OPINION
From the October 29, 2004 print edition – Guest comment
Jim Wunderman

It can be tempting to take the Bay Area for granted, to presume that this beautiful urban metropolis, this vibrant and creative economy, and this tolerant and diverse culture was inevitable and preordained. Yet the fact is that the Bay Area of today is built upon the visionary accomplishments of those who came before us.

Nowhere is this more true than with the Hetch Hetchy water system, which has fed and nourished the growth of the Bay Area as we know it today.

Water has always been the most precious commodity of economic growth in California, the lack of water always the most difficult barrier. Following the Gold Rush boom, and then the devastation of the 1906 earthquake, Bay Area leaders recognized that limited water would obstruct the promise of a growing region. Because they thought big, the Hetch Hetchy water system that they created now provides water to 2.4 million people in Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda and San Francisco counties – roughly one-third of all Bay Area residents.

In spite of Hetch Hetchy’s importance to the Bay Area, a dedicated group of environmental activists are engaged in a long-haul campaign to drain the Hetch Hetchy reservoir and dismantle the dam. The advocates sell their plan based on the appealing image of a restored Hetch Hetchy Valley, but the more appropriate image would be one of Bay Area unemployment, shuttered factories and severe economic dislocation.

The Bay Area has grown up with the nourishment of Hetch Hetchy water, and today that reliance is unbreakable. It’s not just 2.4 million residents that rely on Hetch Hetchy water; their jobs are also fed by Hetch Hetchy. Factories, hotels and offices in four counties use its water. Industrial processes such as chip-making and biotech production use Hetch Hetchy water and rely upon its unparalleled purity. The NUMMI automobile factory in Fremont was consciously designed to take advantage of the purity and quality of Hetch Hetchy water for sanding and rinsing auto bodies. Likewise, Intel uses more than 1 million gallons of Hetch Hetchy water daily in its Santa Clara wafer fabrication plant. Roche Pharmaceuticals uses nearly 2 million gallons of water a month in its Palo Alto research facility, for developing drugs for treatment of viruses and diseases.

As just one measure of the economic importance of Hetch Hetchy, a 2002 study by the Bay Area Economic Forum found that the region would suffer $29 billion of losses if a major earthquake on the San Andreas Fault interrupted Hetch Hetchy water service. To forestall this disaster, users of Hetch Hetchy water have agreed to finance a $3.6 billion seismic safety improvement program to ensure that an earthquake will not deprive users of Hetch Hetchy water. Notwithstanding this responsible action, all of the benefits of Hetch Hetchy could be lost if we now lose sight of the value of this system and allow it to be destroyed.

There are many and numerous opportunities to restore and improve environmental quality without harming the economy. The Bay Area Council has, in fact, championed environmental causes because it’s important to our region and it’s the right thing to do. We were instrumental in organizing employers to reduce air emissions through the Spare the Air program. We have raised more than $30 million for the California Environmental Redevelopment Fund. We co-founded the Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Communities, and organized energy conservation efforts among Bay Area businesses. The Council worked with others in 1995 to craft the CalFed agreement — essentially a peace treaty between farmers, environmentalists and residential water users, and a critical step in preventing water wars. After nearly 10 years of struggle, a few days ago the Bay Area Council helped finally secure federal authorization of CalFed.

To protect Hetch Hetchy is not to be hostile to environmental quality; it is to be honest and rational about the importance of water to the Bay Area. California’s water infrastructure hasn’t been expanded or improved since the 1960s, despite population that has more than doubled. All that it will take is one drought to expose the hidden water supply shortage, triggering economic disruption much worse than the electricity supply crisis of 2000 and 2001. Indeed, the supply is so short that federal and state officials are currently considering plans to increase pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by 27 percent, further reducing the fresh water flow into our Bay.

Clearly, this is no time to discuss or study the destruction of the Hetch Hetchy system.

The Hetch Hetchy water system was left to us by our predecessors who had the vision, took the risks, and laid the foundation for the Bay Area of today. It’s a legacy that the region should be proud of and our generation has a responsibility to protect.

Jim Wunderman is president and CEO of the Bay Area Council, a federation of CEOs of 275 of the largest employers in the Bay Area.