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Bay Area water hypocrisy exposed

Posted by: Maven on June 25, 2009 at 8:35 am

From the Fresno Bee, this column by Bill McEwen:

One of these days, a water-starved farmer will walk into federal court and demand that O’Shaughnessy Dam come down, finally restoring glacial Hetch Hetchy Valley to its natural grandeur and releasing a natural flow into the Tuolumne River.

Such a lawsuit wouldn’t get the farmer more water. But it would expose the hypocrisy of Bay Area environmentalists who depict San Joaquin Valley residents as ignorant hillbillies making a mess of the desert and the Delta with their irrigated farms.

Hetch Hetchy — the twin to Yosemite Valley — should have been restored decades ago, say many environmental groups, including the Sierra Club. But the only way the dam falls is if a federal judge orders it. And no environmental group will sue. Why?

They say it’s better handled with cooperation and education. My explanation is simpler: it’s because the dam holds some of the best drinking water on earth — granite-filtered water reserved mostly for the allegedly environmentally conscious folks of San Francisco and other Bay Area cities.

Amazing, isn’t it?

Read the rest of Bill McEwen’s column at the Fresno Bee by clicking here.

June 25, 2009 · Filed Under Bay Area

Comments

One Response to “Bay Area water hypocrisy exposed”

  1. dfb on June 25th, 2009 9:10 pm

    He obviously hasn’t see restore Hetch Hetchy bumper stickers when visiting the bay area.

    Even then, he is probably right though that environmental groups will likely not sue to restore Hetch Hetchy. There are bigger and better targets. For example, Shasta is a more likely and better target because environmentalists and fishing interests can more easily establish standing, the environmental impact would be greater, and it is operated by a Federal agency. Secondly, it will be hard to establish standing in court against San Francisco until after downstream dams such as Don Pedro are removed. A component of standing requires that a favorable ruling make the injury redressable. It would do little good to remove O’Shaughnessy Dam to help the salmon if the downstream dams continue to stand and inhibit salmon migration. A 2008 FWS report identified inadequate releases from Don Pedro as a contributing factor in the crash of Tuolomne River salmon. http://www.tuolumne.org/content/article.php/20080505115159394 “In about half of all years, from 94,000 to 164,000 acre-feet flows out of Don Pedro. In the other half, releases exceed 300,000 acre-feet. Mesick’s [author] study says the minimum to sustain a viable native salmon population is 292,882 acre-feet — or about 15 percent of the reservoir’s annual storage.” Don Pedro, incidentally, is owned by the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts and the water is used for agricultural purposes. So that parched farmer will also take on agricultural water interests in addition to the city folks.

    Not to mention that too much of environmental groups’ funding comes from urban coastal areas. The adage about not biting the hand that feeds you comes to mind. A large percentage of major cities in the US import at least some of their water.

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