State hydrologists predict global warming will result in more run-off necessitating a larger dam at Hetch Hetchy, says water official.
An excerpt.
Call to expand Hetch Hetchy sparks howls of protest
By Paul Rogers Mercury News, August 9, 2006
San Francisco's top water official on Tuesday said that rather than tearing down the reservoir and dam at Yosemite National Park's Hetch Hetchy Valley, the city should consider building the dam higher and flooding more of the park.
Richard Sklar, president of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which owns and operates the Hetch Hetchy water system, made the suggestion during a global warming hearing that the PUC held at San Francisco City Hall.
If O'Shaughnessy Dam was raised taller, and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir was expanded, Sklar said, it could store more water when global warming melts the Sierra Nevada snowpack earlier every spring, as state hydrologists are predicting.
Sklar, a 71-year-old Democrat, is a longtime and well-respected fixture in San Francisco politics. His bombshell idea -- one of several suggestions he made for dealing with global warming -- was met with howls of protest by environmentalists afterward.
``Further desecration of one of America's most treasured national parks is a bad idea,'' said Tom Graff, state director for Environmental Defense, in Oakland.
In recent years, some environmentalists have stepped up a campaign to drain the reservoir, tear down the dam and store its drinking water -- which serves 2.4 million residents from San Francisco to Santa Clara -- in other reservoirs. The idea gained momentum last month when a report from the state Department of Water Resources found it technically feasible to drain the reservoir and store its water elsewhere, but at a cost of $3 billion to $10 billion.
