Climate Fix: Hetch Hetchy Turns 100, Can It Meet the Challenges Brought by Climate Change?

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2023

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Hetch Hetchy reservoir was created a century ago to supply fresh water for millions of people in the Bay Area. It was created by damming the Tuolumne River, flooding a former mountain valley in the Sierras and forming a reservoir that can hold up to 117 billion gallons of water. Hetch Hetchy embodies a feat of modern engineering, but as the globe warms up and demand for water shifts, the reservoir’s storage capacity and water management capabilities may not hold up. For our next installment of Climate Fix: Rethinking Solutions for California, we’ll talk about how climate change is putting pressure on Hetch Hetchy and what a far warmer future means for this mountain bathtub. Guests: Samuel Sandoval Solis, PhD, professor, UC Davis; cooperative extension specialist in water resources management, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources of the University of California Newsha Ajami, PhD, chief development officer for research in Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and president, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Ezra David Romero, climate reporter, KQED Peter Drekmeier, policy director, Tuolumne River Trust Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Support for KikiWED podcasts comes from Landmark College, holding their annual summer institute for educators from June 24 through 26th.
0:09.1	More information at landmark.edu slash LCSI.
0:13.7	Support for Forum comes from Broadway SF, presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story.
0:21.3	From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and Lucille Frank,
0:27.6	a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia.
0:31.6	When Leo is accused of an unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice, and
0:40.1	devotion. The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orphium Theater for three weeks
0:46.3	only, May 20th through June 8th. Tickets on sale now at Broadwaysf.com.
0:53.4	From KQED. It's on sale now at Broadwaysf.com.
0:56.0	From KQED. From KQED.
1:09.3	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:11.3	Take almost any great American city, and you'll find somewhere in its history the water deal that let it grow.
1:17.8	San Francisco's water is among the most famous in our country.
1:21.4	John Mear and the Sierra Club battled the city over its plan to dam the Tuolami River and flood Hetch-Hetchy Valley.
1:27.9	But the city won, the dam was built, and San Francisco has had a secure high-quality supply
1:32.6	for 100 years.
1:34.2	But now, as climate change disrupts the cycles of wet and dry in the Sierra, is Hedge Hedgehetchie
1:39.2	still the water cheat coat its long been?
1:41.5	We talked with KQED's Ezra David Romero and a panel of experts in our latest edition
1:45.7	of Climate Fix, our partnership with our science team.
1:48.7	That's all coming up next after this news.
2:00.4	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. This is our latest edition of Climate Fix,
	...

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