The Sierra Club has a new campaign: It wants to
restore the valley John Muir called “Yosemite’s twin.” But
California’s Hetch Hetchy Valley, once part of Yosemite National
Park, is presently buried under 360,000 acre-feet of water.
Resurrecting the valley would require draining the reservoir that
the San Fransisco area taps for its primary water source. Few seem
ready to take the plunge.
“Conceptually it sounds
like a grand idea, but there are so many details that it’s hard to
get your arms around the proposal,” says Michael Carlin, water
resources manager for San Francisco. The reservoir drowned the
valley in 1913, when President Woodrow Wilson dammed the Tuolumne
River, flooding Hetch Hetchy. Carlin worries about where the city
will find another water supply that won’t cost taxpayers an arm and
a leg.
The Sierra Club says it wants to work with
all water users and come up with a solution that satisfies
everyone. “We’re not talking about Kmart parking lots; this is a
national park and a national heritage area,” says Ron Good of the
Sierra Club. “We believe it’s possible.”
Good
says San Francisco could store Tuolumne River water in the nearby
Don Pedro Reservoir since it has a 2 million acre-foot capacity and
isn’t used to its full potential. At this point, however, the club
has no commitment from a legislator to carry a bill to dry out
Hetch Hetchy.
* Rebecca
Clarren
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Another plug to pull?.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
