Mayor Newsom not Eager to See Hetch Hetchy Valley Drained

He says environmentalists' 'grand vision' would jeopardize city's water supply

by Rachel Gordon
San Francisco Chronicle - August 19, 2005

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom brought the debate over restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley to the top of the O'Shaughnessy Dam on Thursday.

Here, in the splendor of the Sierra, he called the idea of knocking down the city-owned dam -- an idea championed by some environmentalists -- a "grand vision," but a short-sighted one.

If the draining of Hetch Hetchy were realized, he said, the pristine water supply used by 2.4 million Bay Area customers would be jeopardized, and the city's control over its own future would be weakened.

"The idea of tearing down this dam is a serious concern to me," Newsom said during a tour of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, which supplies 85 percent of the water used by San Francisco, Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and is at the heart of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission's water and power system.

"The idea of competing and sharing resources with other parts of the state takes away the ability and the autonomy for San Francisco to carry its own fate into the future," he said.

The mayor, who helicoptered into and out of Yosemite, spent a half day in the park touring the city's Hetch Hetchy water and power facilities. The tour provided a picture-perfect backdrop for the mayor to talk about the efforts under way to secure the system from terrorism and earthquakes, and to reiterate the city's concerns about the push to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley, which was submerged beneath hundreds of feet of water when the dam went up in 1923.

Mayor Gavin Newsom gets a bird's-eye view from a helicopter during his tour of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and O'Shaughnessy Dam. Associated Press photo by Ben Margot

He also watched San Francisco's public utilities chief Susan Leal sign a five-year agreement with Yosemite National Park Superintendent Mike Tollefson mapping out her city agency's financial obligation to the federal park service for maintaining the watershed land in Yosemite. In the past, the agreement was negotiated on a year-to-year basis. Officials said the long-term deal signaled a new spirit of cooperation.

During the first year, the city will provide $2.7 million for wilderness protection, security improvements, trail maintenance and waste-water projects. The amount climbs to $3.3 million in 2010.

Newsom's visit to the area was the first by a San Francisco mayor in 10 years. It came as the drumbeat to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley is getting louder.

Last fall, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger directed the California Department of Water Resources to study the issue and to assess the data in past studies stretching back at least 20 years. The report is due out in the fall.

Leal and Newsom said they welcomed the study but had yet to be convinced that uncorking the reservoir was the right course to pursue.

The national environmental group Environmental Defense, on whose board sits Newsom's father, retired state judge William Newsom, has made pursuit of the prospect a top priority. Knocking down the dam would require an act of Congress, as well as myriad government approvals at the state and local levels.

"The political hurdles are significant," Spreck Rosekrans, a hydrology analyst for Environmental Defense, said in a phone interview Wednesday. "But the rewards of another great valley in Yosemite National Park for the American people would be spectacular."

The financial hurdles also would be significant. Estimates for the restoration range from $4 billion to $8 billion.

Rosekrans helped write a study for Environmental Defense that concluded the dam could be removed without jeopardizing water delivery for the people who rely on Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. UC Davis released similar findings. To meet the Bay Area's water needs, however, the capacity of reservoirs farther down the line of the 167-mile system would have to be expanded, which, Newsom said, could pose environmental problems of their own.

Under Environmental Defense's plan, the Bay Area would continue to rely on the Tuolumne River for its water supply, but instead of Hetch Hetchy, the Don Pedro Reservoir lower on the river would be the main reserve during dry periods. That dam is owned by the Turlock and Modesto water irrigation districts, not controlled by San Francisco.

And the prospect of giving up control, said Newsom, "giving up the most important thing that existed in San Francisco in terms of its future, and that's the future of its pristine water," makes him nervous.

Rosekrans said he'd hate to pass up an opportunity to bring back Hetch Hetchy Valley to its original majesty.