Feinstein Takes Battle Over Water to Its Source

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK —  San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein took her battle with Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel over the renovation of Hetch Hetchy Valley to the remote waters of the reservoir itself Thursday.

In her continuing campaign against Hodel’s suggestion to tear down 430-foot O’Shaughnessy Dam and empty the reservoir that is San Francisco’s main water supply, Feinstein addressed reporters from a bobbing motorboat in the middle of the reservoir, which is in the northern part of this national park.

Feinstein, a two-term mayor on her first tour of the Hetch Hetchy Water and Power system, claimed that as many as two million people, thousands of businesses in the Silicon Valley, 28 Northern California communities and two irrigation districts depend on the reservior for water and that no cost-effective alternative is available.

Hodel, who has said destruction of the dam would be contingent on finding another source of water for the San Francisco area, favors restoring the valley to its natural state. The valley was considered among the most beautiful in the state before it was dammed and flooded in the 1920s.

But Feinstein said, “I don’t think he (Hodel) has thought of the trade-off.

“If one is confronted with the $6 billion to $8 billion replacement and demolition cost to gain 1.25 miles of valley floor, it’s simply not

Feinstein ostensibly was visiting the reservoir to prepare for a meeting with Hodel. No date has been set for Hodel’s visit, but San Francisco city officials said he would be taken on a tour of the Hetch Hetchy system.

Following a visit to power houses and other facilities of the Hetch Hetchy system, Feinstein motored out to the middle of the reservior Thursday to tour the lake and held an impromptu press conference with a following boatload of reporters and photographers.

After her boat trip she and a group of city officials drove down to the town of Moccasin, headquarters for the Hetch Hetchy system, for a meeting with Toulumne County officials.