Posted on 08/20/2006 8:51:59 AM PDT by SmithL
Can Indiana Jones rescue Hetch Hetchy Valley from its watery Temple of Doom?
No sooner did the California Department of Water Resources issue a report concluding it would cost between $3 billion and $10 billion to drain the Hetch Hetchy reservoir and replace San Francisco's water and power supply than never-say-never environmentalists enlisted action hero actor Harrison Ford to their daunting cause.
The 64-year-old Ford flew his own plane into Tuolumne County this past week, then drove to Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite National Park to shoot a bit of added footage and commentary for the 19-minute Environmental Defense documentary, "Discover Hetch Hetchy." The short film, which has already premiered at a Nevada City film festival, also features the likes of former U.S Secretary of Interior Don Hodel and state Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis.
Jennifer Witherspoon of Environmental Defense, which has been leading the charge to restore Hetch Hetchy, said Ford was tapped for the role because he is "really dedicated to protecting and restoring important natural places around the world."
But Tony Winnicker, spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, whose 2.4 million customers rely on the Hetch Hetchy for their drinking water, had a very different take on Ford's involvement: "As an actor best known for starring in major fantasy and science fiction movies, appearing in a film about draining the Hetch Hetchy sounds like a role right up his alley."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
He looks perpetually depressed. Hey Harry, smile a little and hold it for more than 5 sec.
Dang.
'Frantic' is excellent as well.
Skip 'Sabrina'.
Never trust a 64 year old man who marries at 30-something woman.
Naturally, the bozos that want to wreck a good thing for the locals probably aren't going to be affected by
either the loss of a reliable source of water, or the cheapness of it.
Moro Lake is a dusty salt-infested barren pond now - because of LA's water pull from there.
Yep...which is why Ive been saying for the last few years : Harrison Ford has been replaced. (See Picture)
Nobody's mentioned one of his best more recent roles: as the murderous bastard in "What Lies Beneath." Because he has always played such heroic types, casting him as a malicious villain was great.
Here are two questions to ask yourself before pursuing your recommended course:
1) If you curtail the water supply to the City/County of San Francisco and they can't raise the money, where will its inhabitants go?
2) Do you want San Francisco's homosexual population, its liberal Democrats and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals moving into your neighborhood?
NIMBY?
I'm confused, who drinks water in S.F.?
The people on Lone Pine used to have nice gardens. Now they have yards full of rocks--not even any grass.
He kind of comes from the Clint Eastwood school of acting: "Don't just do something, stand there!"
I do like some of his roles, but as with most Hollywood types I wish he would just shut up and stick to acting.
Drain it and you need to spend billions of dollars just to take care of the mud because there is no telling what accumulated in that mud. Trace amounts of naturally occurring hazardous elements that normally wouldn't be a dangerous have been settling into the bottom sludge for decades in ever increasing concentrations. It must be disposed of or it either dries up and blows away or washes downstream into the water supply of millions of people, not to mention irrigation systems and prime fish and wildlife habitat. All in all a much worse environmental disaster than a dam in a National Park.
I live in Tuolumne County, and this has been in our local paper a couple of times this week. Apparently Mr. Ford was trying to keep this quiet until the movie came out.
"....Harrison Ford has to be one of the most one-dimensional actors in history. He always plays the same type role and always has the same facial expression...."
I'd do the same, too, if someone paid me millions of $ to do it.
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