"Their Initiative is Insane"

Pre-1923 Hetch Hetchy  (Bancroft Library via SJ Mercury)

One of America's oldest environmental disputes will continue at the ballot box this November. San Franciscans will decide whether to create a plan to drain the Hetch Hetchy reservoir; if the measure passes and a credible plan is drafted, the vote to proceed will likely occur in four years.

After the great earthquake and fire of 1906 San Francisco cast about for stable sources of water. In 1923 the newly built O'Shaughnessy Dam flooded the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park over the objections of the Sierra Club and its founder, John Muir. Today the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir serves about two million customers in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the 30,000 people in our town of Foster City.

Photos show that pre-1923 Hetch Hetchy rivals the beauty of Yosemite Valley itself, and one can sympathize with the environmentalists of one hundred years ago.  However, by 2012 Northern Californians have become so dependent on Hetch Hetchy water that many of environmentalism's normally strongest supporters, such as Democratic Party politicians and Silicon Valley businesses, are opposed to even considering the draining of the reservoir.

"We have to stop this one," said Carl Guardino, president of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. "Hetch Hetchy is a critical water source not only for San Francisco, but throughout Silicon Valley. It is critical to our economy. We care deeply about this."

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee was more blunt. "Their initiative is insane and attempts to fool voters into wasting millions to restudy local water sustainability projects that are already being implemented in San Francisco," he said.

Opposition to the Hetch Hetchy restoration initiative is another example of an elementary fact of political life:  over time the benefits from government programs attract powerful constituencies, and the programs become nearly impossible to shrink, let alone eliminate.  This is true regardless of the merits of the case. In November count on the initiative to fail.