San Francisco’s Hetch Hetchy water system is almost full for the first time in years. Is that a good thing?
In another sign that California’s drought is easing, San Francisco captured more than a year’s worth of water in just one month’s time. The tremendous inflow to city reservoirs during the recent storms, mostly in and around Yosemite National Park, has lifted San Francisco’s total water storage to near capacity. The water system, which includes the landmark Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, is expected to fill this winter, for the first time since 2019, with nearly 1.5 million acre-feet of water. That’s enough to supply the city’s service area for perhaps seven years. … But the growing water reserves don’t please everyone. The surplus has renewed concerns about San Francisco stockpiling water at the expense of rivers — and the fish and wildlife that live there. Some want the city to leave more water in stream channels for threatened salmon while others continue a longshot bid to shut down Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite altogether and return the area to its natural state.
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