Big Dam Mess

If they are measured, they are grand plans, nonetheless. Just the same, Werbach's words lack the proselytical certainty one expects from a prominent conservationist. He insists I contact activists who oppose downstream reservoir expansion on the basis that it would ultimately decimate the Tuolumne River and nurture suburban sprawl. He sends me names and phone numbers and notes, on his own volition, that the environmental community is not united on Hetch Hetchy.

"We don't want a third option, which is 'Fuck San Francisco.' That is an option that will come. If there's one thing I've learned in environmentalism, nationally initiated programs never work out in the interests of local communities."

To hear the first strains of Environmental Defense's campaign to restore Hetch Hetchy, ending John Muir's nightmare wouldn't be terribly difficult. Representatives of the group won't speak about their upcoming campaign for the record; the "Environmental Defense fights to restore Hetch Hetchy" story is "embargoed" until next week, a spokeswoman told me. A new EDF Web page, however, outlines the story's basic thrust, which will be announced in full at an Oakland press conference Monday, Sept. 27.

"Environmental Defense believes that water storage could be found farther downstream on the Tuolumne in existing reservoirs and at other off-stream sites. With help from leading industry consultants, Environmental Defense has developed a number of cost-effective solutions for delivering to Bay Area residents the same reliable supply of safe, high-quality water, without compromising a national park. We'll release our analysis, the most in-depth of its type, later this month.

"'There's no question that Hetch Hetchy Valley can be restored,' says our water analyst Spreck Rosekrans. 'We just need the vision of the American public to lead the way.'"

The Sacramento Bee echoed this sentiment in a series of 12 editorials and articles running from Aug. 12 through Sept. 22. The package's guiding sentiment was summed up in an Aug. 30 editorial titled "San Francisco's Paradox."

"Hetch Hetchy is San Francisco's great civic contradiction. While the city's environmental agenda spans the globe, it keeps a glacial valley locked away close to home," the editorial professed. "No longer would San Francisco be, as [David] Brower declared it years ago, the pirate with the stolen national treasure. Instead, a city that prides itself on environmentalism could set its sights on a new cause: restoring Hetch Hetchy, a public jewel close to home."

The Fresno Bee pitched in with a save-Hetch-Hetchy story of its own, stating that "the emotional sparks between outraged environmentalists and supposedly 'green' Bay Area politicos are as spectacular as they are ironic."

As a factual basis, the stories drew from what they referred to as a study by "UC Davis researchers" analyzing the possibility of draining Hetch Hetchy without severely restricting San Francisco's water supply. These proposed measures include rebuilding the Calaveras Reservoir in Santa Clara and Alameda counties; negotiating a new deal with irrigation districts in Turlock and Modesto, which control the Don Pedro Reservoir that now provides San Francisco with water; and paying off S.F. residents for loss of hydroelectric power, among other things.

Environmental Defense recommended I also look at "the UC Davis study," which, as it turns out, is actually a master's thesis written by a geography student named Sarah Null.

In addition, Environmental Defense turned my attention to a letter written by Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla (D-Pittsburg) to Gov. Schwarzenegger, suggesting a state-funded study on restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley. The Bee has written a story on Canciamilla's letter.

Neither Environmental Defense nor the Bee noted that Canciamilla has made a hobby of urging the state to meddle in San Francisco affairs. In April, Canciamilla introduced an Assembly resolution urging the state attorney general to take over S.F. District Attorney Kamala Harris' prosecution of a man accused of killing a San Francisco police officer, because Harris, exercising the prosecutorial discretion all district attorneys have, decided not to seek the death penalty. "The report that came out of UC Davis really raised a number of issues in terms of the ability of the various agencies to restore the valley," Canciamilla said in an interview, again referencing the master's thesis.

If Environmental Defense got this much mileage out of Canciamilla's antics and someone's master's project, I can only imagine how far the group will be able to get driving an actual half-million-dollar study.