IMPORTANT FACTS
- The Tuolumne river (not Hetch Hetchy Reservoir) is the source of San Francisco's pristine water.
- Hetch Hetchy Reservoir holds less than one percent of all the water behind dams in California.
- The reservoir stores less than twenty percent of the water used in the nine Bay Area counties, only three percent of the water used in the cities of California, and less than one percent of all the water used in California each year.
Our Mission
The mission of Restore Hetch Hetchy is to return the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park to its natural splendor while continuing to meet the water and supply needs of all communities that depend on the Tuolumne River.
Background
Picture Yosemite Valley: thundering waterfalls, soaring granite cliffs, meadow grasses gently swaying in the breeze. Now image another Yosemite Valley, a virtual twin, with all the features of Yosemite. It exists and it is called Hetch Hetchy valley.
But it's been flooded, buried beneath 300 feet of water, used as a storage tank by the City of San Francisco for the last 80 years.
Now, imagine that we can restore the valley, reverse the damage, watch the grass sprout, the wildlife return, the trees grow. Well, we can. Modern engineering advances afford us the opportunity to restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley while depriving no one of the water and power they need. It will be the most ambitious and exciting restoration project in human history.
Its time to restore Hetch Hetchy.
Your browser may not support display of this image.Imagine the opportunity we have to allow Nature to restore Yosemite National Park's Hetch Hetchy Valley--the place John Muir called “a grand landscape garden, one of Nature's rarest and most precious mountain temples." Imagine the educational and scientific value of societies around the world bearing witness to the rebirth of the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Imagine.
Join the growing list of people and organizations that support the restoration of Hetch Hetchy Valley. Help us to bring San Francisco, other Tuolumne River stakeholders, and government agencies together to craft a cooperative restoration plan that will serve as an example to governments the world over. Be a part of history.
The Plan
The goal of Restore Hetch Hetchy is to accomplish a "win-win" outcome for Yosemite National Park, for the cities of the Bay Area and for the Turlock and Modesto Irrigation Districts all of which rely on water stored in the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Our latest study, using data from respected California water experts, shows that is quite feasible to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley, while preserving 95% of the existing water supply and 73% of the hydro-power currently generated by daming the Tuolumne River.
The Tuolumne river water stored in the Hetch Hetchy valley of Yosemite National Park can be stored elsewhere and delivered without interruption to its end users by implementing a few, relatively inexpensive modifications:
- Pump water from Cherry Creek into the San Francisco water system. In most years this replaces the water that is not captured just downstream from Hetch Hetchy Valley, and provides additional energy (Figure 1).
- Divert water from the Tuolumne River into the San Francisco water system downstream from Hetch Hetchy Valley with a simple diversion structure and a pumping station. This will preserve much of the energy the reservoir currently generates (Figure 2).
- Enlarge Don Pedro Reservoir.
- Enlarge Calaveras Reservoir.
- Increase utilization of underground water supplies.
- Implement comprehensive water efficiency and water recycling programs to reduce consumer bills and stretch existing water supplies.
- Improve public health by installing new filtration equipment for water from the Tuolumne River.
Removal of the dam would result in the loss of less than two-tenths of one percent of California's yearly electricity use. All the lost power could be replaced by the programs described above, plus an energy efficiency program. The efficiency program would actually save homeowners and businesses more than the cost of implementing the energy efficiency program. It would also be possible to build solar, wind, or conventional gas-fired power plants.