In order to maintain and improve the quality of water in San Francisco Bay, Union Sanitary District (USD) has instituted a Pollution Prevention Program to reduce the quantity of pollutants discharged from our wastewater treatment plant into the San Francisco Bay.

One of the Pollution Prevention Program's goals is to identify and reduce the amounts of pollutants entering the sanitary sewer system and to confirm that any discharge to this system meets USD discharge limits. As part of this program, USD identified several types of business practices, through monitoring, which contribute high levels (which exceed USD discharge limits and/or California hazardous waste limits) of various pollutants discharged to the sanitary sewer.

As a result of these findings, USD has instituted a Commercial Regulations Program, which outlines requirements and options for discharging wastewater to the sanitary sewer for the types of businesses listed below. These requirements were implemented to reduce the pollutant loading to our wastewater treatment plant, have these businesses comply with USD discharge limits, eliminate any unfair business advantages, and ultimately reduce the amount of pollutants discharged to San Francisco Bay
.