$1.47 Billion Project to Cut Nutrients at San Francisco Wastewater Plant
Key Facts
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission awarded the Jacobs/PCL consortium the progressive design-build contract DB-141 for the Southeast Treatment Plant Nutrient Reduction Project, according to its decision memorandum dated February 10, 2026. The consortium comprises Jacobs Project Management Company and PCL Construction Inc. The commission set a cap of $192.799 million for the initial phase, covering preconstruction services and the design and construction of secondary treatment facilities. The $1.47 billion figure is the estimated budget for the entire project, not the value of the consortium’s initial award. The utility lists the project in its approved FY 2025-2034 capital plan and describes it as the largest nutrient-reduction investment by a Bay Area utility to date. The work aims to reduce inorganic nitrogen discharges from the plant to comply with a new regional permit.
The contract runs for 4,850 consecutive calendar days, or about 13 years and three months, according to the commission memorandum’s estimate. The term includes an expected 1,460 consecutive days for preconstruction services, before the design and construction phases are completed. The schedule puts the project on a long path beginning with preparatory work and design, while the value of the initial phase is currently set by its announced cap. The contract term comes amid a broader regulatory deadline: the regional permit gave wastewater plants ten years to complete the required upgrades. The rules allow plants to improve existing systems or build new treatment processes, as needed to achieve the reductions.
In July 2024, the California State Water Resources Control Board adopted a permit requiring 40 wastewater treatment plants to reduce their combined nitrogen discharges by 40% compared with 2022 levels. The requirement makes nutrient reduction a regional obligation involving multiple plants, rather than a standalone local project in San Francisco. The Southeast plant handles about 80% of the city’s wastewater, according to the Public Utilities Commission, making it a key part of San Francisco’s response plan. The utility says the new facilities are expected to deliver a long-term reduction in the plant’s nutrient loads. Its project is the largest component of the capital plan, which allocated $1.47 billion to it.
Regulators have linked tighter nitrogen limits to the risks of harmful algal blooms and fish kills in the Bay. The Regional Water Quality Control Board cited a widespread algal bloom in late summer 2022 that caused extensive fish deaths, including among protected sturgeon. The board’s chair said the permit “will significantly reduce the likelihood of major harmful algal blooms and the resulting fish kills.” She added that implementing it will require investment by wastewater agencies in the Bay Area. This links spending on treatment upgrades with efforts to limit the environmental impact of nutrient discharges, as well as compliance with the new limits.
The Southeast plant dates to 1952 and has a design average dry-weather flow capacity of 85.4 million gallons per day. It handles about 80% of wastewater and stormwater in San Francisco’s eastern third, according to the city’s description. The nutrient-reduction project is part of an upgrade to the plant’s infrastructure as it plays a broad role in treating the city’s flows. For Jacobs, the announcement comes as the company reported a record backlog of $28.9 billion in its third-quarter fiscal 2026 results, up 27% year over year. The company did not identify an impact from this contract on revenue or backlog in those results.