Hetch Hetchy restoration discussed

Sacramento Bee ^ | 7/14/5 | Matt Weiser

[SmithL]

A workshop in Sacramento Thursday on prospects for restoring the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park ignited passions on both sides of the debate.

The valley was dammed in 1923 as a water supply for San Francisco. A series of Pulitzer Prize-winning editorials in The Sacramento Bee helped spur the governor's action to study the matter.

The workshop at the Joe Serna Jr. Cal/EPA Building is part of a study launched last fall by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to assess the feasibility of restoring Hetch Hetchy. The goal is not to take a position, but to gather information.

The idea of restoration is controversial because it involves shifting San Francisco to a different water source and spending perhaps $1 billion or more to dismantle the dam and restore a valley that John Muir once called "Yosemite's twin." The study ordered by Schwarzenegger is expected to be complete in the fall.

[SmithL]

You can tell this isn't a drought year, or we wouldn't be having this silly conversation.

[ZGuy]

Restore Hetch Hetchy and legislate that San Francisco may not have an alternate water supply -- the best of both worlds.

[Paleo Conservative]

I wonder where all the refugees from San Francisco would go. That's where they get their water.

[ikka]

Won't the place look like crap after being underwater for 82 years? How will it look anything like Yosemite?

[Walkingfeather]

damn I wish I had thought of that! great point.

[evolved_rage]

IIRC, DiFi started a trend when she was mayor of SF of using money to maintain the pipes to Hech-Hechy for social programs. A bad trend followed by later mayors, leaving roughly a $1 billion in deferred maintenance. Are they using this study as a means of diverting attention away from squandering the original maintenance money??

[Walkingfeather]

I have an idea....

Tell them we will restore hetch hetchy but it will require a desalinization plant in san fransico..... but it must be run by a nuclear reactor.

[avg_freeper]

The goal is not to take a position, but to gather information.

sigh.....

[hedgetrimmer]

There are a lot of people, towns and farms that get water from that reservoir. Not to mention at least 5 hydroelectric plants. That billion dollars won't come anywhere near to compensate the people and businesses of California of their losses if that reservoir is "restored".

An interesting note, Hetch Hetchy is a natural reservoir and for millions of years was full of water due to a glacial moraine. The area had been drained for only about 20,000 years when John Muir saw it. If they really really wanted Hetchy Hetchy in its most natural state, they'd leave water in it.

[oyez]

If Hetch Hetchy falls about a dozen other reservoirs are going to be stricken. The hardship will be severe.

[null and void]

We should dam Yosemite, and open Hetch Hechty. Every 25-50 years switch back...

[Willie Green]

Tell them we will restore hetch hetchy but it will require a desalinization plant in san fransico..... but it must be run by a nuclear reactor.

Cool!!!! I'll vote for that!!!

Concern over fresh water supply is becoming increasingly common in our nation due to pressures from drought and population growth. Our coastal states are frequently evaluating the viability of desalination systems to provide their fresh water needs. Desalination is an energy intensive process, so it is quite common for these facilities to be built in close proximity to electric power plants. For this reason, it is also reasonable to consider the use of nuclear desalination as a potential option.

[ElkGroveDan]

ROTFL

[ApplegateRanch]

Go for it!

And, when its restored, keep the riffraff public out, so they don't sully its new pristinity with their foul, unnatural footprints and polluting exhalations. Instead, set up eco-friendly viewpoints with coin-op telescopes far away; better yet, use a satellite to send live-cam images to computers & TVs.

NV, CO, ID, OR, WA, AZ, and maybe a few other states, still have some water Californicators haven't stolen yet; let them make up the difference. It's about time they pulled their weight, and truly sacrificed for the common good of SoCal lawns.

Maybe divert some from those damned, Central Valley parasitic farmers, who are so lazy and selfish, they would rather pour water on their fields, than buy their food at the supermarket like normal people.

Also get rid of all those wasteful dairies, and send the saved water to Frisco, and let everyone drink soy-milk, like PETA intended.

[Calvin Locke]

Now that you mention it, I seem to recall that the BLM or whom ever "owns" Hech-Hechy leased the reservoir to SF for
something like $50K/year. There was talk a couple of years ago about normalizing the rate, say to $13M/year.

Numbers are to the best of my memory.

[tom h]

"Hetch Hetchy restoration discussed"

Hetch Hetchy is the reason that the SF region has the sweetest-tasting water in the entire state of California.

[tom h]

"Won't the place look like crap after being underwater for 82 years? How will it look anything like Yosemite?"

The bottom won't look like Yosemite but all the studies have taken this into account. Because the reservoir is so high in the mountains, and because of the local conditions, they have measured very low silt buildup at the bottom. So it is expected that it will be bare for a few years, and within maybe 20 years it will be filled with new growth and start to regain some of its splendor.

I am no liberal on these matters but many have said that Hetch Hetchy was more beautiful than Yosemite before it was dammed. If the water can be replaced by water from the California Aqueduct then I think they should do it.

[Our man in washington]

I'm very much against this. If we cut off water to San Francisco, then 100 percent of the population would be non-bathers, which is nearly double the current percentage.

[socal_parrot]

Hetch Hetchy Valley in 1908...

Hetch Hetchy Lake present day (looks like the same view)...

[ApplegateRanch]

It would be poetic justice if they found an "endangered" lake dweller, that was "dependent" upon the current conditions, thus hoisting the driving-force enviroes behind this on their own petard..