Tactical change for Restore Hetch Hetchy: An Oakland nonprofit has a new game plan for convincing Californians to restore the valley called Yosemite’s twin

From the East Bay Express:

“Over the years, environmentalists have repeatedly vilified Los Angeles for raiding the beautiful Owens Valley to satiate its unquenchable thirst for water. Eventually, court orders forced LA to curtail its Sierra water grab to save Mono Lake. But there is still one major California city that takes far more water than Los Angeles ever did from a once pristine, magnificent valley in the high country. And yet for nearly a century, the City of San Francisco has managed to avoid the same sort of scorn heaped on its neighbor to the south — despite the continued environmental destruction it wreaks in what is arguably the nation’s grandest national park.

It’s safe to say that most San Franciscans, or most Bay Area residents for that matter, don’t view Hetch Hetchy dam inside Yosemite National Park in those terms. Instead, they see the 380,000 acre-foot reservoir as a birthright, if they know about it at all. In fact, most San Franciscans probably don’t realize that when they turn on their shower, or flush their toilet, the water comes from the Tuolumne River 160 miles away, from a breathtaking canyon of sheer granite walls that their own city ruined when it dammed it up and filled it with water 86 years ago. … “

Read more from the East Bay Express by clicking here.

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