A new sculpture makes the Bayview’s Southeast Treatment Plant easier on the eyes, but more importantly, a $717 million upgrade just made it easier on the nose for people who live near SF’s largest wastewater treatment plant.

San Franciscans may be more aware of the Lake Merced-area wastewater treatment plant known as the Oceanside Treatment Plant because of a whimsical 2008 protest ballot measure effort to name that sewage plant after George W. Bush. But the Bayview’s Southeast Treatment Plant is a far more significant sewage treatment plant, purifying a full 80% of SF’s wastewater.

And the place just received a $717 million upgrade that was completed in September. Part of that upgrade was a 335-foot long sculpture by artist Norie Sato, intended to make the exterior less ugly. But another aspect to the upgrade was the addition of new equipment to “significantly reduce odors for the Bayview neighborhood.”

So did it work? Now four months after the upgrade was completed, Mission Local reports that Bayview residents do feel that the wastewater treatment plant smells substantially less awful.

Or rather, it’s an improvement, but not necessarily a complete elimination of the foul smells. “It’s not smelly all the time,” Alijah Mestayer-Orollo, who works in the neighborhood, told Mission Local. “But there’s definitely a couple days in a row where it’s still hella smelly.”

The plant was built in 1952, and mitigation of odors was simply not considered an important factor at the time. Whereas now, the Southeast Treatment Plant handles 45 million gallons of wastewater generally every day, and during peak storm times, can handle 250 million gallons daily. Given those volumes of wastewater, the relief to Bayview residents should be substantial.  

Related: Photo Du Jour: Southeast Wastewater Treatment Plant [SFist]

Image: SFPUC