Restore Hetch Hetchy

Hetch Hetchy in the News 2003

December, 2003

S.F. use of Hetch Hetchy studied
City doesn't need the Yosemite reservoir, grad student says.
By Mark Grossi, Fresno Bee (December 28, 2003)
San Francisco could do without that 117 billion-gallon reservoir filling a spectacular glacial valley in Yosemite National Park. So says Sarah Null, a University of California at Davis graduate student who has written a master's thesis on the removal of San Francisco's controversial Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite.

September, 2003

In the News

John of the Mountains: Following in the footsteps of John Muir - BBC Radio 4, (September 2, 2003)
"John Muir had one failure - he could not stop the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite being dammed. Now environmentalists are hoping to have the dam removed and, as Howard Stableford discovers, John Muir's words are still inspiring those campaigners today." Includes interviews of Restore Hetch Hetchy's Executive Director Ron Good and Harold Wood. (Includes Real Audio - Off-site link)

June, 2003

Hetch Hetchy would ease Yosemite Pressure by John Krist Ventura County Star (June 8, 2003). Reprinted on Environmental News Network.
To Ron Good, one solution to perennial overcrowding in Yosemite Valley seems obvious: Create a duplicate of that enormously popular attraction, complete with its own spectacular waterfalls, soaring granite cliffs and verdant meadows...

May, 2003

Restore Hetch Hetchy Opposes O'Shaughnessy Dam Modification (Press Release) May 9, 2003

• Restore Hetch Hetchy Appeal Letter - May 9, 2003

March, 2003

City by the Bay Becomes a Bottler, to Loud Attack by Dean E. Murphy New York Times (March 26, 2003)
The picture on the bottle's label might have brought John Muir to tears, but then that battle was fought and lost nearly a century ago... Some environmentalists who have formed a group working to dismantle the dam and store the city's water outside Yosemite described the bottling idea as a farce that went well beyond Congress's intentions in 1913. "This is another example of San Francisco exploiting the natural resources of Yosemite National Park," said Ron Good, executive director of the group, Restore Hetch Hetchy.

Move over, Evian, Hetch Hetchy's got cachet By Mike Taugher Contra Costa Times (March 26, 2002)
Ron Good, the Walnut Creek-based director of a small environmental group called Restore Hetch Hetchy, said customers who buy the bottled water might be inspired to join his cause -- razing the Hetch Hetchy dam to restore the valley just north of Yosemite Valley.
"It's going to educate people more about Hetch Hetchy Valley and they'll question why San Francisco is further exploiting the natural resources of Yosemite National Park," Good said. "They (will ask) why is this big hunk of concrete in the middle of the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park?"
Last year, Good and other environmentalists sought an agreement from city officials to fund a $600,000 study of restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley.

New Life for Hetch Hetchy - Editorial, Los Angeles Times (March 22, 2003)
"San Francisco, that self-proclaimed wellspring of environmental passion, is preparing to bottle some of its municipal water supply and market it as Hetch Hetchy Mountain Water. Shame. Hetch Hetchy may be as fresh and tasty as bottled water gets, but any good environmentalist with a sense of history would rather drink irrigation runoff... Someday, perhaps San Francisco will recognize that its pride in Hetch Hetchy is misplaced and that dismantling the dam is something that is really worth San Francisco's image of itself."

Yosemite in a bottle - Editorial Sacramento Bee (March 18, 2003)
"The idea apparently came to San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown back in 1998 as he lunched at a city restaurant named Le Central. Why should discriminating diners have to purchase bottled water from foreign lands when the city could bottle its own tasty supply from Yosemite National Park, captured by Hetch Hetchy Reservoir? "Hetch Hetchy will be a brand name, with national appeal," Brown boasted at the time. Now, four years later, the mayor is actually pursuing this pet project. We have an idea for what to do with the profits.

January, 2003

A Dry Hetch Hetchy? by David Kiefer of The San Francisco Examiner Staff
"It's an old idea, and a fairly radical one: Blow up the Hetch Hetchy dam and restore the valley to its ancient splendor. Replace the water supply with an expansion of the existing reservoirs that already surround the area.... Huey Johnson, a San Franciscan and a member of the Restore Hetch Hetchy advisory board, says it shouldn't be that hard: 'I worry that we've become so oriented on economic things that we have lost in principle that there are things more valuable than money.'"

For other stories, see:

Current News

2004 News Archive

2002 News Archive

To get involved in the effort to restore Hetch Hetchy, contact Restore Hetch Hetchy at: info@hetchhetchy.org, 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.

For inquiries about this website, contact the webmaster, at: webmaster@hetchhetchy.org

Updated 10-2-05

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