Friday, April 24, 2015

Hetch Hetchy eco "non profit" lawsuit, here they go again...


San Jose Mercury News/Science and Environment/Paul Rogers, 4/24/15.  "Environmental group sues to drain Hetch Hetchy reservoir.
Image result for Hetch Hetchy photograph
Hetch Hetchy reservoir from which our City currently receives
100% of our water supply. Is this another tax-deductible lawsuit?
"Spurned at the ballot box three years ago and facing an even more uphill battle now because of California's historic drought, an environmental group has filed a lawsuit attempting to drain Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, a linchpin of the water supply for 2.6 million Bay Area residents from San Francisco to San Jose to southern Alameda County. The reservoir in Yosemite National Park, built in 1923, violates California's constitution, according to the suit from the nonprofit Restore Hetch Hetchy, based in Oakland.

....  The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Tuolumne County Superior Court, was blasted by business and city leaders in San Francisco. "Who needs a historic drought when there's a group that wants to tear down one of California's critical water storage and clean energy systems?" said Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the Bay Area Council, which represents 275 of the Bay Area's largest companies. The court should quickly dismiss this. 

...."This new lawsuit, like the 2012 initiative, is an unfortunate distraction from our core mission of delivering reliable drinking water to 2.6 million people in the Bay Area," said Tyrone Jue, a spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.  Read more. 

Related article with referenced lawsuits. The Fresno Bee/Mark Grossi, 4/21/15, "San Francisco's Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite faces new legal challenge." Note: the article imbeds the referenced information below (good work Mark Grossi, reporter)For earlier attempts to drain this reservoir, also see Fix Pacifica reprint articles: search "Hetch Hetchy". 

Reference, our water supply.  North Coast County Water District/about/history.  "Today the Hetch Hetchy system delivers 100% of the water to the residents of Pacifica." 
Reference, the group.   Restore Hetch Hetchy, a non-profit, public benefit corporation, (address in Oakland, CA). 

Reference, the new Lawsuit, pdf pages 23.  Restore Hetch Hetchy, a non-profit, public benefit corporation, (petitioner and plaintiff) vs. City and County of San Francisco, a municipal corporation; San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, a municipal agency, and Does I-X, inclusive, (respondents and defendants).  Modesto irrigation district, a public agency; Turlock Irrigation District, a public agency; Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency, a public agency, and *Roes I-XXX, inclusive, real parties in interest and defendants.  (* note the "R" is as stated in the document).   
Photograph from.CS. Stanford.education/Hillerm, one of several panorama photographs of the Yosemite  area.

Posted by Kathy Meeh

2 comments:

Sharon said...

I just read about it. Sure sounds familiar! Restore Hetch Hetchy from Oakland hummm...

Curious George said...

There were over 200 signatures from Oakland on the petition against the safety improvements for Highway 1. Interesting.