2005 News Archive - Hetch Hetchy in the News

Restore Hetch Hetchy Announces New Advisors
MyMotherLode.com, (December 19, 2005)
A local activist group has announced the addition of six new members to its advisory committee:
1 Carl Boronkay of Tarzana is formerly of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
2. Thomas Clark of Bakersfield comes from the Kern County Water Agency where he was the General Manager until last year.
3. Larry Fahn of Mill Valley has been working with a non-profit group focusing on government accountability issues involving the environment and public health.
4. Dave Mihalic is a former Superintendent of Yosemite National Park.
5. George Miller is the retired Chairman of the Board of Capital Research Company.
6. Thomas Parker is Chairman of the Board with the Hutton Companies and President of the Hutton Foundation.

Editorial: San Francisco: On Hetchy, take citizens' advice
Sacramento Bee, (November 27, 2005)
Citizens advising the city's water department - unlike top city leaders - are not pooh-poohing intriguing studies that show the dam in the Hetch Hetchy Valley is unnecessary. And they suggest that San Francisco cooperate:
"There are studies that suggest that Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is not essential in providing water to the City of San Francisco and its wholesale customer," reads a resolution from the city advisory committee of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. "There are studies that suggest that efficient, cost-effective, environmentally friendly energy generation alternatives are available which, along with energy conservation could replace that power lost by restoration of Hetch Hetchy Valley. ..."
Says the commission on a vote of 10-1: San Francisco should "cooperate fully with the Resources Agency of the State of California during its current study, and to any future or follow-up requests by the State of California or other public agencies."

Debate over restoring Hetch Hetchy centers on question of cost
Estimates range from $500 million to $15 billion
by Glen Martin
San Francisco Chronicle, ( November 18, 2005)
All of the participants at Thursday's debate at the Commonwealth Club of California -- including Hodel, San Francisco PUC General Manager Susan Leal, and environmental and business leaders -- agreed that it would be possible to resurrect the valley from the bottom of the reservoir where it now reposes. But schisms quickly developed over the financial feasibility... "Our estimate is that it will cost $10 (billion) to $15 billion," said Leal. Her agency opposes the proposal... Her comment angered Tom Graff, the California director of Environmental Defense, who pegs the price at between $500 million and $1.6 billion to breach the dam and provide other water and power facilities.
Media: Audio Podcast of the Commonwealth Club debate is available.

Why we must restore Hetch Hetchy
by Don Hodel
San Francisco Chronicle, November 13, 2005
Former Secretary of the Interior under Ronald Reagan says: "For those of you inclined to set your face against this opportunity, I urge you to consider the following point: The arguments for restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley are overwhelming. Ultimately, they will prevail. San Francisco may, for a time, withstand the public and federal pressure and continue its unfair use of this part of Yosemite National Park, but sooner or later the hammer will fall."

Call to restore Yosemite's hidden wonders
Campaign is growing to remove national park's dam and return valley to its natural state
by Dan Glaister
London Guardian (October 31, 2005)
A movement to remove the dam and return the valley to its natural splendour is gaining momentum. Spurred on by a review initiated by the California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, activists are optimistic that one of the most controversial building projects undertaken in the western US may soon be reversed.... Ron Good, executive director of the pressure group Restore Hetch Hetchy, believes the campaigners will win. "There's one thing Americans can agree on, whether libertarians, Republicans or whatever," he said. "They want what's best for our national parks. Just knowing that it is there is very important to many Americans, even if they never go there."

Huell Howser of California Gold, center, Ron Good, left, and Mark Cederborg at Hetch Hetchy 6-29-05

KCET, the PBS affiliate for Los Angeles, aired Huell Howser's California Gold program about Hetch Hetchy on October 27th and 30th.
Watch for additional showings throughout the rest of California.

The program by Huell Howser (above center) features modern-day scenes of Yosemite National Park's Hetch Hetchy Valley, historical images, and interviews with Mark Cederborg, Chair of Restore Hetch Hetchy's Restoration Committee (above right) and co-author of our Feasibility Study and our Executive Director Ron Good (above left).

Into the Wilderness
The Frist Center for the Visual Arts celebrates the Hudson River artists
by Michelle Jones
Nashville Scene, (October 13,2005)
Bierstadt’s “Hetch-Hetchy Valley, California,” completed in 1840, is perhaps the definitive representation of the area before it was altered in 1915 to accommodate the O’Shaughnessy Dam. Just as this dam, with its perennial flooding issues, has been a much discussed topic of late, the recent hurricane damage and concerns about drilling in Alaska make revisiting the works of the Hudson River artists a particularly timely experience. With their presentation of the natural world and—sometimes overtly, sometimes by inference—the effect of man’s presence on that world, the beautiful touring collection of the Hudson River School Masterworks from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art may well inspire contemplation of environmental and ethical issues, as well as aesthetic ones.

Restoring Hetch Hetchy can be a win-win for all
By Ron Good
Modesto Bee, (October 11, 2005)
Restore Hetch Hetchy Executive Director Ron Good responds with facts on crucial issues relating to the proposed restoration of Hetch Hetchy: cost, priorities, sources of funding the restoration, population growth and water demand, reducing waste of water, flood control, economic value and job creation due to restoration, size of Don Pedro Reservoir, and net expansion for the Wild & Scenic Status of Tuolumne River. If the above link is broken, click here.

Move's on to restore oasis in Yosemite
Dam-flooded valley is being restudied
By Michael Gardner
San Diego Tribune (September 26, 2005)
An uncelebrated gem, Hetch Hetchy rewards visitors with towering granite cathedrals and cascading streams as postcard worthy as Half Dome or Vernal Falls. It is an escape to solitude, where even day-trippers can relish a true Yosemite experience without the bumper-to-bumper RVs and elbow-to-elbow visitors jostling on the main valley floor a mere 15 miles away. But the natural grandeur of Hetch Hetchy is spoiled by a very unnatural wall of concrete rising up inside this world-famous park. Movements to tear down the 82-year-old dam and restore Hetch Hetchy have emerged periodically, only to be dismissed as a costly, sentimental homage to a Sierra Club founder and eloquent defender of the valley, John Muir. Until now....

Stockton woman's film set for S.F. fest
Documentary is on Hetch Hetchy
By Brian McCoy
Stockton Record (September 26, 2005)
"San Francisco's Broken Promise," a half-hour documentary Barbara Dunton produced with instructor Carol Lancaster Mingus is an examination of the politics and profit behind the decision to dam Yosemite National Park's Hetch Hetchy Valley, the movie will be screened Thursday at the second San Francisco World Film Festival. In 1913, Congress passed the Raker Act, allowing San Francisco to build a dam in the otherwise pristine valley with the proviso that it would create a municipal power district. Instead, the city granted Pacific Gas and Electric exclusive rights to sell the power generated by the dam and pocket the profits. This policy continues today despite a 1940 U.S. Supreme Court decision finding San Francisco in violation of the act.

Editorial: Worthy compromise?
Amend wild status of Tuolumne River in exchange for Hetch Hetchy Revival
Sacramento Bee (September 25, 2005)
A group seeking to restore Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy Valley has its own technical report on how to drain the reservoir for San Francisco that now entombs this valley.... Restore Hetch Hetchy has suggested raising the big dam downstream, New Don Pedro. Hetchy holds only 360,000 acre-feet of water when full. In comparison, New Don Pedro holds more than 2 million acre-feet of water. The average annual flow of the entire river, the Tuolumne, is about 1.9 million acre-feet. San Francisco also owns two other upstream dams, Cherry and Eleanor, that hold about two-thirds of what Hetchy can hold. There's lots of storage. Restoring Hetch Hetchy, despite some silly claims from the Bay Area, doesn't mean losing this water supply to the sea. It does mean, however, some modest plumbing changes, some major political accommodations and an unknown amount of money that would be necessary.... By suggesting to increase the height of New Don Pedro, Restore Hetch Hetchy seems to be putting into play an amendment of the upper river's wild and scenic status as a way to provide ample water supplies and restore the valley. This is no small offer from a group that boasts members who have upstream rapids named for them.... a growing state and nation could use that second Yosemite valley. The environmental community offers a peaceful solution that involves a compromise on something very sacred to them, the upper Tuolumne River's wild and scenic status. The Hetch Hetchy restoration movement is quite serious. It deserves serious and non-emotional debate in Modesto, Turlock and the Bay Area.

Hetch Hetchy deserves thoughtful discussion, not fear tactics
By Lois Wolk and Joe Canciamilla
Contra Costa Times, (September 25, 2005)
As legislators who represent flood-threatened communities in the Delta we take the issue of flood control and levee protection very seriously. We also support a thorough study of the feasibility of restoring the Hetch Hetchy Valley and believe the two issues are entirely compatible. Neither issue is simple. Both are important and complicated and deserve to be considered based on the facts and the best scientific, engineering and economic analysis we can muster. In an effort to bring more light than heat to the matter we suggest Bay Area residents consider the following:

Hetch Hetchy restoration backers offer $1B plan
Don Pedro's height would grow 30 feet; utilities unconvinced
By Eric Stern
Modesto Bee (September 15, 2005)
"This reservoir is so famous, people think it must be very large and very important," said Gerald Meral, a former director of the state water resources agency who is working with Restore Hetch Hetchy. "Remarkably, (existing systems) will recover 95 percent of the water … and over 70 percent of the power." Meral said the people in Stanislaus County and San Francisco who get water and power from the Hetch Hetchy system should not suffer any losses if O'Shaughnessy were dismantled.... Supporters hope to keep attention on the issue, to win over politicians and utilities — namely the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which delivers Hetch Hetchy water to 2.4 million Bay Area residents.

Dam draining a possibility
By Heather Murtagh
San Mateo Daily Journal (September 14, 2005)
Practical, reasonably-priced solutions for draining and restoring Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley were revealed in a study released yesterday in Sacramento. The study, released by the Sonora-based nonprofit Restore Hetch Hetchy, states by diverting water from the Tuolumne River and a tributary into existing pipelines, 95 percent of the water and 73 percent of the energy that would be lost if the dam was removed could be retained. The plan calls for dam removal, valley restoration, water filtration and replacement of water and energy supplies costing in total about $1 billion.
Hetch Hetchy currently stores less than 1 percent of the state’s water, and the Don Pedro and Calaveras dams could be enlarged to make up for it, according to the group. The O’Shaughnessy Dam also creates 500 million kilowatt hours of electricity, less than two tenths of 1 percent of California’s electricity supply. Removal of the O’Shaughnessy dam would take five years. During that time ecological restoration would begin. The valley would appear restored within 10 years.
The study also suggests San Francisco begin a filtration program immediately to increase the quality of water sent to the Bay Area.

Environmental group claims Hetch Hetchy can be restored cheaply
By Justin Jouvenal
San Francisco Examiner, (September 13, 2005)
It would cost far less than previously estimated to drain and restore a Yosemite National Park valley that has longed served as a water and hydroelectric power supply for San Francisco, according to a new report issued Tuesday by an environmental group.
The new analysis by Restore Hetch Hetchy, which claims the valley is a natural wonder on par with Yosemite Valley, said it would cost less than $1 billion to complete the project, but Mayor Gavin Newsom and San Francisco Public Utilities Commission officials jumped on the estimate, saying it is unrealistic...

Plan For Restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley
By Lyanne Melendez
KGO TV (ABC - San Francisco), (September 13, 2005)
(Windows Media video clip also available on above website)
The idea that just won't die has a bit of new life. For years there's been talk of tearing down the O'Shaughnesy Dam and restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley. If that were to happen, how would the water supply that much of the Bay Area depends on be replaced? Many want to reclaim a canyon floor which has been under 300 feet of water since 1923. The group Restore Hetch Hetchy is leading the campaign.
Today they presented their own study, put together by water experts, engineers and ecologists. The study calls for getting rid of the O'Shaughnessy Dam and diverting some of the water from the Tuolumne River by building a new pump station. The water would flow into the tunnel system that already exists.
Jerry Meral [RHH board member incorectly identified as Ron Good by KGO], Restore Hetch Hetchy: "And by doing this we believe it's possible to replace 95 percent of the water and more than 70 percent of the power that would be lost if the O'Shaughnessy Dam is taken down and the Hetch Hetchy Valley is restored."
It would take five years to remove the dam. Restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley would begin within a few years. Mark Cederborg, Hetch Hetchy Restoration Committee: "Within two years you could walk through the valley and you would be wading through waist-high grass and see restored wetlands."

Study on removal of dam released
By Mike Morris
Union Democrat (September 13, 2005)
A Sonora-based group leading the effort to remove O'Shaughnessy Dam and restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley claims it is possible to remove the dam within 16 years. An 86-page feasibility study released today in Sacramento by Restore Hetch Hetchy says the draining of Yosemite's eight-mile-long mountain reservoir could begin in about 10 years. In doing so, the study claims, thousands of jobs will be created. Millions of dollars also will be spent in Tuolumne County if the valley is restored, the report said. Entitled "Finding the Way Back to Hetch Hetchy Valley," the study proposes enlarging Don Pedro Reservoir or Calaveras Reservoir in the Bay Area to replace storage lost by the draining of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Restore Hetch Hetchy's study states that restoring the valley will cost less than $1 billion. The group believes the entire project can be paid for by a combination of state bonds, federal funds and public donations.
"Yosemite is the jewel of the National Park Service and its crown jewel is sitting under 300 feet of water waiting to be restored," said Ron Good, executive director of Restore Hetch Hetchy. "If the American people get behind the idea, it will happen."

The Hundred Year War
Fighting to Save Hetch Hetchy—Again
by Dennis Pottenger
E Magazine, (September-October, 2005)
When Congress granted San Francisco the right to flood the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park to bring water and hydroelectric power to the city in 1913, it was supposed to be the end of the discussion. But these days, the fight to save Hetch Hetchy has been rejuvenated. Four major research efforts—three within the past five years—all suggest the same thing: that San Francisco’s use of Hetch Hetchy as its own private water tank may no longer be the best way to bring water and power to some 2.4 million people in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In California, a wide chasm over Hetch Hetchy Valley:
San Francisco resists pressure to dismantle dam
By Bobby Caina Calvan
Boston Globe, (September 11, 2005)
When the naturalist John Muir came upon this valley of meadows, waterfalls, and granite peaks a century ago, he beheld a grand landscape he described as ''one of nature's rarest and most precious mountain temples." Muir, a founder of the Sierra Club, declared the Hetch Hetchy Valley as Yosemite's twin.... For generations, the floor of this narrow canyon has been submerged under 300 feet of water.... But a century after the first debates arose, another push has emerged seeking to drain the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, returning the valley floor to its natural state and allowing the upper Tuolomne River to again meander. ''All these rocks, everything John Muir saw, are just holding their breath, waiting to come back up to the surface, waiting to come back up for air. It was a beautiful valley, and it will be again," said Ron Good, a former staff counsel of the Sierra Club and now the executive director of Restore Hetch Hetchy, one of several groups seeking to bring back the valley.

THE O'SHAUGHNESSY DAM DEBATE
A report on the battle over the one hundred-year-old O'Shaughnessy Dam's existence in Northern California.
(Television news coverage: illustrated online transcript, and options for streaming video or audio)
Reported by Spencer Michels,
Jim Lehrer News Hour, PBS-TV, (August 12, 2005)
This giant dam in the Hetch Hetchy Valley of California's Yosemite National Park is the focal point of a battle between the city of San Francisco, which built the dam nearly a century ago, and environmentalists who want it torn down. It's the latest and probably the most contentious example of a growing movement to eliminate dams in scenic areas around the nation. Ron Good founded Restore Hetch Hetchy. Quoting Restore Hetch Hetchy's Ron Good: "For many years, this has been a kind of private enclave for the city of San Francisco. They get millions of dollars a year from the sale of water and power. But this is a place in Yosemite National Park that belongs to all the American people and it really should be returned to all the American people."

What to Do About Hetch Hetchy
By John Garamendi, California State Insurance Commisioner
San Francisco Chronicle (August 5, 2005)
We can, and should, restore the magnificence of the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. Today, there is great momentum to support this effort. It is a window of opportunity that may not come again. Therefore, we must act now....

Is This Worth a Dam?
There's a movement afoot to pull down old or ecologically unsound dams, starting with this one
By J. Madeleine Nash
Time Magazine (July 11, 2005)
Might the O'Shaughnessy Dam one day be dismantled and that drowned landscape conjured back into being? That is the provocative question posed by an activist group called Restore Hetch Hetchy, which five years ago launched a spirited but seemingly quixotic campaign to convince the public that the time has come to get rid of the unnatural bone lodged in the valley's throat. "This was done by people, and it can be undone by people," says Restore Hetch Hetchy's executive director Ron Good.

Hetch Hetchy Reclaimed: Water questions are always flowing
By Jay R. Lund and Sarah E. Null
Sacramento Bee (June 26, 2005)
If the Tuolumne River System can provide substantially similar benefits without O'Shaughnessy Dam and the people of San Francisco come to support change, the political and media controversy on this issue might well melt away, as it did with the more drastic case of Mono Lake restoration. For restoration to occur, a renewed Hetch Hetchy Valley, like O'Shaughnessy Dam 80 years ago, probably must become a source of pride for San Francisco.

State Officials Consider Restoring Yosemite's Twin To Former Glory
Hetch Hetchy Valley May Be State's Greatest Natural Treasure
by Conan Nolan, NBC TV (June 20, 2005)
For more than 90 years, San Franciscans have been getting their water from the Hetch Hetchy Resevoir, but buried under all the water lilies may be California's greatest natural treasure and what some call Yosemite's twin: the Hetch Hetchy Valley.... Perhaps most galling to San Franciscans is having to follow the environmental example of their rival to the south, Nolan reported. In 1941, Los Angeles city officials began siphoning water from Mono Lake in the Owens Valley. But water diversion stopped in 1994. "San Francisco has the opportunity to do the right thing just like Los Angeles did with Mono Lake," [Restore Hetch Hetchy's Ron] Good said. State officials are expected to conclude that restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley is possible, without disruption of water to the Bay Area.

HETCH HETCHY RESERVOIR: To drain or not to drain
Next months key in debate on state's epic environmental issue
By Glen Martin
San Francisco Chronicle (June 13, 2005)
The debate over the proposal to breach the Sierra's O'Shaughnessy Dam, drain the reservoir behind it and restore Hetch Hetchy Valley to its former natural splendor is apt to intensify this summer with the release of a California Department of Water Resources study on the issue....

Draining Hetch Hetchy not a pipe dream
By Stephen Baxter
San Mateo Daily Journal (May 20, 2005)
Activists lobbying to drain the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir face many obstacles as a $4.3 billion overhaul begins on San Mateo County’s main water system, but the plan to restore Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley for recreation might not be as far fetched as some believe....

Editorial: The incredible shrinking valley
Sacramento Bee (April 17, 2005)
... Is Hetch Hetchy shrinking? Seeking a fair referee, we asked the U.S. Geological Survey to review its Geographic Information System, a database that overlays topographic maps, satellite imagery, vegetation analyses and the like. Sure enough, the Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy valleys are identical in length - 6.8 miles. Hetch Hetchy's valley floor is about 7 million square meters. Yosemite Valley is 14.2 million square meters. So the Yosemite Valley is about twice Hetch Hetchy's size. It's definitely not 12 times bigger...

Reclaiming the lost Yosemite
by Peter Golis
The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.), (April 10, 2005)
Last year, Tom Philp had a wild and crazy idea. If 2.4 million people who live in and around San Francisco could find another source of water, he suggested, one of the most beautiful landscapes on earth, a valley said to match Yosemite in its grandeur, could be reclaimed.

Parting the waters of what once was
Los AngelesTimes (April 5, 2005)
By Thomas Curwen
Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy Valley has legendary status in California for being the most beautiful glacier-carved gash in the Sierra you'll never see. Its death by damming in the 1910s is said to have hastened the death of John Muir, who vigorously fought for its preservation...

After the fall
Los Angeles Times (April 5, 2005)
A short story by Greg Sarris
On Dec. 19, 1913, the Hetch Hetchy Valley disappeared. With the stroke of a pen, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Congressional bill that authorized the construction of the O'Shaughnessy Dam. Ten years later, the Hetch Hetchy ? 7 miles long and...

Restore a national treasure: Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy Valley
by Larry Fahn, Sierra Club president; and
Tom Graff, California regional director, Environmental Defense
The Yodeler (March-April, 2005)
Today's headlines hark back to earliest Sierra Club history. The newly minted California quarter features Club founder John Muir, walking-stick in hand, gazing up at Half Dome in Yosemite. At a time when America's rush westward left little concern for conservation, Muir led the effort to protect Yosemite Valley and the surrounding wilderness area as a national park.

Hetch Hetchy feasibility grows - so does resistance
By Tom Philp -
Sacramento Bee, (February 6, 2005)
Suddenly, notions of restoring Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy Valley and restructuring the San Francisco Bay Area's water supply don't seem so far-fetched anymore. "This thing has serious political legs," said Susan Leal, the new general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. A transcript of a Jan. 20 meeting of Bay Area water leaders reflected her comments and her obvious vexation.

Restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley
Channel 30 Action News Television (ABC), Fresno, Calif. (February 19, 2005)
(Text and/or Video)
The long battle to restore one of the most scenic spots in Yosemite National Park is gaining momentum

Bringing down a dam
By Melinda Welsh
Sacramento News & Review (January 20, 2005)
Hetch Hetchy was once magnificent, unspoiled wild land. It could have the same splendor as its neighbor, Yosemite Valley, with the help of a grad student and a dam demolition.

Dam Shame: It's time that San Francisco let go of Hetch Hetchy
by Tim Holt
San Francisco Chronicle (January 16, 2005)
San Francisco, tear down that dam. The Bay Area can continue to hem and haw, or even fight a rearguard action...The inevitable removal of O'Shaughnessy Dam may take decades if you allow the supporters of the status quo -- the Bay Area Councils and the Dianne Feinsteins -- to dictate your position. But you will discover, sooner or later, that you have no more right to flood a valley in Yosemite than farmers do to drain rivers and destroy fisheries. There is a bull's-eye on O'Shaughnessy that is growing by the day.

Featured River and Partner Group: Tuolumne River and Restore Hetch Hetchy
By River Network
eStream (January, 2005)
By understanding the tragic history of Hetch Hetchy, the American people can now realize that the dam needn't have been built in the first place. But nearing the century mark since the ill-fated decision was made, there is a growing movement of Californians who believe the beautiful Hetch Hetchy Valley can and should be restored.

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 10-12-05

Restore Hetch Hetchy

Home >> Hetch Hetchy in the News

Hetch Hetchy in the News Media

For the Calendar Year 2005