by Spreck | Feb 8, 2025 | Uncategorized
Restore Hetch Hetchy wrote to Congressman McClintock and his cosponsors last week, encouraging them to continue to pursue legislation to improve access and recreation at Hetch Hetchy. At the same time, McClintock added initial language to the Yosemite National Park Equal Access and Fairness Act (H.R. 177), the bill he introduced a month ago.
The current text of the bill is posted on Congress’ website.
Our letter, with its supporting documents, is posted on the Restore Hetch Hetchy website.
Discussion of this proposed legislation comes at a time when the National Park Service has decided to pause its plans to implement a long-term reservation system in the park while awaiting review by the new administration in Washington D.C.
We have asked the National Park Service to consider the Hetch Hetchy entrance to Yosemite differently from other park entrances in its reservations system. After all the Hetch Hetchy entrance is geographically separated from the others and has a different pattern of visitor use. Note also that the reservation system has never applied to park visitors who use public transportation, but that will not be an option for visitors to Hetch Hetchy – the only park entrance not served by the Yosemite Area Rapid Transit System.
Restore Hetch Hetchy remains focused on Hetch Hetchy, so we have not taken a position on the reservation system in other parts of Yosemite.
The National Park Service has long neglected the visitor experience at Hetch Hetchy. The National Park Service and/or Department of the Interior could and should make many proposed improvements without the need for legislation. A legislative solution, however, would be the best way to guarantee improvements for the long term.
California has 38 reservoirs which hold more than 200,000 acre-feet of water. Of these, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is the only one which does not allow boating and fishing. Photo: Joe Braun
So we are encouraging Congressman McClintock and others to pursue a legislative approach. The devil is in the details, of course, and legislation must protect the park and its wildlife as it makes additional recreational opportunities available for visitors.
Camping, boating and fishing etc. at Hetch Hetchy would all be popular activities. More visitors would come to Hetch Hetchy, marvel at its towering granite walls, learn its history and support the campaign for its restoration. So while restoration is our ultimate goal, we are also excited about improving access and recreation even while the dam is in place.
by Spreck | Feb 3, 2025 | Uncategorized
Leadership changes are afoot within the Department of Interior and the National Park Service. Staff at either agency has the ability to effect long overdue change at Hetch Hetchy under existing law, so we will be in touch with both during coming weeks and months.
Former North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum was confirmed as Secretary of Interior last Thursday with 79 out of 100 votes in the Senate.
The Department of Interior oversees numerous agencies, including the National Park Service. Burgum’s confirmation hearing focused primarily on his support for energy development on public lands with scant mention of of national parks. We have written Burgum, as we have previous Secretaries, explaining the important opportunity that we have to improve the visitor experience at Hetch Hetchy. We hope Burgum and/or his deputies will be interested.
Secretary Ryan Zinke (center) came to Hetch Hetchy on a smoky day in 2018, and met with Restore Hetch Hetchy Board Member Mark Palley (left), ED Spreck Rosekrans, and Board Members Mark Cederborg (second from right) and Virginia Johannessen. Photos by Sherman Hogue/DOI
As is customary after a change of the Presidency, National Park Service Director Chuck Sams has resigned. The role is currently filled by “acting” Director Jessica Bowron. (The NPS Director is a position that also requires Senate confirmation, which never occurred direct Trump’s first presidency. The last president to retain a NPS Director for a full term was Richard Nixon).
NPS Director Chuck Sams with RHH’s Spreck Rosekrans in 2023 at the Yosemite Conservancy’s Centennial soiree.
In addition, Yosemite Superintendent Cicely Muldoon has announced her retirement. We have had several cordial meetings with Muldoon and other Yosemite staff over the last several years. We have made progress convincing staff at Yosemite to enhance access to Hetch Hetchy, but much more needs to be done. We look forward to meeting and working with Muldoon’s not-yet-named successor.
Much can be done administratively to improve access and recreation at Hetch Hetchy. We will work with personnel at all levels to achieve improvements for park visitors that are long overdue. We will keep you posted.
by Spreck | Jan 11, 2025 | Uncategorized
As devastating fires in Los Angeles continue to burn, too many politicians and keyboard warriors are making irresponsible assertions about the causes of the fires and the challenges of fighting them. It’s far from the first time that such nonsense has been used to promote political agendas – the 1906 (earthquake and) fire that devastated San Francisco was used to justify damming Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park.
Some of the blame for the fires that have obliterated Pacific Palisades and Altadena has fallen on the endangered Delta smelt. It’s true that exports of water from northern California to farms and cities in the south have been reduced at times to protect smelt and other fisheries. Large reservoirs in southern California, however, have plentiful supplies; there is no regional lack of water to fight the fires. (This Wall Street Journal video explains why some fire hydrants did run dry.)
One of the least obnoxious, but still wholly inaccurate, memes blaming the Delta smelt for fire damage.
A century ago, the lack of water available to fight the devastating fire that erupted following the San Francisco earthquake on April 18,1906 was used to justify damming Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. (Again, local reservoirs had plentiful supplies, but water mains in the city were severed by the earthquake.)
With water mains broken throughout the city, there was little firefighters could do to quell the inferno.
For example, Senator Henry Myers (Montana) read the following before the U.S. Senate on December 1, 1913 as it was debating the Raker Act:
Senator Henry Myers (MT)
“Their fair city has been decimated by earthquake and fire and it has been reported on credible authority that one of the greatest causes of the devastation to that fair city was lack of adequate water supply – they very thing they are trying to get today at a cost of millions of dollars to the taxpayers.”
The broken water mains were operated by the Spring Valley Water Company, a private enterprise that had long frustrated City officials. Had a public water system been in place, there is no indication the pipes would have better endured the powerful earthquake. For more information about how the proposal to dam Hetch Hetchy came to fruition after having been rejected twice by the federal government and abandoned by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, see Hetch Hetchy, the Earthquake and the Boodle.
There are very hard lessons to be learned from yet another year of terrible fires. What could and should have been done differently and more importantly, what must we do moving forward. Blaming fires on red herrings such as Delta smelt won’t help the thoughtful planning that is necessary to help us avoid these catastrophes.
by Spreck | Jan 11, 2025 | Uncategorized
It’s always great to see elected officials take an interest in improving the situation at Hetch Hetchy.
Congressman Tom McClintock, whose district includes Yosemite, has introduced H.R. 177, legislation intended to improve access and recreation at Hetch Hetchy as well as to increase the fees that San Francisco pays for storing water in a national park.
The bill is cosponsored by Reps. David Valadao, Ken Calvert and Doug LaMalfa. At this point there is no text associated with the proposal. Note that Rep. Connie Conway introduced a similar bill, the Yosemite National Park Equal Access and Fairness Act, in 2022, which Rep. McClintock reintroduced in 2023.
Will the third time be a charm?
The mandate to improving access at Hetch Hetchy, even with the dam in place, was explored in Keeping Promises: Providing Public Access to Hetch Hetchy Valley, Yosemite National Park (Restore Hetch Hetchy, 2021). Since that time, we have been working with the National Park Service to improve access, including fishing, boating and camping – activities expected by Congress when it passed the Raker Act in 1913 but which have never been made available. The NPS has been sympathetic to our requests but reluctant to make changes.
So, we are pleased to see that legislation is again being considered. Any final endorsement will depend on the details of the legislation.
We have been in contact with Rep. McClintock’s staff on issues of improved recreation and our shared view that the visitor experience at Hetch Hetchy warrants improvement. We do not, however, share common ground on the ultimate restoration of the valley. Rep. McClintock remains opposed to restoration, as far as we know, but we hope he will keep an open mind if a fair and cost effective plan to ensure no loss of water and power is put before him.
It’s far easier to introduce legislation than to pass it. But we do hope H.R. 177 will move forward in the current Congressional session.
We’ll keep you posted.
by Spreck | Dec 15, 2024 | Uncategorized
Most of California’s largest urban water systems have invested in groundwater recharge programs in rural regions. Restore Hetch Hetchy’s Yosemite’s Opportunity provides a list of some of these programs totaling up to 1,875,000 acre-feet of water storage – or more than 5 times the size of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir’s 360,000 acre-feet. Many of these cooperative programs involve agricultural lands near the California Aqueduct in Kern County where it is convenient for water agencies to exchange supplies.
The California Department of Water Resources is conducting studies in each of the principal San Joaquin Valley watersheds to show how cooperative management can improve water supplies and groundwater levels while reducing flood. Restore Hetch Hetchy has been critical of San Francisco for declining to participate. Might the SFPUC change its mind?
Restore Hetch Hetchy has been sharply critical of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission for not pursuing similar programs in Stanislaus County, where the Turlock and Modesto Irrigation Districts share the Tuolumne River and Don Pedro Reservoir and where there are ample opportunities to recharge groundwater that could provide widespread benefits. (We do give San Francisco credit for its groundwater banking program in San Mateo County – see below)
Our goal, of course, is to encourage San Francisco to improve its system so that Hetch Hetchy Valley can be restored! Others would like San Francisco to be less stingy with releases to sustain salmon populations in the lower Tuolumne River and downstream through the Delta and into the ocean. Businesses and residents in San Francisco and neighboring counties might prefer simply to have an increased buffer against drought. While these policy objectives differ, no reasonably informed person can deny that recharging groundwater in wet years has the potential to add cost-effective water supply.
Restore Hetch Hetchy has been particularly critical of the SFPUC for declining to even take part in the “Managed Aquifer Recharge” (aka Flood-MAR) studies being conducted by the California Department of Water Resources. We have made this point directly to the SFPUC and included it in our Fall Newsletter.
So we were pleased that the SFPUC did include DWR’s Flood-MAR studies in a meeting with the Bay Area Water Stewards last week. DWR staff presented their methodology and results of their initial study of the Merced River watershed. DWR will be extending its work to other Sierra watersheds, and we are hopeful it will produce useful results suggesting how flood waters from all rivers, including the Tuolumne, could be better managed.
The Flood-MAR studies are just studies (and be forewarned they are not designed for the casual reader) . They provide information and do not require any action. But that information can demonstrate how water agencies can better work together to manage water more effectively. So kudos to DWR for undertaking this effort. We hope San Francisco will join other water agencies throughout the state and learn what benefits might be achieved through restoration.
The SFPUC does deserve credit for working with cities in San Mateo County to recharge about 60,000 acre-feet of groundwater capacity. Essentially the cities will use surface water in wet years, allowing the aquifer to recharge (“in-lieu”). If and when a drought occurs, the SFPUC can extract these stored supplies for all customers.
by Spreck | Nov 26, 2024 | Uncategorized
Tom Philp with the board and staff of Restore Hetch Hetchy
As Pulitzer Prize winner Tom Philp proclaimed at our Annual Dinner last month, “The highest and best use of Hetch Hetchy Valley is still restoration.”
Please consider a contribution so Restore Hetch Hetchy can continue our work – in Yosemite, in San Francisco, in Sacramento and in Washington D.C. – to make restoration a reality.
Restoring Hetch Hetchy to its natural splendor will create new homes for wildlife, provide park visitors an alternative to often overcrowded parts of Yosemite, and inspire a new generation to revere, protect and restore our most precious natural landscapes.
Thank you for supporting Restore Hetch Hetchy and Happy Holidays!
