Dam removal and restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley was first seriously proposed in 1988 by Donald Hodel, President Bush's Secretary of the Interior. Hodel's proposal has been followed over the last two decades by a series of increasingly more comprehensive studies by a variety of groups and agencies including:
- Environmental Defense
- Restore Hetch Hetchy
- California Departments of Water Resources and Parks & Recreation
- US Department of the Interior
The activity below provides an opportunity to explore the existing San Francisco water and power system, to glimpse into the conclusions of the studies listed above and the data on which they are based, and, finally, to weigh the pros and cons of dam removal and formulate your own position. |