by Spreck | Nov 3, 2023 | Uncategorized
Bakersfield may not be as scenic as Hetch Hetchy, but it’s home to 400,000 people. The City has just received news that a superior court has ruled that the Kern River must be allowed to to flow through town. The court ruling is the result of a lawsuit filed by environmental groups, including Bring Back the Kern, Center for Biological Diversity, Kern River Parkway Foundation, Water Audit California, the Sierra Club and Kern Audubon Society.
HOORAY!
Like the Tuolumne River and Hetch Hetchy, diverting the Kern River further downstream need not result in lower diversions to cities and farms, but leaving the water instream longer will provide environmental and recreational benefits.
Unlike its west flowing siblings in California’s Sierra Nevada, the Kern River takes a decidedly southbound route, splitting the range in two.
The Kern is the subject of a pair of country ballads written and performed by Merle Haggard – Kern River and Kern River Blues (the last song he wrote).
It’s not usual to find a river at an elevation of 7000 feet, yet there it is, cutting a clean slice sandwiched between Mt Whitney (14,505 feet) to the east and 13,807 foot Mt. Kaweah (13,807 feet) to the west. The upper canyon is a sight to see, whether from above or within. (Photo: Sierrasouth.com)
As it descends, the Kern turns into a mecca for whitewater enthusiasts. The upper “Forks” stretch is best left for experts and thrill seekers who must hike in (usually hiring burros to carry their rafts), while the lower Kern, downstream from Lake Isabella offers a still wet but tamer experience. (Photo: Sierrasouth.com)
When the Kern reaches the flatlands of the Central Valley, its flow is tapped by canals and diversions to some of the California’s famously productive cropland. Kern County is California’s top producer of grapes (take that, Napa) and also is a leader in oranges, pistachios and almonds. Not surprising, the Kern River is wholly dried up before it reaches Bakersfield, the county seat. Working in the fields is extremely demanding, even when shade provides protection from the summer sun.
Kern County Superior Court Judge Greg Pulskamp has now ruled that the river must be allowed to flow through Bakersfield with enough water to keep fish in good condition. Some of the farmers with water rights to the Kern will need to reduce their diversions upstream. The water will still be available downstream as the Kern, as well as the Kings and other rivers in the Tulare Basin, don’t flow out to sea. Any river flow not diverted will replenish groundwater and still be available for agriculture.
There’s an obvious similarity to our Hetch Hetchy situation. Take the water, but take it downstream. Let the river provide environmental and human benefits, whether in Hetch Hetchy Valley or within the city limits of Bakersfield, before it is gobbled up for consumption.
The market for Bakersfield’s sardonic “A riverbed runs through it” T shirt may dry up when the river flows.
by Marissa | Oct 21, 2023 | Uncategorized
At this year’s Annual Dinner, held at the historic Berkeley City Club, we were thrilled to be joined by our supporters to share an inspiring evening with keynote speaker Kim Stanley Robinson. We’re grateful to everyone who made this event a success and came together for the sake of our continued mission towards the restoration of Hetch Hetchy.
Kim Stanley Robinson, celebrated author and speaker, gave a thought-provoking and poetic speech on the future of a restored Hetch Hetchy Valley. He was also joined in conversation by our board members Roger Williams and Mecia Serafino, and took a few audience questions. Robinson shared that restoring Hetch Hetchy is the right thing to do for wildlife, for the study of habitat restoration, and for the future of our national parks and the Sierra Nevada as a whole.
“It (San Francisco’s water storage) always could have been Cherry Lake, Lake Eleanor, or Don Pedro, and that is still true today.” – Kim Stanley Robinson
The funds raised from the Annual Dinner play a vital role in allowing us to continue our work. We are currently petitioning the National Park Service to improve recreational access to Hetch Hetchy, and we continue to seek solutions for restoration. The dinner’s success ensures that we can keep making progress towards a better future for Hetch Hetchy and for Yosemite National Park.
To all who attended, sponsored or participated in our silent auction, and pledged their support, we are grateful for your commitment and contributions. Thank you for making our Annual Dinner memorable, and for being an essential part of our mission. We hope to see you next year!
by Spreck | Sep 30, 2023 | Uncategorized
Dianne Feinstein passed yesterday, after serving more than 50 years as Supervisor and Mayor in San Francisco and United States Senator from California. As Senator, Feinstein ran an efficient and effective office, leaving an extensive legacy in any number of areas.
Feinstein succeeded Alan Cranston in the Senate and helped complete his efforts to protect California deserts. She was also very active in California water issues and negotiated any number of agreements. When it came to proposals to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, however, Feinstein was adamantly opposed.
Secretary Don Hodel with Mayor Feinstein at Hetch Hetchy in 1987
When Interior Secretary Don Hodel first proposed that Hetch Hetchy be restored in 1987, then Mayor Feinstein traveled to Yosemite to see the dam, reservoir and canyon for the first time. Briefly Feinstein was intrigued as she listened to Hodel’s explanation that, with improvements, San Francisco would be kept “more than whole” with respect to water supply.
Very quickly, Feinstein changed her mind and became the leading voice opposing restoration. She called Hetch Hetchy “San Francisco’s birthright” and remarked that removing the dam was “the worst idea since selling arms to the ayatollah” (younger readers unaware of this reference might want to google “Oliver North Iran Contras”).
In 2004, the Environmental Defense Fund, shortly before publishing Paradise Regained: Solutions for Restoring Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley – a report completed with assistance of mainstream expert consultants, reached out to Senator Feinstein in advance, hoping to create dialog and avoid a knee jerk reaction. The effort failed. Feinstein doubled down in her opposition, ignoring the merits of the report.
In 2012, when Restore Hetch Hetchy offered a referendum on San Francisco’s ballot to study restoration, Feinstein held a fundraiser at her house, inviting contractors who were doing business with the City to attend and contribute to a fund supporting the referendum’s defeat. Significant contributions were made.
Feinstein is, of course, not the only politician unwilling to seriously consider how water system improvements would allow Hetch Hetchy Valley to be returned to its natural splendor. Restore Hetch Hetchy continues to reach out to all elected officials to show that restoration can be achieved without losing a drop of water.
Feinstein displayed, with no apparent irony, a painting of an undammed Hetch Hetchy Valley in her office.
Executive Director’s note:
I met with Feinstein three times as a representative of the Environmental Defense Fund, although we never discussed Hetch Hetchy in any detail.
The first meeting involved allocations of water to the Westlands Water District – California’s famously litigious (at the time) and largest agricultural water district. Feinstein seemed particularly deferential to Westlands’ General Manager, Tom Birmingham.
The second meeting was about the East Bay Municipal Utilities District’s decision to abandon, after several decades of controversy, its plan to divert water from the American River through the Folsom South Canal. Instead, it would take the supply further downstream at Freeport on the Sacramento River. I was pleased to come to agreement on behalf of EDF with Feinstein, EBMUD board members and State officials. The Freeport project has since gone into operation, providing valuable dry year supplies to the East Bay without diminishing flows in the very popular recreational stretch of the American River between Folsom Dam and the City of Sacramento. Similarly Restore Hetch Hetchy would like San Francisco to take its Tuolumne supply further downstream.
In the third meeting, Feinstein showed a very human side. With tears in her eyes, she told the room she had heard that Tom Graff (my boss at EDF) was suffering from cancer and passed around a get well card. She and Tom had tangled, sometime disagreeably over many issues including Hetch Hetchy, but Feinstein clearly respected him. It was a touching moment that gives me goosebumps as I write this. Sadly, Tom did not get well, and passed in 2009.
Restore Hetch Hetchy’s frustration with Dianne Feinstein is the same as it is with much of our opposition. While we understand people have other priorities, it is not ok to pretend real solutions are not available. We will continue to work with elected officials, including Feinstein’s replacement, to show that Hetch Hetchy can be restored without anyone losing water or power.
– Spreck Rosekrans
by Spreck | Sep 26, 2023 | Uncategorized
Two years ago, Restore Hetch Hetchy published Keeping Promises: Providing Public Access to Hetch Hetchy Valley, Yosemite National Park. The report explains how Congress expected far greater access and recreational opportunities at Hetch Hetchy than are available today.
Today’s petition, in the form of a letter to Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland, Interior Solicitor Robert Anderson, National Park Service Director Chuck Sams III and Yosemite Superintendent Cicely Muldoon, sharpens the focus of the Keeping Promises report by applying a legal lens. Simply put, the petition identifies how current policy is in violation of the Raker Act – the statute that allowed a dam to be built at Hetch Hetchy.
It is Restore Hetch Hetchy’s fervent hope that, by explaining these violations to officials in Yosemite and Washington DC, administrative solutions can be found and implemented in a timely manner. We are prepared, however, to take additional steps, if necessary, to assure that promises made to improve the visitor experience made when the Raker Act was passed are kept.
Improved access will be a godsend for visitors to Hetch Hetchy, including families, hikers, fishermen, climbers, birdwatchers et al. Improved access will also encourage visitors to learn Hetch Hetchy’s story and support the ultimate goal of restoring the valley to its natural splendor.
The petition and supporting documents are available online. Take a look and let us know what you think. Today’s press release is copied below.
Petition Seeks Improved Public Access to Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park
BERKELEY, CA- September 26, 2023 – Restore Hetch Hetchy (RHH) today petitioned Department of Interior and National Park Service officials regarding public access and recreational opportunities to the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park.
Restore Hetch Hetchy’s petition provides legal and historical rationale for changing current policies at Hetch Hetchy, including eliminating daily closure of the area, allowing camping and permitting non-polluting boats on Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.
“When Congress passed the Raker Act allowing San Francisco to build a dam in Yosemite National Park, it fully expected that Hetch Hetchy would be used for ‘water supply purposes and for park purposes,’” said Spreck Rosekrans, Executive Director for Restore Hetch Hetchy. “But camping, lodging and boating are unavailable and hiking trails are few. Public access is so limited that barely 1% of all park visitors visit Hetch Hetchy.”
The Petition also questions the validity of San Francisco’s use of cabins at Hetch Hetchy as well as the City’s failure to provide potable water to the backpackers’ campground.
“The Park Service has imposed restrictions on use in the Hetch Hetchy watershed that are outside of its legal authority and in direct violation of the Raker Act. These restrictions prevent park visitors from exercising their rights at Hetch Hetchy and must be eliminated,” added Michael Lozeau, an attorney with Lozeau Drury LLP and author of supporting documentation for the petition.
by Spreck | Aug 28, 2023 | Uncategorized
It is definitely not what Congress intended when it passed the Raker Act allowing San Francisco to build a dam in Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley.
San Francisco’s “Cottage 1”, aka “The Chalet”, has a spectacular view of the Hetch Hetchy canyon.
Today’s San Francisco Standard published an article titled San Francisco City Officials Enjoy Exclusive Vacation Spot in Yosemite. Why? Reporter Josh Koehn describes San Francisco’s use of cabins at Hetch Hetchy as a “special perk unavailable to the general public”. City officials, their families and others anointed with the privilege of staying at the bunkhouse and cottages are provided access to Hetch Hetchy’s trails, fishing, birdwatching, waterfalls and sunsets that everyday park visitors do not have.
The authorization for use of these cabins is scant at best. The Raker Act allows “buildings necessary or properly incident to the construction, operation, and maintenance…”. While some use of the cabins may be business-related, most appears to be recreational given the prevalence of family members on the guest list uncovered by the Standard. (Restore Hetch Hetchy has asked the National Park Service for documentation of San Francisco’s permission to use the cabins, but was told it could not find any.)
Park visitors are only allowed to camp at Hetch Hetchy if they are leaving for or returning from a backpacking trip. This “backpacking” campground is poorly maintained and perhaps the bleakest in the park. And while the Raker Act required San Francisco to provide water to the campground, that water is non-potable – campers need to walk a mile or so to get to the closest drinkable water, located near the cabins.
It’s a bit of a trek from the dusty campground to the spigot near San Francisco’s cabins.
The current situation is a from cry from what San Francisco promised and Congress expected when the Raker Act was under consideration. It is fundamentally unfair and change is long overdue. Restore Hetch Hetchy believes the cabins should be converted for public use. The City officials queried seem to prefer that San Francisco retain its special privilege.
This and other limitations on public access are explained in Keeping Promises: Providing Public Access to Hetch Hetchy Valley, Yosemite National Park (Restore Hetch Hetchy, 2021) – please read if you have not already.
And if you haven’t had a chance to weigh in on the National Park Service’s outreach re future management of Yosemite, there is still time. Comments are due September 6.
by Spreck | Aug 25, 2023 | Uncategorized
In a “Dog Bites Man” story, California farmers have proposed emptying Lake Powell, the reservoir behind Glen Canyon Dam, which would allow Glen Canyon to be restored.
Colorado River flows seem unlikely ever to fill Lakes Powell and Mead, and farmers say evaporative losses at Powell outweigh any storage benefits.
The Imperial Valley farmers did not suddenly become afficionados of desert canyons. They are still interested in maximizing their water supply so they can grow as much food as possible. Their interest comes in the wake of diminishing water supplies on the Colorado River over past decades and the threat of cuts to their share of those supplies.
Evaporation is a factor in all reservoir systems and is largely dependent on the surface area of the reservoirs and the ambient temperature. Seepage is also dependent on size as well as the geology of the land below. Lake Powell is estimated to lose 860,000 of water acre-feet per year. Lake Mead loses a similar amount. Since neither reservoir seems likely to fill anytime soon, the idea of eliminating one of the reservoirs to cut down on losses makes intuitive sense.
The farmers’ math replicates what environmentalists have been saying for decades – that the loss of water due to evaporation and seepage at Glen Canyon make the Colorado River’s water storage system less reliable – i.e. the dam loses water.
Analyzing this fundamental question is not a simple matter, in part because whether Glen Canyon Dam improves or diminishes water supply reliability depends on future flow patterns. Perhaps not surprisingly, risk averse government engineers have not addressed this question to date. It would be nice if they had responded to those pesky environmentalists, but the Imperial Valley farmers will be harder to ignore.
There are other issues at play, besides water supply and restoring Glen Canyon. The city of Page, Arizona, (population 7,247) draws water directly from Lake Powell – what will its fate be if the lake is emptied? How would overall hydropower generation be affected if more water were stored in Lake Mead and none in Lake Powell – and how might the upstream communities who lose hydropower be compensated?
Let’s crunch the numbers to compare water supply, hydropower and environmental benefits while addressing how communities can work together at Glen Canyon. Let’s do it at Hetch Hetchy as well. We don’t need to live with mistakes of the past.
One of Glen Canyon’s many side canyons.
