COUNCIL CHEERS COURT RULING STAMPING OUT HETCH HETCHY THREAT

A misguided lawsuit seeking to dismantle one of the Bay Area’s most important water storage and clean energy supplies was dismissed Thursday in a court ruling that brought cheers from the Bay Area Council, which for years has fought back numerous attempts by the group behind the legal action to tear down Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.

The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir supplies pristine water to 2.6 million people in the Bay Area and generates clean greenhouse-gas-free hydroelectric power for San Francisco’s electricity customers and others. The group Restore Hetch Hetchy filed the lawsuit in Tuolumne County after the Bay Area Council led a campaign in 2012 that badly throttled a San Francisco ballot measure the group fronted to do away with the reservoir. Proposition F failed by almost 77 percent. To engage in the Council’s water policy work, please contact Policy Director Adrian Covert.