The Newspaper of the San Francisco Bay Chapter
Sept - Oct 2005
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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The new threat to Yosemite water
"If you build it, they will come."
This adage is often used to describe the futility of building new freeways to alleviate traffic. In the end, they become filled to capacity with new traffic. The saying also applies to the plan by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to spend $600 million building a fourth pipeline to carry water from Yosemite National Park to the Bay Area.
We were skeptical when the PUC claimed three years ago that it would not use the proposed new pipeline to take more water from Yosemite's Tuolumne River. As San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly points out, the PUC is now admitting that it may increase the take of water after all (see accompanying article, PUC's Broken Promises). A few years from now, the PUC could say that it wants even more Yosemite water, and more a few more years after that. If the pipeline is built, nothing prevents the PUC from eventually filling it to capacity. As with a new freeway, this is likely to happen.
In addition to the damage to wildlife habitat and to recreation opportunities that would be created by large increases in Tuolumne water diversions, this grandiose plan is driving up costs and delaying the much-needed earthquake retrofitting of the water system. Already the costs have skyrocketed from $3.6 billion promised to voters to $4.3 billion. Ratepayers would foot the bill to drain the Tuolumne River.
WhatYouCanDo
In September the PUC and the San Francisco Planning Department will be holding hearings to determine what to study in the upcoming Programmatic Environmental Impact Report. The public can give input on what should be included in the studies. Please attend one of the hearings, or write a letter. Urge the PUC to study a project alternative that does not include a fourth pipeline across the San Joaquin Valley and that provides for any increases in water supply through increased water conservation.
Hearings are expected to be on evenings in late September or early October, one in Fremont and one in downtown San Francisco, but at press time we do not yet know further details. Address letters to:
Major Environmental Assessments
San Francisco Department of Planning
c/o Sierra Club Bay Chapter
2530 San Pablo Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94702.
For hearing details, or for other information, contact Bay Chapter conservation organizer Cathleen Sullivan at (510) 848-0800, ext. 316, or email cathleen-at-sfbaysc.org
© 2005 San Francisco Sierra Club Yodeler