Restore Hetch Hetchy’s Fall 2023 newsletter has been distributed by mail and is available online as well. If you’d like a hard copy and have not received one, send an email to admin@hetchhetchy.org.
The fall newsletter includes the latest on our petition to the National Park Service and Department of Interior. We are pleased with progress to date, but have yet to hear any official response to our assertions that current policies at Hetch Hetchy violate federal law. We plan to meet with the NPS soon and will be certain to ask how/when they plan to respond.
When we met with National Park Service Director Chuck Sams in June, we told him Yosemite could and should be improved by expanding visitor access at Hetch Hetchy.
The Raker Act allowed Hetch Hetchy Reservoir to be constructed but only authorized buildings “properly incident” to water and power operations. San Francisco’s use of cabins at Hetch Hetchy is clearly recreational.
The newsletter also:
- Summarizes our recent discussion with San Francisco and other water agencies regarding the substantial potential for groundwater banking in the Central Valley;
- Reviews Kim Stanley Robinson’s inspiring talk at our annual dinner; and
- Includes our thoughts on balancing visitor use and resource protection at Hetch Hetchy.
Again, if you’d like a hard copy of the newsletter but have not received one, let us know. Our printed newsletters come out 2-3 times per year.