SF drops pipeline idea, but still wants more Tuolumne River water

Rising costs and opposition from environmental groups has caused San Francisco to drop its plan to build a fourth pipeline for carrying more water from Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy to the Bay Area.

The new pipeline would have enabled the city eventually to take up to 70% more water from the Tuolumne River than it does now. The dropping of the pipeline ends the biggest threat to Hetch Hetchy since the building of the dam. Unfortunately, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) still plans to increase the take from Yosemite and to expand the capacity of the Calaveras Reservoir.

For two years the Sierra Club and other environmental groups have called for the removal of the fourth pipeline from the plan to retrofit and expand the SFPUC water system. The pipeline would have increased the carrying capacity to 400 million gallons of water every day. Increased diversion of this magnitude would have been devastating to the Tuolumne River, a federally designated wild-and-scenic river that was named one of the country's most endangered rivers by the conservation group American Rivers. This expansion would also have set back any effort to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley, as the dam would have been required to release the volumes needed to fill the pipe during dry months.

The billion-dollar pipeline would have also delayed the critically needed earthquake retrofit of the water system. The SFPUC now delivers water to 2.4 million people around the Bay Area - people who currently could be without clean drinking water for several months in the aftermath of a major earthquake. By dropping this pipeline, San Francisco showed that it can make good decisions about the water system. We have a much better plan as a result.

There are still problems, though, with the plan that, while not as dire as the fourth pipeline proposal, are still significant. The SFPUC still plans to take an additional 25 million gallons a day from the Tuolumne River on top of the 235 million gallons it already takes. This would shrink habitat, decrease fish populations, and decrease the amount of recreational rafting and fishing on the river, as well as increase the concentration of pollution downstream.

This increased diversion isn't necessary, as conservation and recycling efforts could reduce consumption of Tuolumne water by more than 30%. With global warming causing Yosemite glaciers to shrink at an alarming rate and causing unpredictable changes to weather patterns, the SFPUC needs to diversify its water source to become less dependent on the Tuolumne River. Conservation from upgraded water appliances and changes in landscaping practices would save enough water to be considered a new drought-resistant water source.

San Francisco also wants to increase the amount of water it stores in the Bay Area. It has a plan to enlarge the reservoir at the Calaveras Dam, which sits adjacent to the Sunol and Ohlone Regional Wildernesses. The SFPUC plans to build a much larger dam core that would enable San Francisco to expand the reservoir to nearly four times its present size. This would flood thousands of acres of wilderness, habitat for many rare and endangered species. San Francisco is saying that it will build the enlarged dam core now and possibly increase the size of the dam at a later date. According to SFPUC spokespeople, putting off the actual flooding to a later date will save the city from having to do extra environmental analysis. Basically, the SFPUC wants to exploit a loophole in the environmental regulations by enlarging the dam in phases.

The SFPUC - and SFPUC general manager Susan Leal - deserve much credit for making the hard decision to drop the fourth pipeline. But if it would only beef up its conservation and recycling, San Francisco would have no justification for enlarging the Calaveras Dam or taking more water from Yosemite. These measures would also enable the SFPUC to move ahead with the earthquake retrofit at a faster pace, increasing the chances that the repairs to much of the Bay Area's water supply will be completed before the next big earthquake.

John Rizzo, chair, San Francisco Bay Chapter