Schwarzenegger Calls for More Dams Like Hetch Hetchy

Hetch Hetchy was once a beautiful valley much like Yosemite until the City of San Francisco decided to damn the Tuolumne River and create a resevoir after the 1906 earthquake destroyed much of the city. Photo by Steve Ryan.

Governor Schwarzenegger says he’ll block any proposal to overhaul the state’s water supply if it doesn’t contain funding for new dams like Hetch Hetchy.

Modesto Bee: “The governor made his comments Tuesday outside the Capitol as lawmakers were holding a hearing on a package of bills intended to upgrade California’s decades-old water-delivery system.
Schwarzenegger and lawmakers from both parties have made water-related issues a top priority now that the state’s fiscal mess has been addressed. Yet the legislative package before lawmakers this week was written by Democrats and omits funding to build reservoirs, prompting critical comments Tuesday from GOP lawmakers and the Republican governor.

Schwarzenegger has joined Republican lawmakers and some Democrats who represent districts in the Central Valley in pushing for dams and expanding underground water storage.

“I will not sign anything that does not have above-the-ground and below-the-ground water storage,” Schwarzenegger said during a news conference on the steps of the Capitol, surrounded by Central Valley farm workers bused to Sacramento for the day. “We need a whole package to restore our water today and ensure that we have water for tomorrow.”

The Central Valley is among the nation’s most productive agricultural regions but has seen soaring unemployment over the past year, with jobless rates exceeding 30 percent in some communities. Farmers blame a three-year drought and federal reductions in water pumping that have forced them to fallow thousands of acres of crops and orchards.

State water managers also worry about the long-range effects of global climate change, which is expected to reduce the Sierra snowpack that is crucial to California’s summertime water needs”