Our spring newsletter is in mailboxes and posted online!. If you haven’t received a printed copy but would like one, let us know.
First a quick update: The National Park Service has told us that it is working on a written response to our legal assertions that human-powered boating and fishing at Hetch Hetchy MUST be allowed and that visitors MUST be allowed to pass through the entrance gate at any time of day. We are looking forward to this response. We will not speculate what it might say, but we do fully intend to keep the pressure on so Hetch Hetchy will be as attractive to visitors as possible.
A few additional thoughts about dams: The impending removal of Scott (storage) and Cape Van Horn (diversion) Dams on the Eel River is a project to watch closely. Like O’Shaughnessy Dam & Hetchy Hetchy Reservoir (and unlike the Klamath Dams), the Eel River Dams are part of a water supply system. The Sonoma County Water Agency may still be able to divert some of the river’s flow at Cape Van Horn, but it will not be able to rely on water stored at Lake Pillsbury. Similarly, when Hetch Hetchy is restored, the river’s flow can still be diverted into the Canyon Tunnel as it leaves Hetch Hetchy Valley.
Lake Pillsbury will be gone. We don’t know whether some of the Eel’s flow will still be diverted south to the Russian River watershed.
And please join us at our annual dinner on October 26 at the (easily accessible) Lafayette Veterans Memorial Center. We’re thrilled that Pulitzer Prize winner Tom Philp will join us. Tom is passionate about Hetch Hetchy and thoughtful about the path to restoration. You’ll love him.