The Salesforce Tower is an extraordinary building in San Francisco, but not just because of its size and remarkable shape. Before erecting the nearly 1,000-foot tower, the building's owners, Boston Properties, worked with Salesforce and city officials to develop a plan to retrofit a gray water system in an adjacent building while also building an on-site recycled water system to treat “black” water. Black water contains human waste, while gray water usually consists of drains from sinks, bathrooms, laundromats and kitchens.

In total, Salesforce's on-site system recycles approximately 7.8 million gallons of water per year, which the company says is equivalent to the same amount of water that 16,000 residents would use in a year.

“There is ongoing drought in the state of California and in and around the Bay Area,” said Amanda von Almen, Head of Emissions Reduction at Salesforce. “We really wanted to make sure that when we looked at the sustainability of the building, we thought about it locally. “What are the local problems? What environmental factors need to be taken into account? It became clear that we had to do something about water and we really showed leadership here.”

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SAN RAFAEL (BCN) – The Marin Municipal Water District provides a direct supply of recycled water to residents through a recycled water filling station that opened Wednesday to encourage the county’s residents to reduce water waste during the county’s exceptional drought.

The station will be located on Armory Drive in San Rafael across from the Marin County Civic Center. Marin County residents can visit the site on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to fill their own resealable containers with recycled water. The district assumes that the station will remain open until autumn, depending on the rainfall.

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Promoting the use of recycled water is one of several measures to combat the exceptional drought in the area. Using recycled water for cleaning or irrigation reduces the amount of water that is drawn from the drinking water supply. Marin Water’s board of directors had previously declared a water shortage emergency and a mandatory 40 percent reduction in water consumption across the district.

Recycled water can be used to water lawns, trees, and gardens, and to wash exterior surfaces, windows, walls, and furniture, as long as it doesn’t run into rainwater. The water is also not subject to current water restrictions, which limit irrigation to specific days, so residents can use the water whenever they want.

However, residents should not use the water for drinking, cooking, bathing, showering, filling swimming pools or water toys, or connecting to household pipes.

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Before using the station, each county resident must submit an online or on-site application to confirm their residence and ensure they are using the recycled water safely. They will then receive an ID that must be shown each time they fill up with water.

The station accepts all lockable containers that can hold at least 10 gallons, and residents can collect up to 300 gallons of recycled water per trip. The county warned local residents to consider the weight of the water – just over 8 pounds per gallon – when deciding how much water to add.

Applications and more information on recycled water can be found at marinwater.org/recycledwater.

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