Alan R. Wong is currently the SFPUC’s Chief Water Treatment Operator for the San Francisco, Local Retail System. He is a licensed Civil Engineer, holds a Bachelors in Science in Civil Engineering from UC Berkeley, and has various water/distribution operator certificates. With over 30 years of experience in the water industry, Wong has been with…
Author: Roberto Lopez
What Being a Disaster Service Worker Means to Ryan Gabriel
In Ryan Gabriel’s 17 years with the SFPUC, he has learned a great deal of understanding the City and Bay Area’s water infrastructure operations and building his experience in emergency response. Throughout his career, Gabriel has learned the ability translate and expand these skillsets and apply them to other types of incident response. “I have…
SFPUC Staff Continue to Get the Lead Out
The water that the SFPUC delivers to customers is lead-free. There is no lead in San Francisco’s distribution lines, and all lead service lines from the distribution system were removed in the 1980s. Since then, whenever a previously unidentified lead service line is found during the course of construction or maintenance work, it is quickly…
No Margin For Error
Last month SFPUC crews completed work installing a 16 inch bypass pipeline at the busy intersection of Mission Street near Cortland. In a busy traffic corridor with buses, cars, bikes and pedestrians crews worked carefully to ensure that pipe line was installed safely without disrupting normal traffic and neighborhood activity. Work was further complicated due to…
SFPUC Crews Continue Essential Roles to Repair Water Main Breaks
Day or night, holiday or weekday, and even throughout the current COVID-19 crisis, SFPUC crews continue their essential roles to fix water main breaks. Ensuring thousands of people receive high-quality drinking water is a nonstop operation. Here’s a snap shot of what the SFPUC’s crews do every day — to make sure customers have the…
The Role of the SFPUC in Fire Emergencies
Fire emergencies, while not an everyday occurrence, do happen throughout San Francisco. Fires are routinely handled by “first responders” — firefighters, paramedics, and police — and go largely unnoticed. In certain fire related events, SFPUC staff may be called on to assist firefighters with providing water to extinguish fires. The SFPUC: A Partner and First…