Undammed if You Do
Over in the news pages, Capitol Journal columnist George Skelton today pours cold Sierra runoff on the environmentalist dream of tearing down the Toulumne River's O'Shaughnessy Dam so that Hetch Hetchy Valley near Yosemite can be restored to its original meadow splendor, memorably described by naturalist hero John Muir as "one of nature's rarest and most precious mountain temples." (Here's a useful before-and-after comparison; also, see this Travel section piece from a half-year ago, and another from the short-lived Outdoors section.)
Skelton's takes mirrors that of our Editorial Board, which stated this July (sorry, no link):
[I]t's not at all clear that dismantling the dam and restoring the valley is the right thing to do now. [...]
[R]estoring the valley would be hellishly expensive -- $3 billion to $10 billion. [...]
Restoring Hetch Hetchy is a beautiful environmental dream. But it does not belong on anyone's short list of priority projects.
Any dams closer to home on the demolition list? Why, yes -- the silt-packed Matilija Dam, keeping the Ventura River at bay. According to a recent VC Reporter article,
A $130 million project to topple the massive Matilija Dam would be well underway if Ventura County, state agencies and local organizations could provide the local $52 million portion of the project's whopping price tag.
And there's the Malibu Creek's Rindge Dam. All of which is an elaborate excuse to link to still more river-related Christmas books:
Dam Politics: Restoring America's Rivers, by William R. Lowry (April 2003).
Watershed: The Undamming of America, by Elizabeth Grossman (June 2002).
Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams, by Patrick McCully (December 2001).
The Great Thirst: Californians and Water-A History, by Norris Hundley, Jr. (March 2001).
And, of course, the classic: Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, by Marc Reisner (August 1986).
You know, normally I loathe people who want to rip out dams, but here they may have a point. Yosemite IS a National Park, after all.
How about this trade off: Hetch Hetchy Dam is torn down AFTER:
(1) Auburn Dam is built.
(2) The North Coast rivers (Eel, Mad, Hayfork, Van Duzen, southern forks of the Trinity) are dammed and diverted. In a state prone to alternating cycles of drought and flood, and badly in need of clean renewable hydroelectric power, anyone who gets mushy about a "wild and scenic river" needs a mental examination and then commitment to the Agnews, Napa, or Patton State Mental Hospitals. Yes, this can be done without flooding out the Round Valley Indian Reservation (the fatal flaw in the original Dos Rios project plan), and yes, enough flow can be left over and hatcheries can be created for the salmon and other fishies.
(3) At least 260 base-load megawatts of electricity are generated from (1) and (2) above, and double that peak-load, making up for the lost Hetch Hetchy hydropower. If not, then we must build a nuclear power plant! Redesigning and rebuilding Rancho Seco could work here.
(4) Additional San Luis type storage reservoirs are built. (Orestimba, Panoche)
(5) any necessary water storage dams on the Tuolumne River downstream from Hetch Hetchy are built below the National Park (Poopenaut Valley, or anywhere else upstream from Lake Don Pedro)
(6) The number of Yosemite Valley campsites are restored to 1960’s levels, and finally
(7) The restored Hetch Hetchy Valley gets an equivalent number of campsites! Seriously, what good is a national park if hardly anyone can ever enjoy it?
Posted by: Curmudgeon | June 01, 2008 at 11:44 PM