It’s time to free Hetch Hetchy Valley.

It is no longer far-fetched for even the most adherent San Francisco-centric thinker — unless they are blinded by LA-style boosterism — to agree it no longer makes sense to flood the valley in Yosemite National Park behind the 300-foot O’Shaughnessy Dam.

The Don Pedro Lake-Cherry Lake- Eleanor Lake complex on the Tuolumne River water basin by themselves can hold five times the current annual water needs of San Francisco and the Bay Area regional communities the city supplies.

Those three reservoirs, according to the recently released Cherry Solution report of the Restore Hetch Hetchy organization, without Hetch Hetchy storage can meet the needs of the Modesto Irrigation and Turlock Irrigation District that they serve as well.

It involves an inter-tie from the manmade Cherry Lake reservoir on Cherry Creek to the north to near the mouth of the Hetch Hetchy Valley.

That would assure critical minimum river flows from Hetch Hetchy to Don Pedro Reservoir.

The water use of the Bay Area cities, including San Francisco, that depend on the Tuolumne River has dropped 19 percent since 2002-2012.

The shift in climate change based on models used by the California Department of Water shows precipitation shifting to the lower elevations in the coming decades.

That means less snowfall above — and more rainfall below — the 4,000-foot to 5,000-foot level.

San Francisco, where it is safe to say the vast majority of people believe manmade greenhouse gas is accelerating climate change, can’t have it both ways.

They are embracing an “overkill” water storage system despite changing hydrology.

It needs to be noted that climate change exists. The debate is how much greenhouse gasses are speeding it up.

Dendrochronology, the study of tree rings aided by carbon dating, shows the first 200 years or so of the development of the United States involved a period of abnormally long wet spells.

Mega-droughts approaching 50 years or more broken up with a year or so of wetter weather in what is today the western United States was the norm for centuries.

The most recent glacial period of what is now Yosemite National Park peaked somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 years ago.

This is unrelated to the Cherry Solution report. It does, however, underscore that getting rid of the O’Shaughnessy Dam is something no one is likely to regret in San Francisco.

An extremely solid case can be made that having Hetch Hetchy Valley flooded based on operational and storage analysis as well as broader climate trends serves no practical purpose.

Congress needs to study the proposal put forth in the Cherry Solution.

It appears to be on solid ground. Independent analysis is likely to confirm that to be the case.

If it does, there is no justification for the City of San Francisco not to right a wrong that rivals— or you could argue exceeds — the atrocities committed against the Owen River watershed by Los Angeles.

Both cities made out-of-basin water grabs to fuel urban growth in total disregard of local eco-systems at and near the source.

Restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley won’t be an overnight thing.

But if the removal of dams on the Klamath River that was completed in late 2024 are any indication, nature will start regaining its footing with a little help from man.

And with a little restraint, the only dam ever built to flood a national park could be eventually replaced with a valley that is less “civilized” than Yosemite Valley with its horrific traffic jams but can still be accessed via a tram system to the edge of Hetch Hetch Valley.

Restoring the valley would being back nine miles of the Tuolumne River.

It would connect the wild and scenic river below Hetch Hetchy Valley with the stunning Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne and its headwaters in Tuolumne Meadows.

There could be access to side canyons.

Wampa Falls would be restored to its complete natural drop of 1,800 feet instead of having the last 400 feet to the valley flood covered with water.

That compares to 2,435 feet for Yosemite Falls.

Downstream, the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts have toyed with raising the Don Pedro Dam to increase storage capacity by 105,722 acre feet or 5 percent.

Some might argue getting rid of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir with its ultimate capacity of 360,360 acre feet would be insane in a state where every drop of water counts.

The water at Hetch Hetchy is San Francisco’s based on bargain basement rent checks paid to the federal government

The city and the rest of the Bay Area clearly don’t need the reservoir.

Transferring it to another water agency given the political baggage the O’Shaughnessy Dam has and the fact changing the terms of the Raker Act would require Congress to agree, is not a viable option.

The same MID and TID study exploring the option of raising Don Pedro Dam also identified six suitable sites for off-stream reservoirs below Don Pedro that could add 1.2 million acre feet of storage.

Given the shifting climate and it would need to flood more of the Tuolumne River, those options — or a combination thereof — would be well-situated to set aside floodwaters in wet years.

There are also recharging aquifer options via seepage from new off-stream storage or having farmers flood irrigate in wet years.

The bottom line is Hetch Hetchy’s water storage combined with Cherry and Eleanor lakes is excessive based on both today’s water use and storage as well as tomorrow’s climate.

It’s time that San Francisco let go of Hetch Hetchy Valley.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com