Restore Hetch Hetchy

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Refuting the Myths
About Hetch Hetchy

WATER

Myth: Hetch Hetchy is a huge part of the California water system.
Fact: There are 19 reservoirs in California larger than Hetch Hetchy. In fact, it holds only 1% of all the water stored in reservoirs in California.

Myth: California’s water infrastructure hasn’t been expanded or improved since the 1960’s, while population has more than doubled.
Fact: According to an analysis by Spreck Rosekrans of Environmental Defense regarding recently built surface and groundwater storage projects, in the last 15 years alone, more than 17 times the storage volume of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir has been developed in California. .

Myth: Restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley will interfere with the Water Service Improvement Program (WSIP) being undertaken by San Francisco, to solve earthquake safety and reliability water problems of the water distribution system.
Fact: Restoring Hetch Hetchy is perfectly compatible with the WSIP program, and the groups supporting restoration also strongly support the seismic safety and other reliability features of the WSIP.

Myth: San Francisco will lose its senior water rights if O’Shaughnessy Dam is removed.
Fact: If San Francisco continues to divert from just below Hetch Hetchy Valley, their water rights should remain intact. (San Francisco’s water rights are actually junior to those of Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts.)

Myth: San Francisco will lose water supplies if O’Shaughnessy Dam is removed. The water system will be “dismantled”. San Francisco will have to take lower quality water from the Delta.
Fact: By diverting water from the Tuolumne River just below HH Valley into the Canyon Tunnel, and from Cherry Creek into the Mountain Tunnel, 95% of the existing water supply will be preserved. This does not require any change in use of Don Pedro Reservoir, and there would be virtually no change to water quality, although either filtration would be required for the Cherry Creek Water, or the filtration requirement waiver would have to be extended to Cherry Creek.

A 5% increase in water supply could easily be obtained from a variety of sources, including recycled water supplies, diverting water from the lower Tuolumne River into the San Joaquin Valley pipeline, or a slight increase in storage at Calaveras or Don Pedro Reservoirs. There is no need for San Francisco to take water from the Delta.

Myth: Water quality will be greatly impaired by the removal of O’Shaughnessy Dam, making the water unusable by industry.
Fact: The quality of the water that would be diverted into the Canyon and Mountain Tunnels is virtually identical to that already diverted into the existing system. Regardless of the source of the remaining 5% of the water, it can readily and economically be treated to bring it up to the standard of the Tuolumne water. Filtration, if it is implemented, would actually improve the quality of the existing water supply.

Myth: Removal of O’Shaughnessy Dam will impact the CalFed Process.
Fact: Since the missing 5% of the HH water supply is only around 10,000 acre feet, and is easily replaced, there should be no impact on Cal Fed.

Myth: Hetch Hetchy restoration would get in the way of Delta and Central Valley levee repair and flood control.
Fact: The issues of flood control and Hetch Hetchy Valley restoration are unrelated. There is no legally mandated cap on spending for flood control or environmental protection, and the amounts needed for both are well within what the state has traditionally spent on these purposes.

Myth: The Hetch Hetchy water supply system operates on gravity, and removing the reservoir will require huge amounts of pumping.
Fact: In fact there are many pump stations in the San Francisco water supply and distribution system today. At most, only minor amounts of additional water pumping would be required. The amounts of pumping energy required would be very minor.

ENERGY

Myth: Hetch Hetchy is a major part of California’s energy supply.
Fact: After installing some simple pipeline connections, removal of the reservoir would only decrease California’s electricity supply by two tenths of one percent (0.2%).

Myth: San Francisco will lose huge amounts of electrical energy if O’Shaughnessy Dam is removed.
Fact: More than 70% of the lost power would be saved under the re-piping scenario described above. The power loss would be in the neighborhood of 500 million kilowatt hours per year. This power can be replaced by purchasing about 10% of a new combined cycle clean natural gas power plant.

Myth: Removing the reservoir will make it harder for San Francisco to become an “energy control area”, which requires the approval of the California Independent System Operator. Being a control area reduces costs, and would offer San Francisco a level of energy independence.
Fact: In fact, several energy alternatives proposed to replace energy lost as a result of removing the dam would greatly INCREASE the city’s ability to become an energy control area. These alternatives would provide more reliable peak energy than the dam provides, since the dam is not operated for reliable peak energy.

OTHER MYTHS

Myth: Dam Removal and water and power supply replacement will be very expensive.
Fact: Best cost estimates by Restore Hetch Hetchy and Environmental Defense are $1-2 billion. San Francisco’s cost estimates are unsubstantiated.

Myth: Hetch Hetchy Valley is much smaller than Yosemite Valley.
Fact: Hetch Hetchy is actually half the size of Yosemite Valley.

December 16, 2005
Jerry Meral for
Restore Hetch Hetchy

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To get involved in the effort to restore Hetch Hetchy, contact Restore Hetch Hetchy at: info@hetchhetchy.org, P.O. Box 3538, Sonora, CA 95370. Telephone: (209) 533-4481.