Judge Throws Out Lawsuit Seeking to Drain Hetch Hetchy and Restore Valley

A Tuolumne County judge has thrown out a lawsuit seeking to drain San Francisco's Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, the linchpin of a system that supplies drinking water to 2.5 million people in the Bay Area.

In a ruling delivered Thursday, Superior Court Judge Kevin Seibert sided with San Francisco officials who have objected to emptying the reservoir, situated in Yosemite National Park, and restoring the valley it now occupies. (Seibert's decision is embedded below.)

Restore Hetch Hetchy, the group that sued to shut down Hetch Hetchy, had argued that the dam and reservoir violate Article X, Section 2 of the California Constitution.

That provision, adopted in 1928, requires "that the water resources of the State be put to beneficial use to the fullest extent of which they are capable, and that the waste or unreasonable use or unreasonable method of use of water be prevented."

But Seibert ruled in favor of the city of San Francisco, which argued that the Raker Act, the 1913 federal law that authorized the dam and reservoir at Hetch Hetchy, pre-empted the later requirements of state law. Seibert also found the statute of limitations governing the alleged violations of law in the case had expired.

Seibert did leave the door slightly ajar for Restore Hetch Hetchy, saying that "while this Court is unable at this juncture to see how the Petition is capable of being amended to avoid preemption or the statute of limitations," he would give the plaintiffs 20 days to revise the lawsuit.

Restore Hetch Hetchy sponsored a 2012 ballot measure in San Francisco, Proposition F, that would have required the city to study alternatives to its current water supply system. The measure was defeated with a 77 percent no vote.

In a statement Thursday, City Attorney Dennis Herrera said, "Draining Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is a terrible idea that an overwhelming majority of San Francisco voters rejected. This lawsuit was a bid by the very same advocates to accomplish in a Tuolumne County Courthouse what they couldn’t in a San Francisco election."

Restore Hetch Hetchy Executive Director Spreck Rosekrans said he will appeal the ruling.

The Hetch Hetchy reservoir is the main component of a system that delivers water from the Tuolumne River to San Francisco, the Peninsula and southern Alameda County.

This post contains reporting from the Associated Press.