The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), the agency responsible for the stewardship of the of the Bay Area’s Hetch Hetchy water & power system, today welcomed the release of the Environmental Defense study of issues related to the draining of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park.  While leaders expressed support for the study’s goals, they also urged a cautious approach to the effort to ensure the continued public health, safety and economic activity of the Bay Area and Central Valley.

“Water and power are complex, even emotional issues in our state and we welcome the Environmental Defense report and other studies of the Bay Area’s water and power system,” said Susan Leal, General Manager of the SFPUC.  “We’ll continue to work with environmental, business and elected leaders from throughout California to do what’s best for the environment and protect the millions of Bay Area and Central Valley residents who today depend on Hetch Hetchy for high quality drinking water, irrigation water and clean hydroelectric power.”

“We’re very interested in the results and we’re very sympathetic to the Environmental Defense study’s goals,” added Leal.  “But the politics of water in California have too often been a zero-sum game.  Any serious proposal to drain Hetch Hetchy Reservoir must go far beyond theory and technical assumptions to address comprehensively the financial, legal and political realities of water and power issues in our state.  We must proceed with caution because the public health, safety and economic vitality of the Bay Area and the Central Valley are at stake.”

The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir at the headwaters of the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park is at the heart of a system that delivers some of the highest quality drinking water in the nation to more than 2.4 million residents of San Francisco, Silicon Valley, the Peninsula and parts of the East Bay.  The Hetch Hetchy system also provides agricultural and irrigation water for parts of the Central Valley and clean, public, hydroelectric power for San Francisco and the Turlock & Modesto Irrigation Districts.  In 2002, $3.6 billion was approved to rebuild and upgrade the entire Sierra to San Francisco system, which is more than 80 years old and highly vulnerable to a major seismic event that could leave much of the Bay Area without water for weeks. 

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:                                                 For further information contact:
September 27, 2004                                                       Tony Winnicker
                                                                                           (415) 934-5733 ph
                                                                                           (415) 279-6078 cell