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