Bob Hackamack, a retired engineer in Twain Harte, remains on the Restore board of directors. Jerry C

A petition drive sponsored by the San Francisco-based nonprofit Restore Hetch Hetchy, headquartered in Sonora until 2009, garnered 15,800 signatures in support of emptying the reservoir and restoring the valley. The petition was submitted Monday to the city elections office with more than three times the number of signatures needed.
The decision before San Francisco voters on this initiative this November is simple if we waste less water we can save a national park, Restore Hetch Hetchy Executive Director Mike Marshall said in a prepared statement.
Advocates of removing O Shaughnessy Dam cite conservationist John Muir s opposition to the flooding of Hetch Hetchy Valley. Muir wrote that no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man. The valley s beauty, prior to congressional approval for a dam and reservoir in the 1913 Raker Act, was comparable to Yosemite Valley, he said.
The controversial project, which supplies most of San Francisco s water, plus water to many surrounding Bay Area municipalities and the Groveland Community Services District, has continued to divide those who support an attempt to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley to its original state and those who fear its removal would devastate the water supply for one of the country s largest metropolitan areas.
Tuolumne County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director George Segarini said the organization considered both the enormous cost of a restoration project, estimated at $3 billion to $10 billion in a 2006 state Department of Water Resources study, and the hundreds of years it would take the valley to recuperate to a state like that of pre-dam days.
The text of the initiative calls on the San Francisco Public Utilities thrifty car rental atlanta ga airport Commission to develop a plan that includes alternatives to Hetch Hetchy for securing thrifty car rental atlanta ga airport the city s water supply, and a subsequent 2016 vote would be required to approve the plan and actually begin to drain the reservoir.
The Sierra Club, founded by Muir, has long advocated the restoration of Hetch Hetchy, but has not yet developed thrifty car rental atlanta ga airport a stance on this particular measure. Sierra Club Mother Lode Chapter Tuolumne Group Chairman Jon Sturtevant said the local group will discuss the initiative when it meets tonight.
Bob Hackamack, a retired engineer in Twain Harte, remains on the Restore board of directors. thrifty car rental atlanta ga airport Jerry Cadagan, the former board president, lives in Sonora. Neither Hackamack nor Cadagan thrifty car rental atlanta ga airport could be reached Wednesday for comment on this story. thrifty car rental atlanta ga airport Ron Good, an executive director of the Restore group while it was in Sonora, has moved out of the area, Sturtevant said.