Chinook salmon in the Tuolumne.

MEDIA CENTER - Press

Bay Area's needs threaten Tuolumne
Source: The Examiner
Jo Stanley
April 14, 2005

Plans to build a new pipeline to bring Tuolumne River water from the Sierra Nevada to the Bay Area has environmentalists naming the river one of the most threatened in the nation, although the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission calls the statements an overreaction.

The Washington, D.C.-based American Rivers group listed the Tuolumne as one of the nation's 10 most threatened rivers out of concern that the proposed pipeline could increase the capacity for river-water diversion to the Bay Area by 70 percent. Currently, 235 million gallons a day are siphoned off from the river that runs from Yosemite Valley westward but that could increase under the plans as now conceived, according to the report titled "America's Most Endangered Rivers of 2005." California's other river included in the report, the Santa Clara north of Los Angeles, ranked No. 10.

"Unless San Francisco invests in making its existing supplies go further," the report reads. "California could lose some of its best salmon and steelhead runs, world-class outdoor recreation, and the economic diversity that this river now provides."

Representatives of the SFPUC, which is beginning the environmental review process for its $4.3 billion Hetch Hetchy water system upgrade this spring, quickly countered that they have no plans to increase the system's overall capacity. Instead, they are concerned about strengthening the aging system's reliability in case of an earthquake.

"The Tuolumne River is an irreplaceable natural resource that we all share in the responsibility to protect and preserve for future generations," said SFPUC General Manager Susan Leal. SFPUC officials said that three existing pipelines are old and vulnerable, and a fourth is needed to carry the same amount of water while the aging pipes are taken out of service for seismic upgrades. The system, which brings river water across the Central Valley to two million customers in the region, is supposed to grow by just 14 percent over the coming quarter century.

"There's no plan, no proposal, no comment on the public record" that SFPUC intends to divert more water from the Tuolumne," said SFPUC spokesman Toby Winnicker said. "We wouldn't even have use for all that water."

Supervisor Aaron Peskin, whose background involved negotiating water rights and water-quality issues in the Sierra Nevada before he won elective office, said SFPUC officials are saying the right things but need to beef up their environmental expertise and do more outreach in the community.

"People aren't believing them," Peskin said, adding that he would be watching as the early phase of a two-year environmental review process gets underway for the expansion and seismic upgrade project. "This is the beginning of a long conversation."

The report is available online at www.americanrivers.org.