Investing in the East Bay

With 4,200 miles of pipe and hundreds of facilities working full time, the effort to maintain and upgrade our infrastructure is nonstop. We have been hard at work this spring improving our Sobrante and Upper San Leandro water treatment plants, the Lafayette Aqueducts that feed them, upgrading local tanks and reservoirs and replacing those pipes that bring water to you.

We invest your dollars in projects that improve our ability to provide the highest quality water. This year, we worked both inside and outside the Lafayette Aqueduct No. 1, a 9-foot tall pipe made of 1-foot thick concrete and steel, to seal leaks. This pipe, built in 1929, carries water through our largest water treatment plant in Orinda to more than half of our 1.4 million customers.

We’re also completing replacement of the ozone systems at two of our six water treatment plants. Ozone helps remove traces of naturally occurring compounds that can affect the taste and smell of water. Our newly-built ozone systems are energy efficient and easier to maintain, allowing us to reduce our carbon footprint and our future operating costs. And while we’ve had ozone at these plants for more than 20 years, the new systems increase reliability and ensure we have the best tools on hand to treat the East Bay’s drinking water.

While these and other major infrastructure projects move forward, we continue the daily work to repair or replace the aging pipes in your streets. Over the past year, we once again beat our goal to install 15 new miles of pipe, all while repairing more than 820 pipe breaks. Your bill payments are the key to these investments. These projects, both big and small, make reliable water service possible. Check out construction in your neighborhood at ebmud.com/construction.