On the possible restoration of the beautiful Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park

by James K. Sayre

If we removed the present O'Shaughnessey Dam and the Hetch Hetchy Reservior, which is presently blocking the natural flow of the Tuolumne River and occupying the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, we would be allowing Nature to recreate its own brand of beauty in this second grand river valley within the Park.

Back in 1987, initially inspired by the comments of the then Secretary of the Interior Don Hodel who suggested restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley, I started a Free Hetch Hetchy movement, completed with letters-to-the-editor, buttons and bumper strips. It didn't go anywhere. It was then that I realized that the "environmental movement" had become big business, with organizations that had multi-million dollar annual budgets. Unfortunately, the Sierra Club was uninterested in devoting any energy to this environmental restoration activity. Nor were any of the other big environmental organizations. (They were understandably allergic to President Reagan's anti-environmental policies exemplified by his statement, "If you've seen one Redwood tree, you've seen them all..." and they didn't want to be seen agreeing with anything that his Administration supported). The high point for me was receiving a very supportive letter favoring restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley from Don Hodel, Reagan's Secretary of the Interior during his second term.

End of story until the "Restore Hetch Hetchy" organizations emerged about ten year later (during the Democratic Clinton Administration years). Recently, the Sacramento Bee has run a series of articles and editorials (in August and September 2004) supporting the restoration of Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park.

The City of San Francisco, which owns and operates the O'Shaughnessey Dam and the Hetch Hetchy Reservior in Yosemite National Park currently earns about forty million dollars per year from the sale of electricity generated by hydro electic power from the Dam. If the Dam were relocated downstream on the Tuolumne River, this electrical power would no longer be generated, but that would a very small price to pay to restore the natural beauty of the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park.

Some links on the possible restoration of Hetch Hetchy Valley.:

The Sacramento Bee Sacramento Bee (search for terms "Hetch Hetchy restoration")

Restore Hetch Hetchy Restore Hetch Hetchy

Environmental Defense web site Environmental Defense

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This web page was recently created by James Sayre.

Contact author James K. Sayre at sayresayre@yahoo.com. Author's Email: sayresayre@yahoo.com

Web page last updated on 12 September 2004.