Fight to get rid of California’s famous Hetch Hetchy Reservoir alive and well as it turns 100

YOSEMITE —  As California’s famous Hetch Hetchy Reservoir celebrates its 100th birthday, the fight to get rid of it is alive and well.

Spreck Rosekrans is with Restore Hetch Hetchy, a group dedicated to draining the reservoir and restoring it to its original state.

“This is the one time in history we’ve done something like this,” Rosekrans said.

If they had their way, the reservoir would be completely drained of its water.

“This is the one time we’ve taken away not just any national park, but Yosemite National Park, and we think it was a quirk of history,” Rosekrans said of the emergence of the reservoir. “It happened in 1913 and there’s a real opportunity to restore the valley.”

But like most things, it’s not that simple. Hetch Hetchy provides around 97 percent of drinking water to San Francisco.

Jenn Bowles is with the Water Education Foundation, an impartial organization that doesn’t have an official stance on the issue. She said San Franciscans are very particular about their water, which is considered especially pure and soft.

“It’s important to the people in S.F. who make sourdough bread and coffee and beer because it’s very soft water,” she said. “And a few years back, when the city decided to mix the Hetch Hetchy water with some groundwater, there was all kinds of chaos.”

Past efforts to remove the reservoir have failed, but Rosekrans still has hope. He said he thinks the undamming of Hetch Hetchy is something he’ll see in his lifetime.

“I think we will prevail,” he said.

One thing everyone can agree on is Hetch Hetchy is one special place.

“It’s a very special valley,” Bowles said. “It’s beautiful. People can go check it out themselves. You can walk around and see the dam and come to your own conclusion.”