Category: Environment

Tear ’em Down

Posted on by lbschutte

There’s been a lot of people getting pretty worked up in the last few weeks about some cabins damaged during a rockfall at Curry Village. The jist of it is the NPS is trying to decide what to do with the cabins. Well here’s the inside scoop. They’re crap.

Some of the damaged cabins at Curry Village. Photo by Edie Howe.

No serious. They are absolutely crap. People and animals have been living in the cabins and using them as their personal restroom. When the cabins were damaged during the rockfall they were left unattended and open to the elements and are now full of mold and vermin. Raccoons, rats, possum and mice have taken up residence in most of the places. Some places are littered with sleeping bags, food wrappers and defecation (I guess someone thought it’d be a good place to toke a bowl on lunch). Any other place in California and the Health Department would step in and condemn them without batting an eyelash.

Don’t get me wrong, a couple of them look very nice. At the very most relocate the least damaged that have some historical value but trash the rest. After the floods of ’97 they took out 2 campgrounds and had slated in the old Merced River Plan to remove more buildings in the Valley. Well, here’s your chance. There’s plenty of other, fine lodging around the park. Save the taxpayer money for something more historic that could use renovation or safety and usability upgrades. But don’t waste it on this…this…crap.
If you think they should be saved tell me why in the comments for this post.

If you want to see photos of the cabins you can find a good many on Edie Howe’s Flickr photostream.

SF Halts Water Flow from Hetch Hetchy

Posted on by lbschutte

O’Shaughnessy Dam releases water from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Photo by Inklein.

San Francisco is high and dry as the SFPUC cut water delivery from Hetch Hetchy for at least a month.

The shutdown is part of a planned outage to allow for maintenance on the aging water delivery system and is expected to last until mid- to late-February.

The shutdown will allow work to be undertaken on the $4.6 billion, 12-year Water System Improvement Program, which aims to upgrade and maintain the water delivery and storage system and protect it from earthquakes.

In anticipation of the shutdown, the flow of water from Hetch Hetchy into Bay Area reservoirs was dramatically increased in recent weeks.

November Ballot Initiative Could Let Bay Area Water Users Voice View on Hetch Hetchy

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A Restore Hetch Hetchy booth outside a Whole Foods store in Noe Valley helps to make Bay Area citizens aware of Hetch Hetchy and gather signatures to get a new initiative on the November Ballot. Photo by Steve Rhodes.

San Francisco residents could get the chance to vote on draining Hetch Hetchy Reservoir if a measure proposed by the Restore Hetch Hetchy group makes it onto this years November Ballot but even a vote by the people may have little or no effect on the dam.

A vote in favor would not spring the wrecking crew into action, as the city still would have to find alternatives for storage, possibly in an enlarged Don Pedro Reservoir.

But passage would make it clear that San Franciscans want Hetch Hetchy Valley restored to its pre-dam splendor, said Mike Marshall, the group’s executive director.

“If we get it on the ballot, it will be a bit of a game-changer,” he said.
The details of the measure, including how to pay for dam removal and other work, are being discussed.

A 2006 state study estimated a $10 billion cost to raze the dam, restore the valley and replace the lost water supply. Restore Hetch Hetchy contends that all of this could be done for $1 billion to $3 billion.

The group suggests that part of the money could come from the state and federal governments and from private donations. It argues that the restoration would provide a natural wonder for all to enjoy while reducing the state’s water and hydropower supplies by less than 1 percent.

Opponents of the removal generally agree that the reservoir should not have been built in Yosemite, but they say reducing water storage in a drought-plagued state would be foolish.

Critics include the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which runs the system.

“Our city is facing a $522 million budget deficit, and there certainly are other priorities,” said Tyrone Jue, director of communications for the commission. “Quite frankly, (the campaign) doesn’t take into account the 2.4 million people in the Bay Area who depend on water from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.” (Merced Sun-Star)

New Tunnel to Replace Aging Hetch Hetchy Pipes Carrying Water to San Francisco

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Part of the Hetch Hetchy water system delivers water to the Moccasin Creek power generation facility near Groveland. Photo by Flickred!.

A $350 million tunnel is being drilled beneath San Francisco Bay as part of an ambitious plan to update the aging Hetch Hetchy water system. The tunnel will create a 21-mile stretch of new piping between the East Bay and the Peninsula to help secure the water supply to San Francisco and Peninsula communities in the event of another major earthquake like Loma Prieta or the 1906 quake whose fires devastated San Francisco.

The piping planned beneath the Bay under the WSIP will be part of the fifth major pipeline installed in the Hetch Hetchy system between the East Bay and the Peninsula since the 1920s.

The existing four pipelines are aging and could rupture during an earthquake. They were built between 1925 and 1973 using now-outdated construction materials.

Two of the pipelines veer south and wind around the Bay, passing through Silicon Valley.

The other two pipelines cross over the Bay on a custom-built bridge that runs parallel to the Dumbarton Bridge between Newark and Menlo Park.
The pipes that cross the water leak badly, leading vegetation to flourish at their corroded metal seams. But the ramshackle 1920s-era bridge crosses sensitive wetlands that are protected by federal environmental laws. Those laws effectively prevent water officials from accessing or maintaining the pipeline.

“You basically can’t walk on it,” Project Manager Joe Ortiz said. “We have some pretty extensive environmental regulations — certainly the most that I’ve seen on any project that I’ve worked on in 23 years. In the ’20s, they could do anything. But nowadays, with our regulations, it’s almost impossible to step on the land.”

An underwater 9-foot-wide metal pipeline is planned to eventually replace both Bay-crossing pipes, although it’s not known whether they will be removed because dismantling efforts could disrupt wetland wildlife. (SF Examiner)

The tunnel will be constructed using a custom-built boring machine similar to the one that bored the tunnel from England to France under the English Channel. Construction is expected to begin next year and last until 2015. The tunnel will run 100 feet beneath the floor of the Bay. Dirt and sediment removed during the tunnel boring operations will be used as fill to help restore native marshlands in the area.

Global Warming Could Be Helping Yosemite’s Aspens

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Aspens along the Highway 395 corridor just east of Yosemite’s Tioga Pass entrance. Photo by Loyd Schutte.

Researchers have come up with some interesting findings regarding Carbon Dioxide, the green gas believed to be largely responsible for global warming, it’s making the aspen trees grow like mad!

The study conducted by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Minnesota at Morris (UMM) and published in the journal Global Change Biology, showed that elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide during the past 50 years have boosted aspen growth rates by an 50 percent.

According to the researchers the accelerated growth rates of aspen could have widespread unknown ecological consequences. Aspen is a dominant tree in mountainous and northern forested regions of North America. Aspens are considered a “foundation species,” exerting a strong influence on the plant and animal communities and dynamics of the forest ecosystems where they reside. Researchers are afraid the increased growth of the Aspens could push out and cause slower growing species of plants to become extinct.

(via Science Blog)

Smoke Clogging Yosemite Valley – Air Unhealthy

Posted on by lbschutte

Smoke from the Big Meadow fire is clogging the Valley again and is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups. It’s not so bad lower down but there’s a thick layer hanging about. If you have any kind of breathing problems you might want to think twice about heading into the Valley. Visibility is severely impeded as you pass through the hanging smoke into the Valley. Use your headlights if you’re driving into the Valley.

Demolishing Hetch Hetchy Could Save California’s Salmon Population – or Not

Posted on by lbschutte

The Tuolumne River below Hetch Hetchy Dam. Photo by Jared Kelly.

There’s a very interesting piece by columnist Bill McEwen in the Fresno Bee about the decline in salmon coming up California’s rivers and salmon might be the dams undoing.

The Tuolumne, a tributary of the San Joaquin, is “the keystone” to bringing back California’s salmon fishery, according to Dale Mitchell, a former state Department of Fish and Game biologist and regional manager.

“If we want to make salmon in the [San Joaquin River] basin, one really big step would be to take out Hetch Hetchy — or at least condition the amount of water it can divert in critical times,” Mitchell says.

“It would produce many more salmon than the Friant tributary restoration can accomplish, and much faster and cheaper.”

Mitchell, who worked 40 years for the department, says that increased flows on the Tuolumne from February to July “would be a huge benefit for salmon.” (Fresno Bee)

There’s only one little problem with this story and it really makes me doubt the credibility of the sources in the article, there’s a much BIGGER dam between Hetch Hetchy and the San Joaquin that ocean going salmon can’t get past, Don Pedro Dam.

Don Pedro Dam on the Tuolumne River below Yosemite National Park. Photo by Jason Schultz.

So how would removing Hetch Hetchy solve the salmon problem when Don Pedro Dam is the one controlling the water flow in the lower Tuolumne River where the salmon spawning reds are?

Blasting Away in Yosemite

Posted on by lbschutte

Water released from O’Shaughnessy Dam at Hetch Hetchy Valley the northern side of the Tuolumne River Canyon. Photo by Thomas Kriese.

You ever wondered why this hasn’t just blown away that whole side of the canyon? I mean, this looks like it’s got some pretty good pressure to be blasting across the canyon. Maybe it has eroded the canyon and I just don’t know it.