we have done that here with our cruise terminal. it will be the most green cruise terminal, i think, in the world. we recycle the gray water, energy efficiency. i am not sure what kind of leed certification we are going to get, but it is a model of public buildings that such a high standard. on behalf of the port commission, i want to thank everyone that participated, the america's cup of that authority, and everyone that has helped make this a reality. i remember when we tore down the wall, it seems like yesterday, and now we have a structure going up behind it. thank you all very much. [applause] >> thank you, a commissioner. next it is my honor to introduce the director of the department of public works muhammed new rule -- nuru.

muhammed has dealt with just about every element of public works and streets to you can imagine. mahomet is a landscape architect. he has worked in the u. s, africa, and saudi arabia. he tears numerous committees and interfaces with our local and federal partners on our behalf. we could not have a better person help lead this important project. please welcome mohammad thank you for the great introduction and thank you for being here today. i want to begin by saying how proud i am with the partnership we have with the port authority. we have been working hard to get this project to what you see today. there has been a lot of challenges, many agencies mentioned here. i think what is great about it is the leadership that mayor lee has brought to our city where we are now working together, all

city agencies, on many of our bond and capital projects, delivering great projects. every week, we go from different neighborhood to another neighborhood and there is some groundbreaking or opening of the project. i am just proud to be part of the city family and the partnership that we have with you, monique. i also want everyone to know that on this project, dpw is providing the project management, the mechanical engineering, and a landscape architect, you heard about the alliance with the park. i want to thank the partnership that we have with turner, knb architects, and the rest of the team getting a project this far. as you heard, we are on schedule so far. we do plan on delivering substantial completion of the

project in march. today we will be topping. following that is work on the floors and then the curtain wall and then pretty much the structure is all there. we are in a very good place at this moment. this is a special moment. finally, tracking jobs. you have heard from many speakers, we are doing pretty well. the jobs will involve over 1000 jobs. we are already at 182 people that have benefited from the project. thank you, mayor lee, for your vision for jobs for san franciscans on many of these projects. we are also pretty close, 90%, it all the contractors working with us. we have exceeded our lbe goals and hiring goals. the jobsi am very happy to be dg the project and i want to assure

you the project will be completed on time and we will be able to accommodate those big ships bringing thousands of people to san francisco. thank you for the opportunity to speak. [applause] >> thank you, muhammed, everyone at dpw. my job is really fun. i get to meet some of the most fascinating people around the world. the one that fascinate me the most have to be the one that spend their lives at sea. so i want to reduce next the president of metro crew stores. -- cruise tours. he is a sea captain graduate from the arena university in genoa, italy. he has sailed world wide for many years. he has worked for princess cruises and crystal cruises before joining metro services.

he has a master captain's license. he is a member of thepeople to . thank you for the opportunity to speak. [applause] >> thank you, u.s. coast guard area maritime security committee. he is also a member of the international cruise line council security. we could not have a better partner. please welcome step in now -- stefano. >> on behalf of metro crews services, a business that has been doing business here since the 1800's, we are so excited to be here today to see this incredibly -- coming an exciting project. as everyone said, san francisco is an incredible city. most of all, in addition to that, san francisco is an incredibly deeply rooted maritime city. the waterfront is in san francisco's blood, maybe more than any other city around the world. as a sea captain, i can tell you

that. it is an exciting place for a sea captain to sail into and away from. so it deserves, maybe more than any other, a world-class facility that allows us to deliver to customer satisfaction that every guest, quite frankly, expects coming in and out of san francisco, and we will be able to do that. i want to thank one person more than anyone else for this. there is a reason why so many times we have tried guest, quita terminal in san francisco but never got one. that is because monique was not there before. she is here now. [applause] it is quite obvious to everyone here what is the fundamental reason of why we are going to get this facility. we are looking forward to record business here. we will get almost 50 calls from princess cruises in 2013-

14, which is our longest and most esteemed partner. that is a record. we have not had as many calls from them, such a large commitment, and certainly not as many guests coming through because of not only the number of a terminal in san francisco but calls but the number of passengers on each of the large ships they will bring in. they will be here, they will bring jobs to our partners around the city. they will bring excitement, they will show san francisco to first-timers' to the city. they will be able to view this and understand what san francisco is all about. most of all, they will do that in style because of the new facilities that are being built. thank you to all of our partners. we are excited to be here today. we look forward to the future. it is an incredibly new facility. thank you to everyone here

today. [applause] >> thank you very much. thank you for the personal complement. next, it is my honor to introduce the general manager of turner construction san francisco and oakland operations. turner construction is the nation's leading general builder. they do about $800 million each year of construction here in the bay area. turner and 13 have been phenomenal. they have hit the ground running. we have thrown challenge after challenge at them. they have had a terrific, open attitude about it. he leads an excellent team whose unique experiences have really helped us to problem solve. one of the things i am most proud of them doing is, this steel behind me is american

steel, produced in arkansas and indiana, shipped to san leandro and fresno for assembly, and put in place. you can see them all around. i hope you will stay around and say hello and congratulate them for being our partner as well. [applause] >> thank you. this is an exciting day to day. it is an exciting time american . as part of the construction industry, i can tell you there are some fabulous projects going on in the city, and planned. hats off to the political leadership and industry leadership. with the jobs that are created, the opportunities created are fabulous. let me focus on something that is even more unique to this project, from our perspective. for us, not only is the completion of the project important, but also the journey.

our customers are the people that we take with us. i remember at the port commission the contract was approved and i talked about the journey that we would have. the people from turner that helped with the journey, seven years ago, i could not say when i'm about to say. one of the reason this is a success is because of the vision of the project. . as part ofcindy is a dpw projec. that is our customer. tina smith, our senior project manager. madison, one of our engineers. nicole. she is one of our engineers. manny is a superintendent. seven people on the job running the show, five of them are women. two of them, denis and pete, they are still men. we will see.

thank you for the opportunity and we look forward to the ribbon-cutting. [applause] >> thank you very much for noticing that and mentioning to all of us. it is my pleasure to tell you that i have the only all-woman port commission out of all four conditions in the united states. you have come to the right place. mr. mayor, it is finally time. please do the honors.

across america, cities and towns, homes and businesses all depend upon one basic resource.

modern civilization and life itself would be impossible without it. woman: okay, so today, we're going to look at how do we get our water? narrator: and today, it's a matter of simply turning on the tap. so often, we forget about the value of water. water is a commodity that is essential to life. 100 years ago, it would have been hard to imagine turning on the tap water. and now, it's an expectation. narrator: over 300 million people live in the united states. and each person uses an average of 100 gallons of water every day. man: what it takes to actually make clean water is somewhat a mystery to most customers. woman: so how does water get from the river into your house, or here at school? woman: somebody has to bring that water to us, and somebody has to take it away when we're finished with it.

man: the water infrastructure is vital for disease protection, fire protection, basic sanitation, economic development, and for our quality of life. man: you just can't visualize all the assets that are under our feet. we have about two million miles of pipe in this nation. if you're walking around in an urban area, you're probably stepping on a pipe. man: our grandparents paid for, and put in for the first time, these large distribution systems. woman: and in many cases, it's not been touched since. man: we're at a critical turning point. much of that infrastructure is wearing out.

narrator: our water infrastructure is made up of complex, underground systems that function continuously. these 10 locations take a look at the history, design, and challenges of our water infrastructure systems. each one represents a small part of what's at stake on a national scale. but understanding the challenges starts with understanding the value of the three basic systems. generations of americans have never experienced living without a constant, unlimited supply of water delivered straight to the tap, or without their waste flushed immediately away. i think people often forget -- because, you know, water utilities have made it

very convenient for people to get water -- how important this is. man: in terms of water supply, wastewater, stormwater development -- these are independent technologies. but what came first, most often, was a water supply system. the basic system is essentially the same as we used back in the 19th century. and in some cases, some of the same pipes. grusheski: philadelphia was the first american city to develop a water system and to take on as a municipal responsibility water delivery to all of its citizens. when william penn laid out the city, he actually chose a spot of land that had a lot of groundwater. however, by 1730, 30,000 people lived within the first seven blocks of philadelphia, next to the delaware river.

well, 30,000 people caused filth in the city and polluted their water sources. the groundwater was not potable. and in one year, 1/6 of the population died of yellow fever. now, they didn't know at the time that yellow fever was carried by mosquitoes. but the health issue was major in that first movement to build a water system. narrator: so they set out to find the cleanest source of water. although the majority of philadelphia's water now comes from the delaware river, early engineers found that development along the waterfront was causing pollution. so their search led them to the nearby schuylkill river. philadelphia developed technologies to pump water from the river into the city. these technologies established engineering concepts that are still the basis for our water systems today. europeans flocked here. it was a destination point to see the new world technology.

when charles dickens visited us in 1840, he was truly blown away by high water pressure on the fourth floor of the hotel he was staying in. nowhere in europe had he experienced that. this technology was doing something to support the life and the growth of the city. philadelphia, throughout the 19th century, was the major industrial city of the united states. all of these industries used water from this system. and it served as a prototype for many american cities, including pittsburgh and new york. man: new york city went to philadelphia and said, "you know, we're thinking of developing a hudson river water supply -- what do you suggest we do?" and they said, "we've had "a lot of problems on the schuylkill. "don't go to the hudson river. go to the upland and work by gravity." and that's what new york city did.

they first went to the hudson highlands, but 150 years later, it went to the delaware highlands. and really diverted the water that normally went to philadelphia to new york city. i don't think they anticipated that. narrator: the majority of new york city's drinking water comes from watersheds in upstate new york. a watershed is the area of land where water from rain or snow melt drains downhill into a body of water. mountains act as a funnel to feed rivers and lakes. and in this case, reservoirs. in the new york city system, water is collected and stored in 19 reservoirs, which can hold more than a year's supply -- over 580 billion gallons of water. almost all of the system is fed by gravity,

without the use of energy-consuming pumps. valves open to regulate the flow into the 85-mile-long delaware aqueduct -- the longest tunnel in the world. at hillview reservoir... the water is partitioned into another giant tunnel system. where it travels deep below manhattan. the pressure built up by gravity from the mountains pushes the water upwards toward the surface through vertical shafts.

these shafts feed the water mains of each neighborhood, which branch into smaller pipes below the streets... feeding into buildings and houses, into the plumbing, and finally, after its long journey, to our faucets. providing water to homes and industry is a monumental task, requiring immense infrastructure. but once the water is delivered and used, it must also be taken away. man: it's important that the waste generated by any society not be left around. cholera, and other diseases and problems, have been spread, because people wound up living in filth.

even the ancients understood that you couldn't have the sewage where you lived. and the easiest thing to do was transport it to another spot -- by water, or a river. most of the first sewer systems were on the east coast of the united states, often in places that already had developed a citywide water supply system. sullivan: in 1630, boston was basically three mountains, there were very steep hills. waste would run down quickly and dump into the harbor. and the tide would carry most of it away. well, this worked well for a while. the problem was, as boston wanted to expand, it started filling in the mudflats. the water could come rushing down the hill, it would hit the flat area and slow down. at high tide, it couldn't get out at all. it got so bad that the city took over, 'cause the city has a responsibility to protect its citizens.

boston built the first modern sewer system in the united states. ours was completed between 1877 and 1884. with this wonderful new sewer system, we were taking our filth and moving it out to the ocean. of course, all of this was untreated. in the 1960s, we were still pumping all of our sewage out to moon island, untreated. we would get swimmers here, never knowing, in the middle of summer, why you would have a cold. well, we were swimming in diluted sewage. melosi: the major way to deal with pollution, at least until early into the 20th century, was through the process of dilution. the assumption was that the capacity of rivers and streams, and even the seas, allowed for certain levels of pollution that eventually would purify themself.

as we get later into the 20th century, it becomes clear that the volumes of waste made dilution unworkable as a single solution. and so treatment became the ways in which we deal with pollution. narrator: to protect public health, starting in the 1950s and '60s, there was a push to put in wastewater treatment plants across the united states. today, with evolving technologies, the waste travels through multiple stages of treatment, removing tons of solids... settling out microscopic particles, and introducing bacteria that consume and decompose the toxic material. in some plants, the water is further disinfected through the use of ultraviolet light or ozonation. these plants cost millions of dollars to construct, operate, and maintain.

in population centers like los angeles, the scope of the task is staggering. the hyperion wastewater treatment plant serves four million people. it processes 350 million gallons of sewage and removes 500 tons of solids daily. after treatment at hyperion, what was once raw sewage is clean enough to release into santa monica bay. other cities and towns release treated wastewater, or effluent, into local rivers, lakes, and streams. as it flows downstream, additional cities may capture it for drinking water, consume it, and treat the water again. in other words, the water coming out of a wastewater treatment plant often enters the watershed, flows into intakes of drinking water treatment plants, and eventually finds its way right back to our faucets.

it takes huge investments to ensure that wastewater and drinking water treatment plants function properly to maintain a safe water supply. we made the initial investments in the plants and the pipes. but once we accomplished that, there was this great recognition that we had a series of issues associated with wet weather conditions. storm events where, all of a sudden, you're dealing with a lot of water. narrator: large amounts of rainwater can cause flooding. engineers developed two approaches to stormwater infrastructure to transport water away from the urban environment. one approach was to carry waste and stormwater through the same pipe. this combined system was less expensive than building two individual pipe networks. and stormwater was seen as a way to flush out the sewers. through the 19th century, the combined system was considered state-of-the-art