New well to provide water for San Bruno

By Mary F. Albert | Staff Writer
Published on Monday, October 25, 2004

SAN BRUNO -- After the state Department of Health Services gave San Bruno's newest water well a clean bill of health, the city officially "turned on" Well No. 20 Thursday and started pumping more than 600 gallons of water per minute into kitchen sinks, toilets and bathtubs.

Although San Bruno agreed not to pump water from its four other wells while San Francisco studies the sustainability of the Westside Basin Aquifer -- from which San Bruno, Daly City, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the California Water Service Company all pump water through a conjunctive-use agreement -- the city notified fellow aquifer users that it intends to use its fifth well, which was not originally included in its "no pumping" agreement.

"All parties understand what we are doing," said Public Works Director Scott Munns, who explained that if San Bruno did not use Well No. 20, the city "would not be realizing a return on its investment."

The two-year project to rebuild Well No. 20 cost the city more than $1 million dollars, estimated city Councilmember Chris Pallas.

"I am really happy we have [the new well] going," said Pallas, who explained that he has raised "all kinds of hell" to ensure San Bruno developed another well capable of producing drinking water.

Pallas had urged the department for years to become self-sufficient in its water consumption, in part because the area is prone to natural disasters, such as earthquakes, but also because the county's current contingency plan includes buying bottled water from commercial distributors around and beyond the Bay Area.

Another rationale for building another well in San Bruno is that pumping well water is significantly cheaper than purchasing it from San Francisco.

A unit consisting of about 748 gallons of well water costs roughly 35 cents to tap, whereas water purchased from San Francisco costs $1.13 per unit, said Phillip Smith-Hanes, the interim deputy director of the city's maintenance and operations division.