We are of the opinion that if this dam removal and valley restoration can be done while maintaining the water supply at its current level it should be, as it would be restoring and protecting a beautiful natural resource important to many; just as erecting the Auburn Dam, also needed to protect something valuable, in this case peoples lives, property, and the integrity of the Parkway; should also be done.
The value of natural beauty is priceless, but not as priceless as the protection of human life and the provision of adequate water to sustain that life.
An excerpt, and note the key question in the final paragraph posted.
CALIFORNIA
Hetch Hetchy restoration a heated topic at hearing Most agree dam could be torn down -- but should it?
Greg Lucas, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
10-11) 04:00 PDT Sacramento --
Environmentalists clashed with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and other water agencies Tuesday over the cost -- and advisability -- of tearing down the dam that bottles up Hetch Hetchy Valley and provides the Bay Area with much of its water supply.
The issue -- debated off and on for 20 years -- appeared no closer to resolution at a three-hour legislative hearing called to evaluate what additional study is needed on the idea of tearing down the 83-year-old O'Shaughnessy Dam on the Tuolumne River.
"It can be done. Whether it should be done is still open to question," said Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, who attended the hearing by the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee.
The hearing was triggered by a July state Department of Water Resources report that examined past studies of the feasibility of restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley.
The report came two years after two Bay Area lawmakers -- Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, and Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla, D-Pittsburg -- persuaded Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that the idea of emptying the valley was worth considering.
That report concluded that demolishing the 410-foot dam and draining the valley of the 117 billion gallons of water it's under could be done, but at a cost of between $3 billion and $10 billion.
"We can serve breakfast to people on the moon. The question is whether it's a trip worth taking," said Arthur Jensen, general manager of the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency, the members of which use two-thirds of the water that flows out of Hetch Hetchy.
The state report also found that previous studies didn't offer enough information about how the dam would be removed or how the valley would be restored, two major cost drivers.
Environmental groups -- represented Tuesday by Restore Hetch Hetchy, Environmental Defense and the Sierra Club -- contend that the dam can be knocked down at far less cost, and that 95 percent of the water currently sent to nearly 2.5 million Bay Area customers can easily be replaced from other sources.
Those sources include more pumping from nearby Cherry Lake and Lake Eleanor and construction of a diversion dam downstream from O'Shaughnessy to push water into the pipelines that send it down the mountain.
Seventy percent of the 1.8 million megawatts of hydroelectric power generated by the dam could also be easily found, they said.
"There are ways to replace the water; there's only one Hetch Hetchy," Spreck Rosekrans, an analyst for Environmental Defense, told the committee.
Several GOP lawmakers questioned whether environmental groups would be supportive of expanding dams to replace Hetch Hetchy. One Democratic lawmaker questioned whether California, already in need of more water, should tear down an existing dam.
