EBMUD
Technology and "EBMUD"
Technology plays a significant role at the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD). EBMUD is a publicly owned water company that supplies water service for 1.3 million people that live on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay. It provides water and wastewater treatment for Alameda and Contra Costa Counties which include cities such as Oakland and Berkeley. ("About East Bay"). As EBMUD's responsibilities to the public have grown, so has its use of technology from its inception to the present.
Before EBMUD was created, private water companies in the district had already completed two reservoirs: the San Leandro Reservoir in 1866 and the San Pablo Reservoir in 1916. After recurring droughts and a ten-fold increase in population in a span of just 40 years - from 15,000 in 1870 to 150,000 in 1910, the Municipal District Utility Act of 1921 was created which permitted government agencies to provide service to the public in a region. EBMUD was formed in 1923. It purchased the East Bay Water Company, a private firm, in 1928. By 1930 the population in the area swelled to 460,000, and EBMUD built several more reservoirs to cope with the increasing population. What was then the highest dam in the world, Pardee dam, was completed at about the same time as the Mokelumne Aqueduct, which brought in water from the Sierra Mountains ("About East Bay"). The aqueduct system provides 50% of EBMUD's water supply (Dodge).
Unfortunately, a risk that arises with elevated and buried aqueduct pipelines is that structural damage and major disruptions of water service could occur in the event of an earthquake. Pipeline failure could lead to a critical loss of water with thousands of gallons of water being released into the ground. The faults, such as the San Andreas, Concord, Hayward and the Coast Range -- Central Valley (CRCV), are potential seismic sources. EBMUD used the faults to calculate the probability of different events occurring each year and compared them to an earthquake to design structural parameters (Dodge).
In 1999,...
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