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April 12, 2010
Group Hopes to Decrease Reliance on The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park supplies most of the water used in San Francisco, and for about 1.5 million people on the Peninsula and in the East Bay. But if a group of environmentalists has its way that will change. Restore Hetch Hetchy is a spin-off of the Sierra Club. The group is pushing for a November ballot measure designed to change the way the city gets its water.
4:29 minutes, aired 5:30 pm
http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R201004121730
Host: Stephanie Martin
Guest:
Mike Marshall, executive director of Restore Hetch Hetchy
Martin: From KQED Radio News I'm Stephanie Martin. The Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park supplies most of the water used in San Francisco, and for about 1.5 million people on the Peninsula and in the East Bay. But if a group of environmentalists has its way that will change. Restore Hetch Hetchy is a spin-off of the Sierra Club. The group is pushing for a November ballot measure designed to change the way the city gets its water. For more of what the plan entails were joined my Restore Hetch Hetchy executive director Mike Marshall. Mr. Marshall, where do want people get their water?
Marshall: From the exact same place as they currently do. It's really important for people to understand that our water comes for the Tuolumne River here in SF, 85 percent of it; the rest comes local reservoirs in the Peninsula and in Alameda County. Multiple studies have been done, and proven that we can continue to take water off Tuolumne River to meet San Francisco's waters needs but simply store the water outside Yosemite National Park. Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is not the source of San Francisco's water, it's where San Francisco stores its water, and that's so important for people to remember.
Martin: So where would the water be stored if not the Hetch Hetchy?
Marshall: Again, it's important to remember that we've built eight reservoirs since we built the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, and the idea here is not only to find alternative storage like Don Pedro, which is owned by the Turlock and Modesto Irrigation Districts, which is down river from there, which has an increased capacity, and has a capacity to increase storage significantly so what we want to do is put an initiative on the ballot that sets long term goals for the City that if achieved would allow for the restoration of the Tuolumne and an increase of water on the lower Tuolumne into the Sacramento Delta, as well as allow San Francisco to return Hetch Hetchy to the National Park Service to Yosemite can be restored.
Martin: Now environmentalists have been fighting for the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir for more than a century but have been unsuccessful so far, why do you think this plan could gain traction?
Marshall: Because first of all because it's linked to the way San Francisco does business. It's an antiquated system. It was designed and conceived in the 19th century; we need to look at it with a 21st century set of needs. And I think the voters today are more sophisticated today than they have been in the past relative to water resource issues and the environment, and the impact on the environment, and more concerned about that. So again the idea here is not to come up with pie in the sky legislation for the people to vote on, but to come up with sound public policy that in fact in the long term is the right thing for San Francisco to do.
Martin: Earlier today I spoke with Michael Carlin, deputy director and general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. He argues that the Hetch Hetchy system is an excellent one and a green one too. Here's what he had to say:
Carlin: Hetch Hetchy is green in the respect that it's gravity driven system; it doesn't require a lot to treat the water to serve for our customers. It's a natural watershed that we actually invest quite a lot of money in for watershed protection.
Martin: Why do these arguments fail with your group?
Marshall: They don't fail per se; they system that was designed a 100 years ago was extraordinary for the time; it is gravity fed. But in terms of it being green, first of all that state doesn't recognize it as green; it requires the ongoing destruction of one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. The Hetch Hetchy ecosystem like Yosemite Valley, because of the climate and the altitude had one of the most diverse ranges of plant life and animal life of anyplace on Earth, and can again. So that notion that this is somehow this is a green system is hyperbole at best, and down right misleading.
Martin: So this is a San Francisco ballot measure; what about other communities that get their water from the Hetch Hetchy system?
Marshall: They are customers of San Francisco. So the decision-making around any of this is exclusively in the hands of San Francisco and because there's language in the city charter, it's not even the Board of Supervisors that can make these changes; in fact it's got to be the voters of San Francisco.
Martin: What's your time frame to getting this on the November ballot?
Marshall: We need to have the Board of Supervisors vote; we need six votes by July 23rd.
Martin: Mike Marshall, thank you.
Marshall: Thank you.
Martin: Mike Marshall is the executive director of Restore Hetch Hetchy. I'm Stephanie Martin, KQED Public Radio.
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