Upgrades Support Comprehensive Resource Recovery

The City of San Luis Obispo’s Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF) is responsible for treating all of the wastewater within the City, Cal Poly and the County airport. The facility treats 4.5 million gallons of wastewater daily, twenty four hours a day, 365 days a year. Staffing of operators, laboratory analysts and maintenance technicians ensure the WRRF is operated and maintained in the most efficient manner possible and complies with federal state and local discharge requirements. A comprehensive upgrade to the facility—called SLO Water Plus—is now underway and will support improved resource recovery.

Upgrade details, shown on map: 1. New solids thickening equipment will increase plant efficiency by lowering the plant’s energy demand. ​ 2. New digesters will replace equipment that has reached the end of its service life. The digesters will increase onsite biogas production for future conversion to electricity and heat. ​ 3. An odor control system will improve air quality for our neighbors. ​ 4. An upgraded electrical system, including provisions for future onsite solar, will provide greater protection for workers and improve plant reliability.

5. An expanded equalization pond will improve the plant’s capacity to treat storm flows. ​ 6. A new membrane bioreactor (MBR) system, the heart of the upgrade, will remove solids from the water and dramatically improve water quality. ​ 7. A new ultraviolet (UV) disinfection system will destroy pathogens, remove the need for chemical disinfection and eliminate production of disinfection by-products.

Facility-wide improvements, not shown on map: ​ • Flood protection improvements will protect critical infrastructure from a 100-year storm event. ​ • Increased treatment capacity will accommodate population growth consistent with Major City Goals and increase reliability during storm events. ​ • Instrumentation and controls will provide plant operators more information and greater flexibility to optimize plant operations. ​ • A redundant treatment train for key processes will increase the plant’s resilience.