Analysis: Could Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy Valley really be restored?
For nearly 100 years, environmentalists have dreamed about draining Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and turning the 300-foot-deep man-made lake in Yosemite National Park back into a glorious Sierra landscape -- a second Yosemite Valley with green meadows, rich forests and waterfalls cascading down granite walls.
San Francisco voters head to the polls in five weeks to consider Measure F, which would require the city to conduct an $8 million study to determine whether it makes sense to empty the reservoir and replace the electricity it generates and the water it supplies to 2.5 million Bay Area residents. A vote on whether to drain Hetch Hetchy could come as soon as 2016.
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