Folly in Hetch Hetchy Valley

The innocuous little bill that started the whole new battle over San Francisco’s dam and reservoir in Yosemite National Park still is awaiting final action in Congress. It is time now that it be passed and sent to the President for his signature.

The measure is HR 1173, sponsored by Rep. Richard H. Lehman (D-Sanger), whose district includes Yosemite. The legislation would prohibit the construction of any new dams in national parks and national monuments, and would specifically prevent the city of San Francisco from enlarging O’Shaughnessey Dam, which impounds much of the city’s water supply in Hetch Hetchy Valley on the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park.

The Lehman bill passed the House twice, in 1986 and 1987, without dissenting votes, but it had been held in the Senate without a hearing until last Thursday, when the measure came before a sub-committee of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The bill had been opposed by Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) at the urging of Dianne Feinstein, who was then the mayor of San Francisco. The city since has withdrawn its opposition, and the measure deserves the speedy approval of the Senate.

In addressing the subcommittee, Lehman said that he first became interested in the subject when he learned of a 1981 San Francisco study that rec-mmended raising O’Shaughnessey Dam at some future date by up to 160 feet, thus flooding the spectacular Hetch Hetchy Valley by an additional 900 acres. Questioned about this, officials of the Department of the Interior agreed in 1985 that the San Francisco system should not be enlarged, and that they would write an administrative order to that effect. Lehman thought that more permanent action was appropriate, and introduced his legislation.

The issue attracted limited public attention in 1986, but Hetch Hetchy blossomed into full-blown controversy last year when Secretary of the Interior Donald P. Hodel proposed, seemingly out of the blue, that O’Shaughnessey Dam be ripped out and Hetch Hetchy Valley restored to its natural condition. Hodel’s idea sent the California water development and environmental communities into a tizzy, but his proposal to spend about half a million dollars for a study of the idea has been stymied in Congress.

Against the backdrop of the Hodel proposal, the Lehman measure should seem innocent and non-threatening to all. One can argue about whether O’Shaughnessey Dam should be torn down or not, and the issue is certain to be argued in the future. But there is no question as to the folly of the notion of building the dam even higher and making the reservoir even larger. Final passage of the Lehman bill should properly put a stop to such talk.