Congressman Calls on 1913 Water Conservation Law to Get Hetch Hetchy Valley Drained
By Rocky Thompson on December 15th, 2011
A California congressman has called on an old law that requires San Francisco to “first fully develop and use other available water resources before it begins to export water it captures from the Tuolumne River.” Legendary naturalist John Muir called Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy, “one of nature’s rarest and most precious mountain temple(s),” and he died (of a broken heart?) shortly after it was dammed and turned into a reservoir for San Francisco. The law dates back to 1913, and if nothing else, it’s a wonderful legal reason for the city to look at using even more sustainable water practices. Should they drain Hetch Hetchy? If they do, they could sell all the old lumber and cars they find at the bottom of it to people in San Francisco.
Tags: california, Green, yosemite
There are cars at the bottom of the Hetch Hetchy reservoir? How in the world did that happen?