Sunset Reservoir is one of three terminal reservoirs  in the Regional Water System in San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

. The reservoir is the city's largest reservoir and is located in the Sunset District at 24th Avenue and Ortega Street, is owned and maintained by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is a public agency of the City and County of San Francisco that provides water, wastewater, and power services to the City and an additional 1.6 million customers within three San Francisco Bay Area counties.The SFPUC manages a complex water supply...

. Completed in 1960, the subterranean aquifer

Aquifer

An aquifer is a wet underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well. The study of water flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology...

 was constructed as an 11 acres (4.5 ha), 1000 by 500 ft (304.8 by 152.4 ), concrete basin, now containing 720 floor-to-ceiling columns. With its maximum depth of 33 ft (10.1 m), the reservoir's capacity is 270 acre.ft with average daily flows of 46 acre.ft through 42 inches (1.1 m) inlet/outlet pipes.

Seismic Upgrades

• Seismic rehabilitation, which would include stabilization of the soil dam embankment (completed); a retrofit of the walls and roof using seismic joints, shear walls, diagonal bracing, and struts; and foundation improvements.
• General rehabilitation, which would include repairing deteriorated concrete, replacing part of the reservoir lining material, replacing inlet piping, installing security fencing, upgrading the landscaping, and other miscellaneous site improvements.

Sunset Solar Project

The newly-completed Sunset Solar Project has installed 25,000 solar panels on the 480000 ft2 roof of the reservoir. The 5-megawatt plant has more than tripled the city's current 2-megawatt solar generation capacity. It opened in December 2010 in a ceremony introduced by Mayor Gavin Newsom

Gavin Newsom

Gavin Christopher Newsom is an American politician who is the 49th and current Lieutenant Governor of California. Previously, he was the 42nd Mayor of San Francisco, and was elected in 2003 to succeed Willie Brown, becoming San Francisco's youngest mayor in 100 years. Newsom was re-elected in 2007...

.

External links

• San Francisco Public utilities Commission official website (begins at 00:05:33)