From The WCMLOACMS Dept. - Bush Budget Includes Funds For Hetch Hetchy Decom. Study

[hatrack]

WCMLOACMS - Well Cut My Legs Off And Call Me Shorty

President Bush's budget has been criticized for many shortcomings — on education, global warming, alternate fuels. But it fully funds one curious item: A $7 million assessment of the restoration of Yosemite's dammed Hetch Hetchy Valley, source of San Francisco's and much of the Bay Area's drinking water.

The earmark matches exactly the California Department of Water Resources' cost estimate for the next study phase, and it's sure to draw vitriol from some of the region's most powerful players, notably Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a strident critic of any effort to remove O'Shaughnessy Dam.

But on Tuesday it was those arguing for the valley's restoration who were most surprised. "At this point, I don't know where this is going," said Jerry Cadagan, chairman of the board for Restore Hetch Hetchy. "This came as a very big surprise to a bunch of us today. We're just going to see where it goes. "Obviously, we're delighted. This is a way of keeping the issue alive."

Bush's line item deep in his $2.9 trillion budget is simply the latest in a chain of fateful and fortuitous breaks in what was once seen as the most quixotic environmental quest in California: restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley and the destruction of a reservoir that for nearly 80 years has provided some of the cleanest, purest drinking water in America to San Francisco and the Bay Area.

EDIT

http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_5174448

[CrazyOrangeCat]

1. i'll be damned . . . er . . . un-dammed

k&r

[NNadir]

2. The Repukes propose this every few years to obviate some hypocrisy.

The Hetch-Hetchy was the original cause celebre of John Muir. It was an environmental tragedy and a sign of things to come.

In fact, we could generate lots of clean renewable energy by filling the Grand Canyon up with water and silt.

I don't believe that the Repukes would dream of removing the Hetch-Hetchy for real. But the point of raising the matter in every especially environmentally disasterous administration does serve to point up the fact that there really aren't pat answers. People do drive to Sierra Club meetings in Ford Expeditions. Last night I went to a version of Gore's slideshow, and it was rather remarkable how many large and inefficient cars were in the parking lot.

San Francisco's water has to come from somewhere.