Sewage Treatment and Resource Recovery Service Levels
Our performance is graded annually to provide the best overall service to you, so we may make necessary adjustments to resources, equipment, and processes to maintain a balanced amount of our service levels.
Learn more about our established service levels and how we measured up in 2023.
Water Quality Violations
Target: ≤5
Performance: 3
Target Met
Definition: Violations occur when the quality of water discharged to the Sacramento River does not meet regulatory requirements.
Target: No more than 5 water quality violations per year. Five water quality violations per year correspond with the requirements for the Silver Award issued by the National Association of Clean Water Agencies.
Purpose: This service level reflects wastewater discharge impacts to the Sacramento River and the EchoWater Facility’s treatment plant’s overall performance—including capacity, operations, and maintenance practices.
Critical Impacts: Violations can be caused by mechanical failures, operator failures, natural disasters, or stringent regulations. Therefore, maintenance, operator training, and contingency planning, as well as permitting advocacy, can affect this service level.
Major Sanitary Sewer Overflows
Target: ≤1
Performance: 1
Target Met
Definition: A major sanitary sewer overflow occurs when sewage overflows the sewage conveyance system – interceptor pipelines – in an amount greater than 1,000 gallons and/or reaches creeks, rivers, or other surface waters.
Target: No more than 1 major sanitary sewer overflow per year.
Purpose: This service level reflects proper capacity, operation, and maintenance of major sewage conveyance – interceptor pipeline – facilities.
Critical Impacts: Critical work activities that influence sanitary sewer overflow performance include planning for adequate system capacity; designing reliable facilities; maintaining facilities to ensure that they are in good operating condition; training staff to assure appropriate operational practices are followed; implementing methods to detect overflows quickly; and implementing response procedures. Even if facilities are managed properly, overflows can occur due to extreme or unusual operating conditions.
Major EchoWater Facility Spills
Target: 0
Performance: 0
Target Met
Definition: A major EchoWater Facility spill occurs when sewage that is not fully treated leaves the EchoWater Facility property, gets into a stream or river, endangers public health, and/or creates a nuisance.
Target: As a major EchoWater Facility spill represents catastrophic failure, a target of 0 has been set for this service level.
Purpose: Our performance with this service level reflects proper capacity, operation, and maintenance of facilities at the EchoWater Facility.
Critical Impacts: Critical work activities that influence our performance on this service level include planning for adequate system capacity; designing reliable facilities; maintaining facilities to assure that they are in good operating condition; training staff to assure that good operational practices are followed; and implementing methods to detect and respond to spills quickly. Even if facilities are managed properly, spills can still occur because of extreme or unusual operating conditions.
Interceptor Odor Events
Target: ≤6
Performance: 1
Target Met
Definition: An interceptor odor event occurs when odors released from the interceptor pipelines and pump stations are easily recognized by the average person and reported to SacSewer staff.
Target: No more than 6 interceptor odor events per year.
Purpose: This service level reflects the effectiveness of our odor control equipment and practices in the interceptor system.
Critical Impacts: Interceptor odor events can be caused by the failure of odor control equipment, failure to provide adequate odor control chemicals, and failure to keep facilities clean or covered for prolonged periods. The potential for odor events is increased when flow in the pipelines is low and temperatures are high.
EchoWater Facility Odor Events
Target: ≤8
Performance: 6
Target Met
Definition: A wastewater treatment plant odor event occurs when odors released from the EchoWater Facility are easily recognized by the average person and reported to SacSewer staff.
Target: No more than 8 EchoWater Facility odor events per year.
Purpose: This service level reflects the effectiveness of our odor control equipment and practices at the EchoWater Facility.
Critical Impacts: An EchoWater Facility odor event can be caused by the failure or over exceeding the capacity of odor control equipment; process upsets; overloading the solids storage basins; inadequate injection of solids under the soil at the dedicated land disposal facilities; scheduled maintenance of process equipment (prolonged diversion of wastewater to emergency storage basins); failing to adequately clean emergency storage basins; and uncovering wastewater tanks, vaults or manholes for prolonged periods. These events can also be caused by the Biosolids Recycling Facility and are highly influenced by weather conditions.
Biosolids Recycling
Target: 3,000–3,650
Performance: 4,256
Target Met
Definition: During the treatment process, organic matter is removed from the water, treated, disinfected, and converted to a fertilizer product called biosolids. This service level reflects the amount of biosolids recycled as fertilizer.
Target:The current target for this service level is to recycle enough biosolids to fertilize between 3,000 and 3,650 acres.
Purpose: Our biosolids recycling efforts represent our commitment to environmental stewardship.
Critical Impacts: The production from the existing Biosolids Recycling Facility (BRF) is linked to the capacity of the equipment, contractual obligation, and some discretion on how much material is delivered from the treatment plant to the BRF. Major changes in production levels will depend on future planning decisions to either expand the BRF or implement new biosolids recycling projects.
Water Recycling
Target: 200–300
Performance: 267
Target Met
Definition: This service level reflects the amount of tertiary-treated wastewater that is used for beneficial purposes, such as irrigation, instead of being discharged to the Sacramento River.
Target:The target for this service level is to recycle enough water to irrigate between 200 and 300 acres per year.
Purpose: This service level represents our commitment to environmental stewardship and enhancing the water supply through water recycling.
Critical Impacts: The amount of water recycling is highly dependent on planning and implementing water recycling projects. This includes selecting projects; mobilizing support for projects; formalizing partnerships and agreements to support projects; permitting; acquiring financing; and designing and constructing new facilities. In the short term, the amount of water recycled is driven by the recycled water demand and operation of the existing treatment facilities.
Service Level Report Cards
Learn more about our service level report cards.
