San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SF PUC) provides water, sewer and electricity to all users in the City and County of San Francisco. While the new headquarters building was in design by KMD Architects, SF PUC decided to recycle all the building wastewater as a demonstration of sustainability. David Maciolek, P.E., Principal Engineer for Aqua Nova oversaw the design of a Recirculating Tidal Flow Wetland Living Machine System (*) for building wastewater treatment (*). The treatment wetlands integrated into the building interior and exterior landscaping Effluent from the three stage wetland is filtered and disinfected and then pumped throughout the building for toilet flushing reuse.

The system was commissioned May 2012. Aqua Nova has provided continuing operation support provided since 2014.

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(*) Living Machine is a registered trademark of Dharma IP, LLC.

(**) Design through commissioning for Worrell Water Technologies, LLC.

*Project completed by Aqua Nova Engineering, now part of Inboden Environmental Services