Dispute Over Hetch Hetchy Plan Turns Personal : It’s Hodel Vs. Herrington in Dam Tiff

Verbal warfare has broken out between two members of President Reagan’s Cabinet, with Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel saying Energy Secretary John S. Herrington should worry more about the job at hand than his future employment prospects in San Francisco.

Hodel last summer surprised just about everyone with his proposal to remove the O’Shaughnessy Dam on the Tuolumne River in California’s Yosemite National Park. Now he has sprung another surprise with his explanation of why Herrington opposes removal of the dam.

Herrington, according to Hodel, said it will hurt his job hunting prospects in the San Francisco area when the Reagan Administration leaves office.

To which Herrington’s spokesman, Doug Elmets, laughed and said: “That’s absurd.”

The dam is the key unit in a system that supplies three-quarters of San Francisco’s water. Its construction in the spectacular Hetch Hetchy Valley sparked a famous battle between conservationists and public power advocates more than half a century ago.

In an interview with the trade weekly “Inside Energy with Federal Lands,” Hodel described Herrington’s reaction to the dismantling proposal during a telephone call last fall:

Herrington “seemed to be concerned about only one thing, and that was (that dismantling the dam) was something that would adversely affect his going back to the San Francisco area to be employed.”

Hodel’s spokesman, David Prosperi, added his own fuel to the fire Tuesday.

He quoted Herrington as having told Hodel: “I have to go back to California when this is over and this is going to be an aggravation for me.”

“Hodel was taken aback,” Prosperi said of his boss. “He is a person who believes you’re supposed to focus on that job and nothing else.”