Campaigning to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park means caring about San Francisco’s water system and ensuring no loss of reliability when the valley is returned to its natural splendor. The City’s opportunity to invest in groundwater banking would provide widespread benefits and save money for their customers.
Restore Hetch Hetchy’s letter to San Francisco officials urges the City to follow the lead of other California water agencies by investing in cost-effective groundwater recharge.
Too many people associate one storage tank, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, with San Francisco’s water. The City stores water in nine reservoirs. Restoring Hetch Hetchy would eliminate only one of these reservoirs, include some changes in conveyance and how the others are used, and require some investment to replace what would be lost. Restore Hetch Hetchy has recommended groundwater banking, recycling or enlarging Calaveras Reservoir – see Yosemite’s Opportunity for more information.
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir accounts for less than 25% of San Francisco’s storage.
San Francisco officials have shown little or no interest in restoring Hetch Hetchy, even though other water agencies throughout California have done far more to reduce the damage they’ve caused in other areas. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, like all water agencies, is always looking for additional supply – whether it be used as a hedge against drought, to accommodate growth or for environmental enhancement.
Restore Hetch Hetchy continues to ask San Francisco to invest in groundwater banking – by far the greatest cost-effective opportunity for water supply development in California over the last 30 years. We have written extensively, made presentations and met with staff and board members at the SFPUC, the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency (San Francisco’s “suburban’ customers), the Eastside Water District (where depleted aquifers have been depleted and recharge is sorely needed) and the Turlock and Modesto Irrigation Districts (who hold senior water rights on the Tuolumne River and operate Don Pedro Reservoir).
On Friday, April 4, after having watched a meeting of the East Turlock Groundwater Sustainability Agency in which they worried openly about State takeover of their groundwater if they did not make improvements, we wrote to the SFPUC again. San Francisco’s investment in groundwater recharge would provide substantial benefits for all parties and for the environment, but no one is taking this opportunity seriously (maybe there are ongoing private closed door discussions, but it seems unlikely).
Diverting the Tuolumne River flood flows in wet years for groundwater recharge would provide widespread benefits.
We understand that institutional cooperation is complicated and would need to involve San Francisco, Eastside, Turlock and Modesto. Everyone would need to see benefits. But institutional barriers have been overcome, again and again, elsewhere in California. There is every reason that a robust, cooperative groundwater recharge program should be developed and implemented in the Tuolumne River watershed.