Re: SF officials approve upgrade to water system

My understanding is that most of this will be in upgrading the system far downstream from Hetch Hetchy. A lot of this will go to improving the infrastructure in the Bay Area including reservoirs and pipelines.

But spending the money will also be used as an argument against taking that dam down.

eeek wrote:

> But spending the money will also be used as an argument against
> taking that dam down.

My opinion is that the current Hetch Hetchy system as designed is not needed. I'e heard of reasonable analyses that include the removal of the O'Shaughnnesey Dam with the capacity made up from use of excess capacity in downstream reservoirs. The only problem for San Francisco is that they're not controlling those reservoirs and would have to negotiate. They now have the bargaining power since they control the big upstream source.

In any case, there are serious deficiencies in the this water delivery system in the Bay Area. These repairs are something that would be required regardless of whether the water was sourced from Hetch Hetchy or Lake Don Pedro. I don't know why Hetch Hetchy is mentioned, since I don't hear much of anything in Yosemite actually receiving this work.

My smaller scale analogy would be of most these repairs being fixing residential and neighborhood pipes. The water source would be the local treatment plant or reservoir. Regardless of where the treatment plant or reservoir is located, if the residential pipes are in bad shape, they need to be fixed.