Palo Alto partners with Mountain View, other Peninsula cities in planning colossal upgrade to wastewater plant
Seeking to modernize aged equipment and cut down on the nitrogen that flows into the San Francisco Bay, Palo Alto and its partners are embarking on an ambitious makeover of the Regional Water Quality Control Plant, a project that will cost $193 million and take about five years to complete. The City Council is preparing to approve next month a $161 million contract with Anderson Pacific Engineering Construction to upgrade the wastewater treatment system at the regional plant on Embarcadero Road, near the Baylands. … A key goal of the upgrade is to reduce this outflow of nitrogen, which causes algae to bloom in the bay, [plant manager] Jamie Allen said. Over the summer, the a red algae bloom across the region killed fish throughout the area.