight miles north at the Harry Tracy Water Treatment Plant, the same operations team which draws water from the San Andreas Reservoir can control flow from the pump station.

This new pump station, together with all of the other improvements to the regional distribution system, will allow the SFPUC to meet its goal of delivering potable water within 24 hours after a major earthquake.