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Don't rush to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley

August 1, 2006

By Richard G. Little

Bill Stall reiterated that restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley is "feasible" (Opinion, July 27). Just what that means is unclear. Can it be done? Of course. Should it be done? That depends on whom you ask, and there needs to be a bright line between the two questions.

In a state that struggles to fix its roads and schools and where thousands reside in the shelter of a patchwork series of poorly maintained levees, rushing to embrace the dismantling of a major source of water and power seems less than prudent. Such an undertaking undoubtedly will cost far more than even the highest estimates, and there will be unanticipated consequences not discovered until the project is past a point of no return. We need to curb the enthusiastic rhetoric, do some serious analysis and think long and hard about what other state needs would go unmet to pay for a "mountain temple."