Redwood City Regional Environmental Sewer Conveyance Upgrade (RESCU) Program
Borrower: Silicon Valley Clean Water
Location: Redwood City, California
WIFIA Loan Amount: $218 million
Total WIFIA Project Costs: $517 million
Population Served by System: 225,000
Number of Jobs Created: 400 jobs
Project Description
With EPA’s WIFIA loan, the RESCU Program will rehabilitate aging wastewater infrastructure and construct new facilities to improve the system’s safety and reliability and protect the San Francisco Bay. The program constructs a 3.3-mile gravity pipeline, replaces four pump stations, and builds a new preliminary treatment facility. The program also adds capacity to deal with stormwater; when completed, SVCW will be able to handle future wastewater wet weather flows of up to 108 million gallons per day (MGD).
Project Benefits
- Replaces pressurized force main pipeline with a gravity pipeline which shifts energy used for pumping to the Treatment Plant’s renewable energy source (biogas).
- Leverages enlarged pipeline capacity for temporary wastewater storage during peak wet weather flows, eliminating the need for an outdoor, uncovered flow equalization facility.
- Eliminates three wastewater pump station and their associated environmental impacts, including electricity and chemical use, and fugitive air emissions.
- Saves ratepayers $43 million from financing with a WIFIA loan compared to a bond issuance.
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Re-execution of the WIFIA loan in 2020 saves Silicon Valley ratepayers an additional $55 million.