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HETCH HETCHY RESERVOIR: To drain or not to drain
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 6/13/5 | Glen Martin

Posted on 06/13/2005 10:27:33 AM PDT by SmithL

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To: hmong

We have lots of dams. I live at Lake of the Ozarks, created in 1930 by a hydroelectric dam built by a private utility. Above our lake is Truman Reservoir, built by the Corps of Engineers, also a hydro dam. Beyong that are two or three more.


21 posted on 06/13/2005 10:38:05 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: bigfootbob
He just sent one out today on District Judge James Redden's decision.

A travesty, as usual.

22 posted on 06/13/2005 10:39:04 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (The environment is too complex and too important to be managed by central planning.)
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To: SmithL
So, California, which is consistently short on water and power, is seriously thinking about spending Billions of dollars to get rid of both water and power?

Remember, they're consistently short of "Billions of dollars", also.

23 posted on 06/13/2005 10:40:30 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: GladesGuru
True. We just contracted them last week to sue our county commissioners for thinking about expanding the Critical Areas Ordinance in my county to match the most egregious land theft county policy in the Nation, King County Washington's CAO.

We are very close to a revolution in this state, I've heard talk like that all of my 51 years, but it is beginning to get hugh and series here in the Soviet of Washington, and I'm not kidding.
24 posted on 06/13/2005 10:41:45 AM PDT by bigfootbob
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To: bigfootbob

I think some people are living in a dream. These pre-columbian dreams are just "romantisizing" a time period that can never be again. Environmentally concerned folks have to be realistic, humans will never go away. $$$ concerned folks have to realize that $$$ is not all there is. Selling our national treasures/life lines for $$$= more water, more food, more houses/ more $$ is not moral.


25 posted on 06/13/2005 10:41:49 AM PDT by hmong
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To: hmong

Powder..Patch..Ball FIRE

Yeah we have dams. And lakes, and canals. And the confulence of the two largest watersheds in the united states at our front door. Check out a map. Irrigation is also very widely used in Missouri.


26 posted on 06/13/2005 10:42:10 AM PDT by BallandPowder
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To: SmithL

And where will the Bay area get it's drinking water?


27 posted on 06/13/2005 10:44:09 AM PDT by HereInTheHeartland
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To: Age of Reason

Can't we figure that moving water to a place that didn't have water will miss up other areas. Look at the Owens lake and Mono lake problems, with LA stealing all of their water.


28 posted on 06/13/2005 10:44:13 AM PDT by hmong
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To: Carry_Okie

He's a real asset that doesn't get the credit he deserves. He broke the story a few years ago about the Oregon's State Wildlife officials clubbing of endangered (yea, right), salmon that returned in high numbers. Can't have that now, can we, when we are telling property owners the fish are hurting so we need your property.


29 posted on 06/13/2005 10:45:56 AM PDT by bigfootbob
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To: BallandPowder

Thanks, Missouri folks. Didn't realize that.


30 posted on 06/13/2005 10:46:22 AM PDT by hmong
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To: HereInTheHeartland

There is tons of water in their front yard (Ocean). :)


31 posted on 06/13/2005 10:47:52 AM PDT by hmong
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To: w1andsodidwe

I have heard that San Francisco does not want to lose the dam and Hetch Hetchy water, because they receive more than they need and make money by selling the surplus. Anyone know if this is so?


32 posted on 06/13/2005 10:48:40 AM PDT by SisBoombah
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To: hmong
Selling our national treasures/life lines for $$$= more water, more food, more houses/ more $$ is not moral.

Au contraire, collectivizing the care of nature into an armed government monopoly is what isn't moral. It destroys any prospect of private management, which doesn't survive by perpetuating problems as do government agencies.

See tagline.

33 posted on 06/13/2005 10:49:11 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (The environment is too complex and too important to be managed by central planning.)
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To: hmong

"Selling our national treasures/life lines for $$$= more water, more food, more houses/ more $$ is not moral."

Actually, selling land and natural resources in the free market would be the best control you could hope for. Try reading "Applied Economics" by Thomas Sowell.


34 posted on 06/13/2005 10:50:43 AM PDT by CSM ( If the government has taken your money, it has fulfilled its Social Security promises. (dufekin))
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To: SmithL

This is why I'm strongly opposed to state-sponsored windmill farms. The environmentalists are nuts. First they spend billions on "clean" hydropower, and then they spend billions more tearing out the dams they pushed the taxpayers to build.

You know darned well that they would love to spend billions on windmills, and then spend billions more removing them and "restoring the landscape."

All with taxpayer dollars, naturally.


35 posted on 06/13/2005 10:50:43 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: hmong

Beavers don't destroy whole valleys

You've not seen hungry beavers work have you? They do a lot of destruction.


36 posted on 06/13/2005 10:51:40 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple
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To: SmithL
The liberals are truly insane. Maybe we do not need the water from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir this year because it is a very wet year for CA. and the Sierras. But when the drought years come, which they most certainly will, we will need that water big time. The political correctness disease is truly dangerous to our health and other living things.
37 posted on 06/13/2005 10:51:42 AM PDT by Uncle Hal
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To: w1andsodidwe
Don't you just love statements like this with absolutely no proof to back them up.

Actually there's plenty of proof and. if we had the money, removing the dam would actually be economically beneficial to the area. The dam removal proposal suggests raising the dam at Lake Don Pedro, which could result in a net increase of storage capacity. Raising the lake level would also allow the Don Pedro overflow dam to be converted into a second powerhouse, matching and possibly exceeding Hetch Hetchy's power output. Also, since the Hetch Hetchy water pipeline runs alongside Don Pedro anyway, connecting the drinking water supplies at that point would be trivial. All told, the dam removal proposal wouldn't eliminate ANY water or energy supplies, it would just relocate them from Yosemite National Park to the foothills downstream. Whether it's worth several billion dollars to achieve no major gain in either power generation or water storage is another discussion...we'd spend billions and essentially end up with what we already have.

Politically, it's another story. The Don Pedro Dam and reservoir are owned by Modesto and Turlock, while Hetch Hetchy is owned by San Francisco. San Francisco makes a nice profit from their power station, and they don't want to lose control of that revenue source in favor of a profit sharing agreement with the other two districts. It's that profit, not concerns about water availability, that motivates San Francisco to keep the dam.
38 posted on 06/13/2005 10:53:46 AM PDT by Arthalion
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To: SmithL

> California, which is consistently short on water and power

Bah. California is *not* short on water *or* power. It's got a freakin' OCEAN. If California can't be bothered to buld a few desalination plants, I can't be bothered to care about their predicament.


39 posted on 06/13/2005 10:55:31 AM PDT by orionblamblam ("You're the poster boy for what ID would turn out if it were taught in our schools." VadeRetro)
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To: hmong
"There is tons of water in their front yard (Ocean). :)"

That's fairly hard to use without huge infrastructure investments.
Hetch Hetchy provides some of the best water in the country to San Francisco. Its there and working.
This seems to be just another scheme by those who want to rid the earth of human life.
40 posted on 06/13/2005 10:56:51 AM PDT by HereInTheHeartland
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