Water Quality Testing in San Francisco with Abbie Kubota

Listen to the episode here.

Wondering how we keep municipal drinking water safe and free of contaminants?

Stay tuned to hear from Abbie Kubota, a second-year MS Sustainability candidate, who is completing her 6-month long internship with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) tasked with sampling drinking water and wastewater and analyzing their quality in the SF Bay Area.

A message from Abbie: “I have grown up in the East Bay Area of California my entire life, and I am so fortunate to be able to work in San Francisco, a city that Bay Area kids like me dream of living in. If you don’t find me at work, I’ll be at the Farmer’s markets, trying new recipes, and spending time with my friends & family. I miss everyone back in Boston! See you guys in 2023!”

In this week’s episode, we introduce Abbie and learn about her background leading up to, and her experience, working in the water quality testing lab at SFPUC for the past few months.

Later in the episode, Abbie reflects on what UEP coursework and experiences have been impactful and helpful as she completes this internship. 

Image Left: Large pumps at Lake Merced pump station. These pumps are only activated if SF’s water supply is cut off due to natural disasters such as earthquakes. The water is pulled directly from Lake Merced.

Image Center: Abbie on a field visit to the Lake Merced Pump Station.

Image Right: Inside of a reservoir on Lands End in San Francisco. This is one of 12 in-city reservoirs with a total storage capacity of approximately 413 million gallons of water.

This is the first episode in a biweekly series featuring Abbie Kubota as we follow her throughout her time at SFPUC. If you have specific questions about her internship or about Abbie, in general, please email us at tuftsuepodcast@gmail.com.

Stick around for the next update, in two weeks, where Abbie discusses the role of SFPUC in supporting environmental justice communities through community engagement.