Posted on 11/12/2004 10:35:05 AM PST by NormsRevenge
OAKLAND - The Schwarzenegger administration has decided to assess studies of restoring the submerged Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, an idea that has been fiercely criticized by San Francisco business and government interests. The governor's intentions came to light Thursday in a letter sent on his behalf by Resources Agency Secretary Mike Chrisman to two Assembly Democrats who have pushed for a state examination of re-establishing the valley.
Chrisman wrote that the Department of Parks and Recreation would "review the growing body" of studies on Hetch Hetchy, including analyses by Environmental Defense, a conservation group, and the University of California, Davis.
The department also will work with the National Park Service to estimate the parkland value of a restored valley. Further, the state Department of Water Resources will "consider" the impact on water supply for 2.4 million residents on the San Francisco Peninsula, parts of Santa Clara County and the East Bay who get their water from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, which sits behind the 80-year-old O'Shaughnessy Dam.
"As the various interests discuss the prospect of restoring Hetch Hetchy, we must balance our dreams and aspirations, our limited financial resources, and our need for water and power reliability," Chrisman wrote in the Nov. 8 letter.
Lester Snow, Water Resources director, stressed in an interview that the state will not conduct an exhaustive analysis of restoring Hetch Hetchy, much less take a position on removing the dam.
Rather, he said the two agencies will collect data from studies dating back at least to the 1980s, gather comment and write an assessment within a year.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Hetch Hetchy Ping
No water for you!
Let them shower with bottled water.
Why can't the lefties in SF emulate their brethren in frog-land.....simply don't wash...............perhaps they don't
Heh, California has money to burn. Just pass another bond issue!
Good, "Red" California doesn't need to be giving water to "Blue" California. They don't need us they have all the creative types.
The average northern California household uses less than half the water than those south of the Tehachipis. Part of the reason is weather, but the rest is a culture of conservation dating back to the droughts of the mid 70s.
No, I don't have a source for that tid-bit; I read it in the Chron long before there was an Internet.
BTTT!!!!!!!
This idea is the most royal ripoff of the California taxpayer and citizen I've seen proposed in a long time.
The proponents always couch their argument in taking something away from the evil city government of San Francisco. What they truly want is to drastically restrict water to the San Francisco peninsula to stop its from growing in population. When the Sierra Club failed to defeat the bond in San Franciso, they changed strategies and started calling for the dam to be demolished.
And its not just a water supply they will destroy. Its also 5 hydroelectric plants that just won't get rebuilt in todays political climate.
Thats it in a nutshell, and Mr. "I have 65% of the entire watersupply of California in my power through the Sierra Nevada Conservancy" Schwarzenegger just might demolish the dam and damn the people of California. All that dictatorial control from the establisment of the conservancy has really emboldened him.
It's nice to see someone who can grasp the full picture.
Thank you! :-)
Let the 'Friscans get thirsty in the dark. hee hee
I seem to remember that the Sierra Club's first big issue was to oppose the flooding of Hetch Hetchy. Doesn't look like they were too effective.
The power from those plants is sold into the grid. Everybody in California will suffer if those plants go offline with higher prices and insufficient supply. The Sierra Club is throwing out a red herring about San Francisco because they think people will side with them and not the city. They are not telling the truth at all about their true intentions or the impact it will have on California.
We already pay the highest rates for power in this state. Gov. Schwarzenegger would really harm this state should he allow the demolition of the dam. But then, maybe thats what he wants to do, considering his appointments of radical land use planners, radical environmentalists and radical labor activists to high state office.
John Muir had the Sierra Club opposing Hetch Hetchy back around 1912- I don't think they support the current plan of restoring the valley. But interestingly enough the Reagan Administration floated the idea of restoring Hetch Hetchy back in 1986.
Hetch Hetchy is a natural reservoir. It has held ice or water almost its entire geologic history. It filled in and was a meadow for less than 20,000 years. So one could argue that a "restored" Hetch Hetchy would contain water,as that has been its natural state for millions of years.
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