Goals and Rationale for the
Hetch Hetchy Restoration Project

by Ron Good, Chair, Hetch Hetchy Restoration Task Force, 1999

The Hetch Hetchy Restoration Project has two goals:

1) To restore Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park; and,

2) To: a) acknowledge the City of San Francisco's desire for safe drinking water, electrical power generation, and revenues from the Hetch Hetchy water system; and, b) explore reasonable, effective alternatives for water storage, electrical power, and revenues to be derived from a water and electrical power generation system that does not include a reservoir in Hetch Hetchy Valley.

The rationale for Goal #1 is as follows:

a) The integrity of the National Parks should be inviolate. The National Parks, of all places, should be kept for the enjoyment of present and future Park visitors, and should not be invaded for non-Park purposes. As David Brower, the former Executive Director of the Sierra Club, has stated: "The axiom for protecting the Park System is to consider that it is dedicated country, hallowed ground to leave as beautiful as we have found it, and not country in which man should be so impressed with himself that he tries to improve God's handiwork." [3, p. 182]

b) The priceless natural beauty of Hetch Hetchy Valley should be restored to be enjoyed by Park visitors. As noted earlier John Muir described Hetch Hetchy Valley as "a wonderfully exact counterpart" of Yosemite Valley, and therefore "one of nature's rarest and most precious mountain temples." [4, p. 83]

Furthermore, the National Park Organic Act of 1916 stated that "the natural beauty and wildlife in the national parks were to be used and enjoyed by the public by such means as would leave the landscape unimpaired, this to be enjoyed by the uncounted millions of future visitors." [2, p. xix]

Indeed, John Muir could not contain his enthusiasm for the charms of Hetch Hetchy:

"Imagine yourself in Hetch Hetchy on a sunny day in June, standing waist-deep in grass and flowers (as I have often stood), while the great pines sway dreamily with scarcely perceptible motion. Looking northward across the Valley you see a plain, gray granite cliff rising abruptly out of the gardens and groves to a height of 1800 feet, and in front of it [the waterfall] Tueeulala's silvery scarf burning with irised sun-fire. In the first white outburst at the head there is abundance of visible energy, but it is speedily hushed and concealed in divine repose, and its tranquil progress to the base of the cliff is like that of a downy feather in a still room. Now observe the fineness and marvelous distinctness of the various sun-illumined fabrics into which the water is woven; they sift and float from form to form down the face of that grand gray rock in so leisurely and unconfused a manner that you can examine their texture, and patterns and tones of color as you would a piece of embroidery held in the hand." [2, p. 188-189]

Indeed, imagine being able to hear, in Pulitzer-prize winning author Wallace Stegner words, the "hiss and splash and gurgle" of the Tuolumne River in Hetch Hetchy Valley. [9, p. 43] Or, perhaps, ponder the words of David Brower: "The Tuolumne River will remember the score it used to play, and you will hear its music again." [15, p. 25]

c) The biological integrity of Hetch Hetchy Valley deserves to be intact, and Hetch Hetchy Valley should be re-integrated into the Tuolumne River basin ecological system. Tremendous scientific knowledge could be gained as Hetch Hetchy Valley is restored.

The rationale for Goal #2 is as follows:

The present-day reality for hundreds of thousands of people in the San Francisco Bay Area is a reliance on water and electrical power generation from the current Hetch Hetchy system. Nevertheless, reasonable, effective alternatives to water storage, electrical power generation, and revenues derived from a system that does not include a reservoir in Hetch Hetchy Valley should be explored by federal, state, and local governmental entities, and by non-governmental organizations. In fact, the Reagan Administration's Secretary of the Interior, Donald Hodel, announced his support for the restoration of Hetch Hetchy Valley in 1987. After Secretary Hodel's announcement, in February, 1988, the Bureau of Reclamation prepared "A Survey of Water and Power Replacement Concepts" on behalf of the National Park Service. This report explored several alternatives to providing water and electrical power for the City of San Francisco. [8] Similar studies should be encouraged in the future.

Conclusion

The Hetch Hetchy Restoration Project goals can be summarized to include the following:

1) create and publicize a feasibility study regarding Hetch Hetchy's restoration;

2) encourage federal, state, and local governmental entities, and non-governmental organizations to conduct and publicize feasibility studies regarding reasonable, cost-effective methods for water storage and electrical power generation system that do not include a reservoir in Hetch Hetchy Valley;

3) encourage and support appropriate scientific research regarding the stages of ecological restoration of Hetch Hetchy Valley;

4) explore opportunities for cooperative adventure and educational outings to the Hetch Hetchy area with other leading environmental organizations;

5) work in coalitions with other organizations in the environmental community to achieve the goals of the Hetch Hetchy Restoration Project;

6) solicit the advice and counsel of the National Park Service for technical and scientific information; and,

7) reach out to make special arrangements for private, non-threatening, educational forums to meet with those groups, individuals, and governmental entities who are concerned with Hetch Hetchy Valley's restoration.

At a Yosemite Symposium on October 18, 1990, Dr. Edgar Wayburn, Sierra Club's Vice President for National Parks and Protected Areas stated:

"As the historian Holway Jones has pointed out, from its very beginning the Sierra Club has had an intimate relationship with Yosemite National Park. The early club was inspired by Yosemite. The goal of Yosemite's health, well-being, and preservation took precedence over all the club's early objectives."

This intimate relationship between Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Club was dramatically demonstrated in the early 20th century as Sierra Club founder and first president John Muir emphatically rallied public support against a direct threat to the integrity of Yosemite National Park's Hetch Hetchy Valley:

"Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man."

This intimate relationship between Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Club has continued for decades since Muir's time. In the late 1980s, David Brower encouraged all of us to:

"Join with people everywhere . . . " to "[g]ive the Hetch Hetchy Yosemite back to its original owners -- all of us and all our children and theirs and all the natural things that should be living there forever. . .

"If Hetch Hetchy is restored and the world has the opportunity to watch the slow but beautifully inevitable recovery of a once sublime valley, you can smile again, John Muir, wherever you are.

' . . . and do something to make the mountains glad.'"

Now, as we prepare to enter the 21st century, the Sierra Club's Hetch Hetchy Restoration Project has the opportunity to allow the Tuolumne River in Hetch Hetchy Valley to be free-flowing once again.

Imagine.

"By such a river it is impossible to believe that one will ever be tired or old. Every sense applauds it. Taste it, feel its chill on the teeth: it is purity absolute. Watch its racing current, its steady renewal of force: it is transient and eternal."

To get involved in the effort to restore Hetch Hetchy, contact the Sierra Club Hetch Hetchy Restoration Task Force Chair, Ron Good, at: rongood@inreach.com, P.O. Box 289, Yosemite, CA 95389-0289. Telephone: (209) 372-8785.