Another Yosemite, Maybe

The city of Los Angeles still takes heat for “stealing” the water of the Owens Valley nearly a century ago, turning a verdant farm area more than 200 miles away into a virtual desert. Today, the valley is a recreational paradise, spared from sprawl because the city owns most of the land.

But look where San Francisco gets its water: from Yosemite National Park. The city’s O’Shaughnessy Dam created a reservoir that inundated 300 vertical feet of Hetch Hetchy Valley, which rivals Yosemite Valley, about 15 miles to the south. Naturalist John Muir fought the dam desperately but lost when President Theodore Roosevelt signed the law authorizing the project in 1913. The dam was finished 10 years later and the water is shunted to San Francisco through a 160-mile-long pipeline system.

Every now and then, environmentalists, whitewater enthusiasts or mere admirers of serene beauty cry out to tear down the 312-foot dam and restore Hetch Hetchy, with its El Capitan-like rock buttresses, meadows and waterfalls. To Muir, it was “one of nature’s rarest and most precious mountain temples.”

San Francisco officials dismiss the idea as impossible. Now Hetch Hetchy restoration advocates are forcing them to reevaluate that diagnosis. The city is launching a program costing nearly $4 billion to overhaul its aging water system. Nearly half the money would come from a proposed bond issue to be decided by San Francisco voters this fall.

Several activist groups are demanding that city officials study the feasibility of removing O’Shaughnessy Dam as part of the improvement project. If the city refuses, they will campaign against the bond issue among an electorate known for its tree-hugging tendencies.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a former mayor of San Francisco, says tearing down O’Shaughnessy would be one of the worst things that could happen. In truth, no one knows what the effect would be. The study would cost $600,000 to $1 million and would analyze alternative means for storing the water, replacing the lost hydroelectric power and restoring the valley and the Tuolumne River.

Dam foes note that Hetch Hetchy contains only 25% of the city’s water storage and that space could be found in downstream reservoirs. In fact, the reconstruction project envisions enlarging the Calaveras County reservoir to hold twice the water stored in Hetch Hetchy.

Replacing the lost water and power would be complicated and costly, but it could be done. Would it be worth it? Consider the value of Yosemite Valley to the nation. Think of the possibility of having a second such valley, free of cars and development, that would be the temple of nature John Muir saw before the dam was built. That too would be priceless.