| Violation ID |
Occurred Date |
Violation Type |
(-) Violation Description |
Corrective Action |
Status |
Classification |
Source |
| 1128692 |
02/20/2024 |
Order Conditions |
Per the Feb SMR:
On February 20 the Mariposa pump station pump rate briefly and intermittently dropped below 10 MGD because of overheating of one of the pumps. The effects of this issue on the average pumping rate and the volume of CSD was very small. The average pumping rate was approximately 8.8 MGD and the effect on CSD volume was less than 3%. |
See description. |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1120996 |
10/03/2023 |
LREP |
Monthly SMR ( MONNPDES ) report for August 2023 (2727446) was due on 02-OCT-23 |
|
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1121628 |
09/30/2023 |
CAT1 |
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) (5-day @ 20 Deg. C) Monthly Average (Mean) limit is 30 mg/L and reported value was 33 mg/L at EFF-001A. |
Per the SMR cover letter: "Accelerated cleaning of the secondary clarifier weirs began on September 25, 2023 and all in-service secondary clarifiers weirs were cleaned in rapid succession.
Daily cleaning of the end-of-tube section has commenced to resolve these build ups. Daily visual observations of the plant effluent have not indicated excessive amounts of algae but samples have continued to have inconsistent amounts of algae present." |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1121627 |
09/30/2023 |
CAT1 |
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) (5-day @ 20 Deg. C) Weekly Average (Mean) limit is 45.0 mg/L and reported value was 46 mg/L at EFF-001A. |
Per the SMR cover letter: "Accelerated cleaning of the secondary clarifier weirs began on September 25, 2023 and all in-service secondary clarifiers weirs were cleaned in rapid succession.
Daily cleaning of the end-of-tube section has commenced to resolve these build ups. Daily visual observations of the plant effluent have not indicated excessive amounts of algae but samples have continued to have inconsistent amounts of algae present." |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1121633 |
09/25/2023 |
DMON |
SFPUC invalidated three samples (9/23/2023, 9/24/2023, 9/25/2023) with high BOD results due to algae found in the composite sample. Because the BOD sample results were above the permitted effluent limits, but not representative of the effluent (as described below), Regional Board staff determined that the samples were not in compliance with Attachment D, section III.A of R2-2013-0029. |
Per the SMR cover letter: "Accelerated cleaning of the secondary clarifier weirs began on September 25, 2023 and all in-service secondary clarifiers weirs were cleaned in rapid succession.
Daily cleaning of the end-of-tube section has commenced to resolve these build ups. Daily visual observations of the plant effluent have not indicated excessive amounts of algae but samples have continued to have inconsistent amounts of algae present." |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1121632 |
09/24/2023 |
DMON |
SFPUC invalidated three samples (9/23/2023, 9/24/2023, 9/25/2023) with high BOD results due to algae found in the composite sample. Because the BOD sample results were above the permitted effluent limits, but not representative of the effluent (as described below), Regional Board staff determined that the samples were not in compliance with Attachment D, section III.A of R2-2013-0029. |
Per the SMR cover letter: "Accelerated cleaning of the secondary clarifier weirs began on September 25, 2023 and all in-service secondary clarifiers weirs were cleaned in rapid succession.
Daily cleaning of the end-of-tube section has commenced to resolve these build ups. Daily visual observations of the plant effluent have not indicated excessive amounts of algae but samples have continued to have inconsistent amounts of algae present." |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1121631 |
09/23/2023 |
DMON |
SFPUC invalidated three samples (9/23/2023, 9/24/2023, 9/25/2023) with high BOD results due to algae found in the composite sample. Because the BOD sample results were above the permitted effluent limits, but not representative of the effluent (as described below), Regional Board staff determined that the samples were not in compliance with Attachment D, section III.A of R2-2013-0029. |
Per the SMR cover letter: "Accelerated cleaning of the secondary clarifier weirs began on September 25,, 2023 and all in-service secondary clarifiers weirs were cleaned in rapid succession.
Daily cleaning of the end-of-tube section has commenced to resolve these build ups. Daily visual observations of the plant effluent have not indicated excessive amounts of algae but samples have continued to have inconsistent amounts of algae present." |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1121626 |
09/02/2023 |
CAT1 |
Total Suspended Solids (TSS) Weekly Average (Mean) limit is 45 mg/L and reported value was 48 mg/L at EFF-001A. |
Per the SMR cover letter: "Between August 27 and 30, the affected aeration basins were taken offline to address the foaming and settling issues. The nitrogen removal pilot was ceased when the aeration tanks were drained." |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1121625 |
08/31/2023 |
CAT1 |
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) (5-day @ 20 Deg. C) Monthly Average (Mean) limit is 30 mg/L and reported value was 32 mg/L at EFF-001A. |
Between August 27 and 30, the affected aeration basins were taken offline to address the foaming and settling issues. The nitrogen removal pilot was ceased when the aeration tanks were drained. |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1119117 |
06/25/2023 |
UAUTHDISC |
Per the June SMR:
On June 25, 2023, approximately 11.8 MG gallons of secondary treated, disinfected wastewater was discharged to Discharge Point No. EFF-002 (Quint Street Outfall). The discharge started at 7:42 a.m. and ended at 12:23 p.m. The cause was a loss of power to the Booster Pump Station (BPS), which pumps final effluent to Discharge Point No. 001 (Pier 80 Outfall).
On Saturday June 24 at approximately 3:30 p.m., PG&E power to BPS was interrupted after PG&E infrastructure was damaged in a traffic accident. SFPUC Operations staff confirmed the issue after a field inspection at BPS. They began to recirculate wastewater flows within the plant and stored flows in upstream Transport/Storage (T/S) Boxes. Staff maintained communications with PG&E and on-call SFPUC electricians to prepare for power restoration.
As of Saturday evening, PG&E had not provided an estimated timeframe for restoration. In anticipation of the possibility that power would not be restored before the Channel T/S Box capacity was exceeded, orders were issued to initiate discharge of treated effluent through the Quint Street outfall when Channel T/S Box level exceeded 290 inches to prevent a discharge of untreated wastewater. Channel T/S Box level exceeded this threshold at approximately 6:15 a.m. on Sunday June 25, 2023. Effluent flow to Discharge Point No. 002 commenced at 7:42 a.m. with an average flow rate of 60.5 million gallons per day (MGD). Power to BPS was restored at approximately 12:10 p.m. and discharge to Discharge Point No. 002 ceased at 12:23 p.m. All effluent discharged through Discharge Point No. 002 received full secondary treatment and disinfection. When PG&E power to BPS was restored, SFPUC electricians performed necessary electrical work to verify PG&E power and operating circuit breakers prior to restarting the pumps at BPS. |
Per June SMR:
This bypass of Discharge No. 001 was unavoidable; the feasible alternative to the bypass was utilized (i.e., storing wastewater) until T/S box capacities rose to levels of concerns, and discharge to Discharge Point No. 002 was necessary to prevent untreated wastewater from discharging to San Francisco Bay through a combined sewer discharge outfall. Daily composite samples collected and analyzed for COD and TSS were not elevated. The laboratory water quality results for June 25 were submitted with this SMR under EFF-001A because most of that day’s effluent was discharged through Discharge Point No. 001. Hourly total residual chlorine monitoring for EFF-002 confirmed that the final effluent was fully dechlorinated. Receiving water samples in Islais Creek were collected for enterococcus on the following day (June 26), and concentrations were well below the applicable standard and SFPUC posting threshold. |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1119108 |
03/28/2023 |
Order Conditions |
Per the March SMR:
On March 21 and 28, San Francisco experienced two bomb cyclone events, bringing damaging winds, power outages, and flooding rains throughout Northern California. During the March 21 and 28 CSD events, SEP did not have an influent flow rate of at least 240 MGD.
On March 28, a local power issue at 2:12 p.m. caused the BPS pumps to trip and shut off. Operations staff went onsite at 2:20 p.m., investigated the issue, and requested electrician support. Electricians fully reset the pumps at 2:46 p.m. and BPS flow achieved 110 MGD within 10 minutes. As a result of this power issue, an estimated additional 1.5MG – or approximately an additional 11.7% – was discharged in the Central Basin (12.49 MG, total CSD event volume). |
See description. |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1119107 |
03/21/2023 |
Order Conditions |
Per the March SMR:
On March 21 and 28, San Francisco experienced two bomb cyclone events, bringing damaging winds, power outages, and flooding rains throughout Northern California. During the March 21 and 28 CSD events, SEP did not have an influent flow rate of at least 240 MGD.
On March 21, a PG&E power outage at BPS occurred at 3:45 p.m. while SEP was discharging 250 MGD. The power outage shut down BPS, which limited SEP discharge to Discharge Point No. 002. SEP continued to maximize secondary treatment at about 150 MGD and the SEP influent flow rate was 153 MGD (average) during the CSD to Islais Channel, which started at 8:40 p.m. SFPUC electricians restored BPS operations on March 22 at approximately 5:50 p.m., after PG&E restored power. As a result, an estimated additional 45.1 MG – or approximately an additional 24% – was discharged in the Central Basin (188.16 MG, total CSD event volume). |
See description. |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1119109 |
03/17/2023 |
UAUTHDISC |
Per March SMR:
On March 17, 2023, approximately 115,000 gallons of secondary treated, disinfected wastewater was discharged to Discharge Point No. EFF-002 (Quint Street Outfall). The discharge started at 6:31 a.m. and ended at 6:40 a.m. The cause was an issue with transitioning one of the effluent pumps at the Booster Pump Station (BPS) from local control to automatic level control upon re-starting of the plant after a SEP shutdown.
SEP was shut down on March 16 for construction activities for the Headworks Project. As part of the shutdown, BPS pumps were switched to local control for a planned sump inspection. The plant was re-started on March 16 at approximately 6:00 p.m. but one of the pumps was not switched from local to automatic control. As flows to SEP increased on the morning of March 17, the BPS pump still in local control did not start, resulting in the final effluent channel levels rising above the weir and effluent flowing to the Quint Street Outfall. Operations staff were immediately notified by a control system alarm when the discharge started and ceased the discharge by opening valve V20 to divert effluent flows from the Quint Street Outfall to the Islais Creek Transport/Storage Structure. Instrumentation & Controls (I&C) staff investigated the issue, including testing the controller logic for all pumps, and verified that the pumps were functioning as programmed.
Daily composite samples collected and analyzed for COD and TSS were not elevated. Hourly total residual chlorine monitoring confirmed that the final effluent was fully dechlorinated. No adverse effects on Islais Channel were expected or observed during a visual survey performed at 6:40 a.m. Receiving water samples were collected for enterococcus on March 17 and 18, and concentrations were well below the applicable standard and SFPUC posting threshold. |
See description above. |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1119106 |
03/09/2023 |
Order Conditions |
Per the March SMR:
During the March 9-10 storm, two issues at the Channel Pump Station (CHS) limited influent pumping from CHS to SEP. As a result, an estimated additional 10.0 million gallons (MG) – or approximately an additional 14% – was discharged in the Central Basin (125.40 MG, total CSD event volume).
On March 9, the CHS pump rate reached 80 MGD before a CSD to Mission Channel starting at about 8:56 p.m. Later that night, the CHS flow rate dropped to zero due to the following issues: (1) At approximately 9:30 p.m., power issues tripped the CHS pumps. Staff responded by restarting the pumps at 10 p.m. (2) On March 10 at about 1:30 a.m., the frame on the CHS downstream influent throttling gate detached from the hydraulic actuator. CSDs to Mission and Islais Channels were occurring during these incidents. Thereafter, CHS was shut down because the gate failure prevented pumping; staff responded by removing bolts and other materials that could potentially damage the bar screens and pumps. CHS was restarted manually at approximately 8:30 a.m. |
See description. |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1115328 |
02/23/2023 |
Order Conditions |
During the February 23-24 overnight storm, the Channel Pump Station (CHS) pump rate reached 80 MGD before there was a CSD to Mission Channel from the Central Basin. During the CSD to Mission Channel from Discharge Points CSD-024 and 025, however, the CHS flow rate periodically dropped to less than 80 MGD due to the pumps tripping. As a result, an estimated additional 0.44 million gallons (MG) – or approximately an additional 0.6% – was discharged in the Central Basin (69.61 MG, total CSD event volume). |
Staff manually reset pumps after they tripped offline. |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1115326 |
01/09/2023 |
Order Conditions |
During the January 9 CSD event at the Mariposa outfall (Discharge Point No. CSD-029), MPS reached peak wet weather capacity (10 MGD) when the Mariposa CSD started but did not maintain that peak flow rate throughout the CSD event. Power issues during the storm caused the pumps to stop at 4:30 a.m. As a result, an estimated additional 0.26 million gallons (MG) or less than an additional 0.1% was discharged in the Central Basin (431.47 MG, total CSD event volume in Central Basin). |
Staff traveled onsite and manually reset the pumps approximately 30 minutes after the pumps stopped at 4:30 AM. |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1115323 |
12/31/2022 |
Order Conditions |
On New Year’s Eve at approximately 10:10 a.m., one of the two Northshore wet weather pumps (which provide flow to the North Point Wet Weather Facility) was out of service because a control board on the variable frequency drive (VFDs) failed. An electrician qualified to work on high voltages was called in from standby and was able to restore manual operation of the pump by 1:50 p.m. The pump was run in manual mode for all subsequent wet weather events until January 12. The temporary decrease in pumping to the North Point Wet Weather Facility potentially increased the volume of Northshore CSDs on December 31 by approximately 4%. |
A new control board was purchased, programmed, and installed on January 12. |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1115322 |
04/08/2022 |
UAUTHDISC |
Discharged approximately 55 gallons of hydraulic fluid from one of the Division Street
Combined Sewer Discharge (CSD) Outfall gates (gate #5). The cause of the spill is believed to be the failure of two hydraulic position sensors associated with the Division Street CSD Outfall. Notified of an issue via control system alarm on 4/7, but did not notice an oil sheen on receiving water until 4/8. |
The failed position sensors have been replaced. Because of the unusual nature of this failure – sensors typically fail due to electronic issues and no similar failure is known to have occurred previously – the SFPUC intends to assess the condition of all of the position sensors and replace them as appropriate before the end of the summer. |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1100564 |
12/16/2021 |
UAUTHDISC |
Discharged approximately 40,000 gallons of treated and disinfected effluent from SEP through a leaking pipe joint in the final effluent force main below Pier 80. Identified by contractors on 12/16, who notified SFPUC on 12/20. |
Repairs completed on January 11, 2022 by installing a WEKO seal and applying "splash zone" epoxy. Post-repair inspection completed on January 12, 2022. |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1100520 |
10/24/2021 |
Order Conditions |
SEP flow was not maintained at 250 MGD during a wet weather event, as required by Provision VI.C.5.c.iii(c) of the SEP permit. This resulted in an approximate CSD volume increase of 4.7%. The issue was caused by a power interruption from PG&E at the Bruce Flynn Pump Station. |
|
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1100519 |
10/23/2021 |
Order Conditions |
CSDs occurred in the Northshore Basin before the North Point Facility reached 135 MGD, as required by Provision VI.C.5.c.iii(a) of the SEP permit. This resulted in an approximate CSD volume increase of 5.7%. The issue was caused by operator error. |
Relevant staff were reminded of the operational requirement. |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1100518 |
10/21/2021 |
Order Conditions |
SEP flow was not maintained at 250 MGD during the wet weather event as required by Provision VI.C.5.c.iii(c) of the SEP permit, due to a blown manhole at the Facility's primary disinfection system (PDS), limiting the plants throughput to 150 MGD (secondary treatment capacity). This resulted in CSDs at in the Central Basin, as indicated by the SMR cover letter. |
The manhole has since been fully resecured. |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1100517 |
10/04/2021 |
ATOX |
Acute Toxicity 11 Sample 90th Percentile limit is 70.0 % survival and reported value was 35 % survival at EFF-001A. |
Accelerated monitoring begun in November, showed 100% survival |
Violation |
A |
Report |
| 1096743 |
08/05/2021 |
UAUTHDISC |
Discharged approximately 64,000 gallons of secondary treated, disinfected wastewater to EFF-002 due to an issue with the V20 valve located at the booster pump station during a power blip. |
None identified. The valve responded in an unintended way after a power blip, and no cause could be identified, so no corrective actions were taken. |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1097611 |
07/21/2021 |
ATOX |
Acute Toxicity 11 Sample 90th Percentile limit is 70 % survival and reported value was 50 % survival at EFF-001A. |
Accelerated monitoring begun on August 2. Follow-up test showed 100% survival in the pH adjusted effluent. |
Violation |
A |
Report |
| 1087679 |
12/23/2020 |
UAUTHDISC |
A leak from a joint on the forty-two-inch Islais Creek force main that conveys treated effluent from SEP to the Pier 80 deep-water outfall (Discharge Point No. 001) was initially discovered by a kayaker on December 23, 2020. SFPUC was notified and confirmed the leak on December 28, 2020. |
The leak was repaired on January 21, 2021. Internal and external inspections of the force main will be performed as early as possible (currently expected to be February). Any condition needs identified through these inspections will be addressed to prevent further leaks. |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1087673 |
12/17/2020 |
Order Conditions |
A discharge occurred at CSD-029 before the Mariposa Pump Station reached 10 MGD, as required by Provision VI.C.5.c.iii(b) of the SEP permit. This resulted in an approximate CSD volume increase of 1.3%. The issue was caused by a drain valve blocked open. |
Shortly after the issue was discovered, the debris was cleared, and the valve closed. The drain valve was capped and the valve removed. |
Violation |
B |
Report |
| 1087672 |
11/02/2020 |
ATOX |
Acute Toxicity 11-Sample Median limit is 90 % survival and reported value was 85 % survival at EFF-001A. |
The NPDES permit (MRP section V.A.4) allows pH adjustment of acute toxicity samples to minimize ammonia interference. This will be used moving forward, as needed. |
Violation |
A |
Report |
| 1087671 |
06/10/2020 |
UAUTHDISC |
On June 10-12, secondary treated and disinfected wastewater was discharged to San Francisco Bay from the SEP final effluent outfall pipe at a point approximately 470 feet upstream of Discharge Point No. 001. The discharge resulted from construction activities related to replacing a vent pipe section. Estimated release volume of 4,100 gallons, although discharge rate was sporadic and difficult to confirm. |
The construction contractor repaired the leak using hydrophilic waterstop on June 12. The repair areas were monitored for several days after the repairs to confirm that the leak had been successfully repaired. |
Violation |
B |
Report |
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