My wife and I spent a pleasant morning at the Noe Valley farmers' market in SF with RHH volunteer coordinator Jonathan Silverman. We chatted with supporters, skeptics and folks who did not understand that it would not be especially difficult (from a technical perspective) to continue to provide reliable high-quality Tuolumne River water to the Bay Area if Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park is restored.
It was especially nice to talk to open-minded San Franciscans after reading the rather petulant (and inaccurate) piece in yesterday's San Francisco Examiner. Mr. Garcia quotes only the highest of cost estimates and characterizes environmentalist as opposed to all dams. We are not. Many dams serve essential purposes in semi-arid places like California. The small amount of water and hydropower provided by the dam can be replaced (read the reports), but there is no restoration opportunity like this anywhere.
Oh yeah, and we need volunteers. Contact us. Restore Hetch Hetchy is on the web
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Regarding California Water and San Francisco's Hetch Hetchy water supply and reservoir INSIDE Yosemite National Park:
ReplyDeleteI'm going out on a limb here and encouraging a Blah, Blah reporter (Mr. Ken Garcia, SF Chronicle) to actually dig a little deeper and find out the facts about why environmentalists and other good citizens want to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley.
The valley, second only to Yosemite Valley itself in beauty, and with a far more vigorous river, is worth far more to our nation - and especially our state - for tourism than it is as a storage basin for water dedicated to bath-house happy San Francisco.
All of the water stored in Hetch Hetchy reservoir can be stored elsewhere economically, and the valley can be restored at a tiny fraction of the $10B cost quoted by Mr. Garcia.
Finally, I'd like to know Mr. Garcia's credentials qualifying him to comment on technical matters that are, obviously, beyond his pay grade. It's unfortunate that we are stricken with so many journalists commenting on matters for which they have no educational or experiential abilities.
Sincerely, Steve Perreira, Engineer
resident near Yosemite, CA