Torrent of Debate Loosed by Hodel’s Hetch Hetchy Idea : Audacious Plan Stirs Imagination of Environmentalists, Heat From Critics

It was an audacious suggestion, at best. Here in San Francisco, it was labeled devious, lunatic, dumb.

It was Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel’s idea--he is careful not to call it a “proposal”--to drain the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park, break up the 430-foot O’Shaughnessy Dam that created the lake, find a substitute for the glacially pure drinking water it provides to 2 million people in the San Francisco Bay Area, and restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley to its natural state.

Never has a dam this big been demolished. Never has a natural restoration been attempted on such a scale. Never has a large reservoir been intentionally drained in a state where life hinges on the ability to capture and transport water. No one knows how much it would cost.

Stirs the Imagination

But improbable as the idea seems, Hodel’s suggestion to ease crowding in the park by creating “a second Yosemite Valley” has stirred the imagination of people such as William Penn Mott Jr., the 77-year-old director of the National Park Service. Mott remembers viewing Hetch Hetchy Valley as a child, before it was dammed in 1923 after a bitter environmental battle. O’Shaughnessy Dam is a “monument to a mistake,” he said, and one he would like to fix.

Moreover, interviews with more than 30 water officials, university professors, engineers, environmentalists, demolition experts and government officials indicate that the logistical, structural and biological obstacles could be overcome if the money and, most importantly, the political will can be found.

“The fact that this doesn’t have a precedent doesn’t mean it can’t be done,” said Mark Loizeaux, president of Controlled Demolition Co. in Baltimore, which has knocked down buildings and other structures around the world.

Jack Morehead, superintendent of Yosemite National Park, estimates that within 10 years of removal of the dam, the valley would be restored to enough of its natural state to give visitors a “pleasant experience.”

Implacably Opposed

San Francisco officials remain implacably opposed to the idea and are summoning every weapon in their political arsenal to kill it. “We’ll pull out all the stops to make sure that it doesn’t advance past the stage of notion,” Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said.

For 64 years, water so fine that some people claim to prefer it to Perrier has flowed into residential water pipes from Hetch Hetchy. It is one of the world’s purest mountain lakes, fed by the Tuolumne River from its source in the snow melt of a 459-square-mile Sierra Nevada watershed.

But Hetch Hetchy fills more than water glasses in San Francisco. It has become a sort of colorless gold that keeps this city’s treasury afloat. The system is a source of cheap, city-owned hydroelectric power. In the fiscal year ended June 30, the Hetch Hetchy power system generated $89 million in revenue. After meeting operating costs, $49 million, mostly from the sale of power, went into San Francisco’s $1.1-billion general fund.

San Francisco is home to some of the most influential environmentalist groups in the nation and its political leaders have championed some of the most far-reaching environmental protection legislation of the last 25 years.

The irony has not been lost on Hodel.

‘Tremendous Credibility’

“They talk about their great concern for the environment in San Francisco,” Hodel said recently. “Well, there is a way they could put tremendous credibility behind their interest if they would get serious.”

Hodel returns Tuesday to his Washington office from a visit to Alaska, and some preliminary staff work on his Hetch Hetchy bombshell will await him. Interior Department studies suggest that the massive task could not be completed before the year 2012.

“We’re talking about our children, or our grandchildren,” said Interior Department spokesman Alan Levitt.

Even then, Hodel’s stated goal--to create a “second Yosemite Valley” to ease crowding in the popular national park--might not be realized even if the Hetch Hetchy Valley is restored. Hetch Hetchy Reservoir covers 1,861 acres, less than half the size of the 4,400-acre Yosemite Valley, now choked with the cars and recreational vehicles of 2.85 million tourists a year.

“It’s a beautiful canyon, an inspiring canyon. I wouldn’t say it’s a second Yosemite Valley, or as dramatic. I don’t think it (restoring Hetch Hetchy) will stop them from going to Yosemite Valley,” Mott said.

Problems and Solutions

What follows is an examination of some of the problems--and potential solutions--that confront the federal government if it gets serious about restoring Hetch Hetchy.

The 360,000-acre-foot reservoir could be drained in a month by simply opening its manually operated valves and a by-pass tunnel, officials said. Demolition of the dam is a bit tougher, particularly since it is rooted in 100 feet of bedrock, and rises more than 300 feet above the stream bed.

“As an engineer, I’ll tell you I can do anything,” said Harold Cook, the state engineer responsible for inspecting O’Shaughnessy Dam. “But I’d retire first. It’s not a job I’d want to tackle.”

One hundred men, two years and “hundreds of different detonations” would be needed to raze the dam, said Loizeaux of the demolition company. He estimated the cost at $8 million to $10 million--not including trucking out the rubble from the 910-foot-long dam that contains 674,303 cubic yards of concrete and 760,000 pounds of steel.

People have more experience with reforestation. When Lake Eleanor Reservoir, adjacent to Hetch Hetchy, was drained for dam repairs in 1985, the meadow grass grew back quickly. The same could be expected at Hetch Hetchy, according to park service officials. Identical species from Yosemite Valley could be used to replant the drained-out valley for less than $10 million, said Paul Zinke, forestry professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Black oak and ponderosa pines would mature over a 50-year period.

‘Like a Bathtub Ring’

One lasting scar would be a high-water mark around the granite cliffs, “like a bathtub ring,” Zinke said. Park chief Morehead estimated that the ring would disappear within 500 years.

“To see how animals and plants would repopulate the valley would be of tremendous scientific interest,” Morehead said.

A factor making restoration easier is that there is little sediment in the lake bed. The reason is that runoff cascades down granite, not over soil, which also explains the purity of Hetch Hetchy water.

“If you took the dam out, the first-year runoffs would clean out any sediment,” said Dean Coffey, manager of Hetch Hetchy Water and Power.

The logistics of restoring the valley are nothing compared to what it would take to make San Francisco whole by finding a new water and power supply.

Like the rest of urban California, San Francisco does not have enough water locally to supply its needs. So, starting at the turn of the century, the city turned to the Tuolumne in the Sierra Nevada. Other sources it considered at the time have since been dammed and the water spoken for, or are protected by law.

Simplistic Idea

“It’s too simplistic to think that you can just drop a pipe in the water and claim it as yours. The world doesn’t operate that way,” said Lawrence Klein, deputy general manager of the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.

On an average day, the system carries 225 million gallons of water to the Bay Area, far below the pipe capacity of 300 million gallons and the pump capacity of 400 million gallons daily. San Francisco uses about a third of the water, and sells the rest in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alameda counties.

Experts outside San Francisco said that the water supply is not the big problem that officials here claim it is. The Hetch Hetchy supply “isn’t a small amount but it is not a staggering amount,” said David Kennedy, director of the state Department of Water Resources. Kennedy maintained that it can be made up by drawing from existing reservoirs, perhaps the New Melones on the Stanislaus River.

“I don’t believe another dam is necessary,” said Assemblyman Jim Costa (D-Fresno), who chairs the Assembly Water Resources Committee. San Francisco could buy into a storage reservoir, Los Vaqueros, being constructed by Contra Costa County, that will draw its water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, he said.

Another possibility is the Don Pedro Reservoir, capacity 2.03 million acre feet, directly down the Tuolumne from Hetch Hetchy. The size of the reservoir could be increased, several sources believe. San Francisco paid half of the cost of Don Pedro, and has rights to 570,000 acre feet. The rest belongs to the Turlock and Modesto irrigation districts. Spokesmen for those districts said that all the water is spoken for and dispute assertions that the reservoir cannot be enlarged. The Army Corp of Engineers claims 340,000 acre feet of it for flood control.

No Connection

The Hetch Hetchy aqueduct runs under Don Pedro, but there is no connection. Instead, San Francisco extracts its share of the water upstream.

When he first outlined the Hetch Hetchy idea in a July 29 memo to his staff, Hodel suggested the uncompleted Auburn Dam as an alternative water supply. Since then, federal officials have distanced themselves from that idea.

“Gallon-for-gallon it might be a simple solution. But there is nothing about Auburn Dam that is simple,” said Robert E. Kallman, Hodel’s special assistant for the Western states.

The project is strongly opposed by environmentalists, and construction was halted in 1975 because of concerns about earthquakes. However, planning continues. A Bureau of Reclamation report, dated July 20, nine days before Hodel wrote the memo outlining his Hetch Hetchy idea, suggests five alternative sizes for a reservoir, including one as mammoth as 2.3 million acre-feet, costing $1.4 billion.

Some San Francisco officials suggest that Hodel’s real motive in his Hetch Hetchy plan is to build support for the Auburn dam.

A new supply of water is only part of the problem. If O’Shaughnessy Dam is destroyed, San Francisco would lose about 40% of its 330-megawatt Hetch Hetchy hydroelectric system. The rest comes from an adjacent dam that would not be affected by Hodel’s suggestion.

Could Be Expensive

The system supplies power to San Francisco’s bus system, airport, sewage treatment plants and other municipal services. Larry Cruz, budget analyst for the system, said the city saves $17 million by using Hetch Hetchy power rather than Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

San Francisco also sells excess power to the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts, which have a combined population of 300,000, and to private companies.

“There really are no hydro sites of any significance left,” said Kennedy of the Department of Water Resources. Thus, while the power generated is fairly small when compared to statewide needs, any replacement power would come from fossil fuel or some other type of power plant.

In the view of Kennedy and some other analysts, while both the water and power might be replaced, the cash that flows to San Francisco may be the biggest obstacle.

The federal government most likely would have to sue in order to take over San Francisco’s Hetch Hetchy property. In such a lawsuit, a jury would decide the worth of the system and order the federal government to compensate the city. San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein estimated that a replacement system would cost as much as $8 billion.

Continuing ‘Informal’ Study

The Interior Department, meanwhile, plans to proceed with an “informal” study on into next year, said Alan Levitt, spokesman for Hodel. If that should result in a proposal, an environmental impact study could begin, but not much before the election next year and the end of the Reagan Administration. Such a study would take as long as three years. Lawsuits are to be expected. Congressional action would be needed.

“You could not begin to remove the dam for a minimum of 15 to 20 years,” Levitt said, followed by 10 years of restoring the valley and adding trails and campgrounds. “We’re talking about 25 years down the road.”

In and out of San Francisco, few believe that Hodel can accomplish his stated goal--unless, that is, environmentalists take up the cause.

“It’s up to them as to whether this thing is any more than a blip on the radar screen. Don Hodel is not going to be the force that pulls down Hetch Hetchy Dam,” said Rep. Richard H. Lehman (D-Sanger), whose district encompasses Yosemite and who carried legislation barring San Francisco from raising the height of O’Shaughnessy Dam.

But by bringing it up, Hodel did something not done since 1923 when the dam was completed. “The secretary has made this respectable to discuss,” Lehman said.

DRAINING HETCH HETCHY: HOW THE JOB WOULD BE DONE The Interior Department has suggested restoring the Hetch Hetchy Valley that was flooded more than 60 years ago to become a source of drinking water for San Francisco. Here is a look at the job of draining the reservoir--and some of the problems.

DRAINING THE RESERVOIR Eleven hand-operated valves, each three to six feet in diameter, in O’Shaughnessy Dam, a 430-foot structure on the Tuolomne River, would be opened, as well as a bypass tunnel at lower water levels. Draining the 360,000-acre-foot reservoir would take a month. It would uncover 1,861 acres of land.

DEMOLISHING THE DAM O’Shaughnessy Dam is 910 feet long, 308 feet thick at the base, 24 feet at the top, contains 674,303 cubic yards of concrete and 760,000 pounds of steel. Federal sources will not discuss demolition, but Controlled Demolition Co. of Maryland said 100 men would need two years to take down the dam down at a cost of $8 million to $10 million, not including rubble removal. Justin Bosley of Cleveland Wrecking Co. of Los Angeles said the job would take 50 workers six months and cost $5 million--depending on the destination of the rubble. Bosley would drill about 25 one-inch-diameter holes six feet apart on the reservoir side and fill them with dynamite charges to “peel off” a series of six-foot slices. He would cut the steel frame with gas torches. The debris would have to be hauled down a winding, two-lane mountain road by truck.

REFORESTING THE VALLEY

National Park Service experts and university forestry and biology professors say grass would grow back within 10 years. Black oak and ponderosa pines that were once there would need at least 50 years. The cost of replanting the valley would be $300 to $1,000 an acre. A water mark, like a bathtub ring, would be visible at the reservoir’s waterline for hundreds of years.

SPECIAL PROBLEMS LEGAL: An environmental impact statement, taking three years or more, would have to be done. It is likely that a court suit would set the value of the Hetch Hetchy system. Early estimates of the value run as high as $8 billion.

FLOODING. Don Pedro Dam on the Tuolomne is rated to withstand a 64-year flood, but the effect of destroying the O’Shaughnessy on downstream flooding is unclear.

LOST REVENUE. San Francisco’s Water and Power Department stands to lose millions of dollars from lost water and power sales. Electricity from Hetch Hetchy powers San Francisco’s bus system, airport, sewage treatment plants and other municipal needs. Replacing the power will be expensive.

REPLACING LOST WATER

--Don Pedro Reservoir, capacity 2.03 million acre-feet, could be increased.

--Contra Costa County Water District is considering building Los Vaqueros Reservoir, fed by Sacramento River Delta water, with a capacity of 500,000 acre-feet, of which half will be used by Contra Costa County.

--Auburn Dam would be completed, according to a July, 1987, report by the Bureau of Reclamation. The project was stopped in 1975 because of earthquake concerns.

--Shasta Dam, already the largest in the state, could be increased from 4.5 million acre-feet to as much as 14.3 million acre-feet at a cost of between $2.8 billion and $4 billion.

Paul Ciotti, staff writer for Los Angeles Times Magazine, contributed to this story.