Posted on 06/13/2005 10:27:33 AM PDT by SmithL
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.
But preliminary comments from the agency indicate two things:
First, the restoration is technically possible without disrupting water supplies to San Francisco, Modesto and Turlock, the cities that are the beneficiaries of Hetch Hetchy water.
Second, it will cost a lot of money: From $4 billion to $8 billion, depending on whom you talk to.
"Regardless of what you do in terms of restoration, it will be expensive, " said Gary Bardini, the Hetch Hetchy project manager for the Department of Water Resources.
"People who want to restore the valley tend to pick the low end, and those against it favor the high end," said Larry Weis, the general manager of the Turlock Irrigation District. "So it might be wise to pick a figure in the middle."
For the Hetch Hetchy restoration true believers, Bardini said, "money isn't the issue, of course. The prospect of restoring the valley is what matters. But then there are going to be other people who say, 'Why make this investment when we already have a perfectly good (water delivery) infrastructure?' So it's hard to say how it will play out."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
They want us to live in caves. Glad we have fewer of these kooks over here in Missouri.
And after all the water is drained and the area is restored to its original splendor, it will be off limits to human beings, of course.
The valley is forever changed, and will be very different than it was before the dam was put in.
What's done is done. People should consider getting a life instead of wringing their hands over what was done years ago.
if a beaver who is part of nature builds a dam for it's purposes, it is ok, but if a man who is part of nature builds a dam for his purposes, it is not ok.
There's a Federal wacko judge who's ruled against the administrations salmon plan and is now planning on taking over the water management on the Columbia River, which will include water releases and breaching several power generating damns.
The extreme hubris of this individual is breathtaking.
I think an energy transfer tax is required. Those states that have off-shore oil, but refuse to exploit it, should have to pay a tax to the states like Louisiana, Texas, and Alaska that make the "sacrifice" of energy exploration.
California uses immense amounts of energy, but refuses to provide any. Tax the crap out of them.
But of course! It will be available for use ONLY by members of the Sierra Club, Earth First, and the EDF for nude no-trace camping.
Who's money is it they want to spend?????
Not exactly. The Sierra Club et.al. will have their "Resource Centers" (you and I call them "cabins").
No, they want you to pay through the nose for water, like a good little serf, while they get to play in their socialized "natural" wonderland, at your expense of course.
How many dams and canals are in Missouri? I live in Cali...
Does Missouri need irrigations for their farms.
Nothing in Yosemite is off limits to human beings.
Which one?
People like Judge Hubris are why there is Pacific Legal Foundation.
Judgie Wudgie was reversed.
Beavers don't destroy whole valleys the size of Hetch Hetchy..... and all the other animals and plants. In 5-10 years man can destroy Yosemite Valley and turn it into a big lump of cement like LA, but a beaver can never do anything in that scale.
How much more money is needed to restore the vegetation etc....?
So Californians, who are consistently short on water and power, continue to favor population growth from legal immigration?
Don't you just love statements like this with absolutely no proof to back them up. All of their proposed solution would just be taking water from others.
Heres my solution for SF. Drink wine instead of water, bring back outhouses, and bathe in either the bay or the ocean, whichever is closer to your house.
We have lots of dams. I live at Lake of the Ozarks, created in 1930 by a hydroelectric dam built by a private utility. Above our lake is Truman Reservoir, built by the Corps of Engineers, also a hydro dam. Beyong that are two or three more.
A travesty, as usual.
Remember, they're consistently short of "Billions of dollars", also.
I think some people are living in a dream. These pre-columbian dreams are just "romantisizing" a time period that can never be again. Environmentally concerned folks have to be realistic, humans will never go away. $$$ concerned folks have to realize that $$$ is not all there is. Selling our national treasures/life lines for $$$= more water, more food, more houses/ more $$ is not moral.
Powder..Patch..Ball FIRE
Yeah we have dams. And lakes, and canals. And the confulence of the two largest watersheds in the united states at our front door. Check out a map. Irrigation is also very widely used in Missouri.
And where will the Bay area get it's drinking water?
Can't we figure that moving water to a place that didn't have water will miss up other areas. Look at the Owens lake and Mono lake problems, with LA stealing all of their water.
He's a real asset that doesn't get the credit he deserves. He broke the story a few years ago about the Oregon's State Wildlife officials clubbing of endangered (yea, right), salmon that returned in high numbers. Can't have that now, can we, when we are telling property owners the fish are hurting so we need your property.
Thanks, Missouri folks. Didn't realize that.
There is tons of water in their front yard (Ocean). :)
I have heard that San Francisco does not want to lose the dam and Hetch Hetchy water, because they receive more than they need and make money by selling the surplus. Anyone know if this is so?
Au contraire, collectivizing the care of nature into an armed government monopoly is what isn't moral. It destroys any prospect of private management, which doesn't survive by perpetuating problems as do government agencies.
See tagline.
"Selling our national treasures/life lines for $$$= more water, more food, more houses/ more $$ is not moral."
Actually, selling land and natural resources in the free market would be the best control you could hope for. Try reading "Applied Economics" by Thomas Sowell.
This is why I'm strongly opposed to state-sponsored windmill farms. The environmentalists are nuts. First they spend billions on "clean" hydropower, and then they spend billions more tearing out the dams they pushed the taxpayers to build.
You know darned well that they would love to spend billions on windmills, and then spend billions more removing them and "restoring the landscape."
All with taxpayer dollars, naturally.
Beavers don't destroy whole valleys
You've not seen hungry beavers work have you? They do a lot of destruction.
> California, which is consistently short on water and power
Bah. California is *not* short on water *or* power. It's got a freakin' OCEAN. If California can't be bothered to buld a few desalination plants, I can't be bothered to care about their predicament.
Well, in that case I think it'll cost about ten trillion dollars.
That's peanuts here in Goofyfornia. It costs that just to build a bridge half-way across San Francisco Bay.
The trouble is America's population has doubled in the last 40 or so years.
And all but a fraction of that growth from illegal AND legal immigrants and their progeny.
We are increasingly running out of resources of all kinds.
But in a frenzy to pack even more immigrants in, they continually dream up new laws that FORCE us to conserve resources.
Most people don't understand the difference between cement & concrete.
Cement is an ingredient (very much like flour) and concrete is the final product (like a cookie).
Our water bills here in Suburbia No Cal just went up over 40%
They finally got all the water meters in and started charging for what we use. Then decided we didn't use enough to pay for their graft and payoffs.
I'm going to stop my program of watering my lawn every three years.
I know the difference. it just ticks me off when people don't and also most newspapers screw it up. That and anytime a truck crashes they say it jack knifed also near misses doesn't that mean they hit
I believe that a good deal of the water used by the humans in LA comes there as a result of the Hoover Dam.
We invested then, what's wrong with investing in desalinization now?
Can you drill a well for your own use ?
I figured you knew the difference basex on your comment. I just thought providing a simple descriptive example would be useful.
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