By Douglas Fischer STAFF WRITER Saturday, December 04, 2004 – Yosemite National Park may be turning a new leaf come spring. But some see even greater restoration potential on the horizon: A remade Hetch Hetchy Valley — minus the reservoir that’s kept the valley underwater for 80 years. In September, Environmental Defense grabbed headlines across [...]
By Herbert A. Sample — Bee San Francisco Bureau Published 2:15 am PST Thursday, December 2, 2004 OAKLAND – A Bay Area business group has begun marshaling forces to fight the idea of restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park by dismantling an 80-year-old dam. Concerned by public relations successes by advocates of the [...]
Spreck Rosekrans, Nancy E. Ryan Tuesday, November 30, 2004 Sometimes you can have your cake and eat it, too. In this case, we can have Hetch Hetchy Valley and still drink the Tuolumne River’s water. As San Francisco undertakes a major revamping of its water system, the time is right to consider how to provide [...]
Glen Martin, Chronicle Environment Writer Sunday, November 21, 2004 It has been more than 80 years since the Hetch Hetchy Valley disappeared under the waters gathered behind O’Shaughnessy Dam, but its lost High Sierra splendor still resonates with nature lovers. John Muir called Hetch Hetchy the “wonderful exact counterpart” to Yosemite Valley; old photos and [...]
By Herbert A. Sample — Bee San Francisco Bureau Published 2:15 am PST Friday, November 12, 2004 OAKLAND – The Schwarzenegger administration has decided to assess studies of restoring the submerged Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, an idea that has been fiercely criticized by San Francisco business and government interests. The governor’s intentions [...]
Published 2:15 am PDT Monday, October 25, 2004 An emerging debate on whether to restore Yosemite’s second great valley, Hetch Hetchy, is holding true to the history of this valley and of the Tuolumne River, which runs through it. Proposals to change anything about the river’s water resurrect controversy over water rights, over who owns [...]
Published September 29, 2004 Try having a conversation with someone who’s hyperventilating. It’s not easy. Take the San Francisco Bay Area leaders. They are having a hard time swallowing how some legitimate questions arise from a water plan they crafted. One question, underscored Monday by an Environmental Defense study, is whether they need to keep [...]
Published September 19, 2004 The last time the Hetch Hetchy Valley emerged from 300 feet of Sierra water was during the severe drought of 1991. To quench the Bay Area’s thirst, San Francisco water officials sucked the reservoir almost dry. For a brief time they uncovered the glacial valley that had inspired paintings and prose [...]
Published September 5, 2004 Naturalist, author and activist John Muir introduced Yosemite to the outside world more than a century agothrough his exquisite writings. He championed the creation of the national park. And when San Francisco proposed to dam one of Yosemite’s two deep glacial valleys – the Hetch Hetchy Valley on the Tuolumne River [...]
Published August 30, 2004 When it comes to San Francisco’s environmental sensibilities, no cause is too distant, no endeavor too bold. In recent years, San Francisco has vowed to reduce its greenhouse emissions by 20 percent and to produce enough electricity from ocean tides to power 1,000 homes. It has voiced its support for tightening [...]