More water to be taken from Tuolumne River?

Bay Area communities are asking for more water - an additional 35,000 acre-feet per year by 2030 - to be withdrawn from the Tuolumne River.

In non-drought years San Francisco's Hetch Hetchy water system already sucks about 240,000 acre-feet per year from the Tuolumne at the city's O'Shaughnessy Dam in Yosemite National Park. The diversion reduces flows all the way downstream, shrinking habitat for fish and wildlife, and diminishing recreational opportunities for boaters and other river users.

The 15% increase would provide increased supplies for Bay Area water districts outside San Francisco that receive their water from San Francisco. One-third of the increased diversions would go to the city of Hayward, which projects that it will need 10 million gallons more water per day by 2030, a more than 50% increase over its current water use. The Alameda County Water District, which supplies North Fremont, Newark, and Union City, wants to jump from 12 million gallons per day to 13.77 million gallons, an increase of about 15%. San Mateo and Santa Clara County communities, which today receive about 140 million gallons per day, would get an increase of over 21 million gallons per day.

The city of San Francisco itself does not anticipate needing any increased Tuolumne River water. It plans to meet future needs through conservation and improved management of its existing supplies.

The San Francisco Planning Department is preparing a Programmatic Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) on the proposal to take additional water from the Tuolumne River. The Sierra Club has expressed concern about the prospect of increased harm to the Tuolumne, and has asked the Planning Department to reject the current proposal and favor an alternative that will meet the Bay Area's water needs through increased conservation, better management of existing water supplies, and water transfers to meet drought conditions.

WhatYouCanDo

If you live in a community that receives water from the San Francisco regional water system, contact your City Council or water agency to demand that it protect the Tuolumne River by meeting its future water needs without any increase in the amount of water it gets from the San Francisco regional water system.

Dan Sullivan