Should the Hetch Hetchy Valley of Yosemite National Park be drained of its reservoir and restored?
On its face, that's a pretty easy question to answer. Of course! No landscape as exquisite as that within Hetch Hetchy that lies within a national park should be flooded.
Here's part of what John Muir had to say in his fight against the O'Shaughnessy Dam that created the reservoir:
Hetch Hetchy Valley, far from being a plain, common, rock-bound meadow, as many who have not seen it seem to suppose, is a grand landscape garden, one of Nature’s rarest and most precious mountain temples. As in Yosemite, the sublime rocks of its walls seem to glow with life, whether leaning back in repose or standing erect in thoughtful attitudes, giving welcome to storms and calms alike, their brows in the sky, their feet set in the groves and gay flowery meadows, while birds, bees, and butterflies help the river and waterfalls to stir all the air into music—things frail and fleeting and types of permanence meeting here and blending, just as they do in Yosemite, to draw her lovers into close and confiding communion with her.
Sad to say, this most precious and sublime feature of the Yosemite National Park, one of the greatest of all our natural resources for the uplifting joy and peace and health of the people, is in danger of being dammed and made into a reservoir to help supply San Francisco with water and light, thus flooding it from wall to wall and burying its gardens and groves one or two hundred feet deep. ....
(You can read his entire screed here.)
Of course, the nitty gritty is in the details as they say. Perhaps the biggest detail (not to minimize the objections of some San Franciscoans who worry about their water source), is the sheer cost of draining and restoring the valley. Cost estimates have ranged anywhere from $1 billion to $10 billion.
Now, come November, San Francisco voters will get a chance to start a process that could result in the draining of the reservoir that now fills the Hetch Hetchy Valley. An initiative on the election ballot would, if passed:
* Require San Francisco to create a water conservation task force
* Require the task force to present a plan to voters for greater water conservation and restoration of Yosemite National Park
* Give voters approval power over any recommendations through a charter amendment that will appear on the November, 2016 ballot.
So, what say thee? If you lived in San Francisco, would you push to see the valley restored?
Comments
People, the State of California, as well as the entire country, is BROKE and is getting deeper in debt at the rate of $3million a minute. Where in the Hell do you think we are going to get the money to do this project? Plus, where will the replacement of the 260 million gallons of water per day, being provided to the people of the Bay Area by the Hech Hechy Water System, come from, can someone tell me that? What's done is done and the Hetch Hetchy Valley is never coming back. Even if the dam was taken down, it would take over 100 years or more for the area to ever recover to its former state and most of us will long become worm dirt by then. So, get over it and get on with your lives.
Without a doubt - yes!
Yes, it should be restored, but I'll be mildly surprised if I see it in my lifetime (I'm 48).
I support the ideal of this project and it's a shame that the O'Shaughnessy Dam was built in the first place. It would be great if this project could be completed in the future but there are so many arduous steps that will need to be overcome before the process of restoration even becomes a reality. As one commenter pointed out, the state of California is broke and if a suitable site is found to relocate this water resource, it probably would mean billions more to build out the necessary infrastructure. If proper measures could be put in place such as water conservation and a master plan to relocate the reservoir, the odds of restoring the valley are very low in the next century. Lastly, this is a process that should not be fast tracked because it has a large impact on a necessary resource for millions of people.
Like I said, I support this idea and it's easy to say "yes", but the ends to the means is not so simple.
To reply briefly to Hiker Bob: Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is not the source of San Francisco's drinking water. The Tuolumne River is. The river is not going to disappear if the reservoir does.
So the issue is not one of water, per se, but storage. There are others options that can be studied, such as increasing storage capacity in other reservoirs downstream. But we won't know if studies aren't done. (Some already have been.)
It's ironic that government of a city that prides itself on being "green" is opposed to even studying an issue.
Restore Hetch Hetchy!! This time has come. Not only does Prop F in San Francisco open the space for a real plan to restore this magnificant valley, but also pushes true water sustainiblity and recycling. Its a win win.
Check here for more info: http://www.yosemiterestoration.org/
Yes.
Improvements to the water (and hydropower) system will be needed first - though they are not as onerous as many would suggest. See EDF, UC Davis, RHH and other studies
Make Yosemite whole, undo the greatest insult to our national parks and provide a template for improved water management. For a bit of history and a bit of inspiration, see Harrison Ford tell the story in this film:
► 21:37► 21:37
vimeo.com/26047094
Yes. Period.