Hetch Hetchy, San Francisco's secret engineering marvel (with Dennis Herrera, General Manager, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission)

[00:00:00] Piers Clark: Welcome to the exec exchange 15-minute podcast in which a leader from the water sector shares a story to inspire, educate, and inform other water sector leaders around the world. My name is Piers Clark and today my guest is Dennis Herrera, the general manager at San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Dennis, wonderful to have you with us today. Thank you for taking the time.
[00:00:20] Dennis Herrera: Thank you Piers.
[00:00:22] Piers Clark: We always start by delving into a little bit of background about our podcaster. So, tell me, how long have you been at San Fran and what were you doing before you joined the organization?
[00:00:31] Dennis Herrera: I've been the general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission for about three and a half years. And before that for 20 years, I was the elected city attorney of the city and county of San Francisco, which was essentially the attorney general for the city and county of San Francisco, leading a law office of about 300 lawyers and 350 lawyers and other legal professionals.
[00:00:52] Piers Clark: Wow! A lawyer and at the top of the organization. Now, tell me about the organization. How many people do you serve in the city of San Francisco. Do you do drinking water and wastewater?
[00:01:01] Dennis Herrera: The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is a $3 billion dollar enterprise on the operating and capital budget side with 2, 700 employees that has three enterprises: a water enterprise, a wastewater enterprise, and a power enterprise. The water enterprise serves, from a retail basis, the 800, 000 people that live in the city and county of San Francisco, but also another 2. 4 million people in Santa Clara, Alameda, and San Mateo counties. We basically serve water to 28 other wholesale water agencies in the Bay Area and fuel much of the growth of the water use in Silicon Valley. The power enterprise provides power to virtually 90 percent of the city and county of San Francisco through clean power generated from our three hydroelectric plants that are part of our water system. And also through of clean energy, green energy out on the grid through a community choice aggregation enterprise that we also run. And that's a retail and wholesale power provider.
[00:02:02] Piers Clark: And is all your power non-fossil fuel?
[00:02:05] Dennis Herrera: Virtually all of it. It is. I guess about 25 percent of our municipal need is generated by the 400 megawatts of hydroelectric power that we generate. And then we buy the rest out on the grid through green clean power alternatives.
[00:02:20] Piers Clark: The topic we're going to talk about today is Hetch Hetchy, which anyone who has been to Yosemite National Park will have seen the signs at least to Hetch Hetchy. But before we do that, I'd just like for our listeners to note that today is the 14th of January. And while we're meeting the news is filled with the stories of what's happening in Los Angeles with the, the wildfires. I know you're a long way away from Los Angeles, but you're in the same state, and I'm sure many of your colleagues that you know... Any thoughts on what they're doing and the problems they're facing?
[00:02:53] Dennis Herrera: First, our thoughts and prayers go to our friends and family members that we have in Southern California. And this is unfortunately the new reality that we are facing especially in California with climate change, with the unpredictability of rain events, and the increased temperatures that lead to drying out of forests and landscapes.
And California is unique. People think about Los Angeles, San Francisco, but a lot of it is desert and fairly dry and you get these terrible winds that come out of the east and they lead to real events. I haven't actually had the experience of being in the 1991 Oakland Hills fire where probably 3000 structures were destroyed in a very similar experience.
And we had big dry Diablo winds that came through a spark took off and essentially what you have is urban wildfire. That is unique because we've grown into undeveloped areas and our infrastructure was not designed to deal with these urban wildfire events. So it's particularly challenging. It's labor intensive, infrastructure intensive, and our thoughts go out to our colleagues down there 'cause it's a terrible experience that they're all going through.
[00:04:02] Piers Clark: With climate crisis, we are going to see more of these, sort of, extreme events where things just run away from us.
Now the topic today is Hetch Hetchy. So, let's start with the story of what is Hetch Hetchy? Where is it? And why is it so important to San Francisco?
[00:04:17] Dennis Herrera: The Hetch Hetchy project is something that's integral to the growth of San Francisco and the greater Bay Area. And very unique in terms of water systems here in the United States for a number of reasons. And it all came about at, sort of at the end of the 1800s when San Francisco was looking for alternatives to its domestic, in the immediate area, water sources that it had. They were not sufficient to deal with the growth of San Francisco in the aftermath of the gold rush.
There were various sites that were looked at, but nothing solidified. Then the 1906 earthquake came. Disaster. The city almost burned down. Virtually it did burn down. And then the impetus became even more important to look for alternative water source and a number of sources were looked at Lake Tahoe and other places.
How could we get that water to San Francisco? Well, a site was identified by a city leader by the name of Michael O'Shaughnessy, and it was up on the Tuolumne River in the Hetch Hetchy Valley, about 165 miles away from San Francisco.
[00:05:25] Piers Clark: Just to be clear, Hetch Hetchy is in the Yosemite National Park?
[00:05:28] Dennis Herrera: It's in the Yosemite National Park.
[00:05:30] Piers Clark: How far is the reservoir from El Capitan?
[00:05:34] Dennis Herrera: 35, 40 miles, if you drive around there. But it's in the park and it's 165 miles from San Francisco. Gorgeous Valley. Problem was it was in a national park. So, there was a big effort pushed through by a number of politicians and ultimately, through an act of Congress called the Raker Act, the Hetch Hetchy Valley was ceded to the city and county of San Francisco to build a municipal water source. And that's what happened. So, 7x7 Valley that was built and a pipeline; 20-year project that now trucks from 165 miles, totally gravity fed a 400,000 acre-foot reservoir that serves 85 percent of the regional water system’s needs. Totally gravity fed, 165 miles, the cleanest water that you will find anywhere. Such that the EPA and the Cal Department of Water give it a filtration exemption; doesn't have to be filtered. And that provides 85 percent of San Francisco's and our customer's needs in the Bay Area.
[00:06:38] Piers Clark: The reservoir in the UK, we describe as an area of outstanding natural beauty.
[00:06:42] Dennis Herrera: Yeah. And it's absolutely gorgeous. However, there were opponents. John Muir, the leader of the Sierra Club, who formed the Sierra Club here in California. The Sierra Club, is the premier environmental organization in the United States and it's got its start in the aftermath of the fight over Hetch Hetchy. And John Muir started this to stop this congressional authorization. And to John Muir's everlasting regret, he lost in the legislation, but that gave birth to the modern environmental movement in the United States over the establishment of the Hetch Hetchy reservoir and ceding the valley to San Francisco.
[00:07:15] Piers Clark: What do you think he would say if he could see it today?
[00:07:17] Dennis Herrera: The Sierra club and others still, they would love to see the dam torn down. And so, he would probably still be fighting the battle. There's an organization called Restore Hetch Hetchy, and they have filed lawsuits against us over the years. When I was city attorney, we had to fight them. So, it's a continuing battle.
[00:07:34] Piers Clark: So how do you balance the desire to be a proud environmental steward and of looking after the environment?
[00:07:41] Dennis Herrera: We partner with the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior to maximize recreational environmental opportunities in the valley. While at the same time recognizing that we need that water for the growth of the greater Bay Area. We wouldn't have the economic opportunity and the Bay Area wouldn't be what it is without that water supply. Because that is the most reliable water supply you could ever find.
[00:08:02] Piers Clark: And it doesn't require any filtering.
[00:08:04] Dennis Herrera: No filtering. And when people talk about the water challenges that we have in California, you should know that I also have two other reservoirs up there, Eleanor and Cherry; combined they form the Hetch Hetchy system. We have eight and a half years of water storage. We maintain that at any one particular time. If you look at the state of California, our Hetch Hetchy watershed is the place that will suffer the effects of climate change last from a diminishment of snowpack perspective. So, at any one time we shoot for having eight and a half years of storage in that system as compared to what you see in Southern California where the majority of their water comes from the Colorado River.
[00:08:44] Piers Clark: And there's no network connection that would enable your water to make it down to Southern California?
[00:08:49] Dennis Herrera: No, it's directly to us. It comes 165 miles across the state of California through dedicated pipes into our system, totally gravity fed, not one pump the whole way. And it's a totally self-contained system.
[00:09:05] Piers Clark: Dennis. Wonderful. It feels like the big secret that people just aren't aware of when you visit California. I think most people know the Colorado River feeds California...
[00:09:14] Dennis Herrera: Hetch Hetchy is an engineering marvel. Because it's so clean, we're one of the few enterprises that get filtration exemptions and it's an engineering marvel, a beautiful location, and some of the purest water you'll ever find in the United States.
[00:09:29] Piers Clark: Dennis, we'd love to finish by asking, if you could go back in time 20, 30 years, what advice would you give a young Dennis if you had the chance to speak to him?
[00:09:38] Dennis Herrera: Find meaningful mentors as early in your career as possible. And, soak up the knowledge and the mentorship from those folks to help plot out your future career. I think that's the best advice I could ever give. Find good mentors and latch on to them and soak up every bit of knowledge.
[00:09:58] Piers Clark: Do you say that because you had some good mentors or because you didn't have good mentors and wish you had?
[00:10:04] Dennis Herrera: A little bit of both. In the beginning I didn't and then I did and I only appreciated them as I got older. A good mentor, you don't even realize he or she is mentoring you while you're going through the process. You recognize it in retrospect. So, I found, I had great mentors and then when I realized I was like, wow, they really made an impact on me.
[00:10:28] Piers Clark: You do realize, of course, that that only works if you play it forward. This now means, of course, Dennis, you need to mentor some other people. You gotta, you gotta pass the ball forward.
[00:10:37] Dennis Herrera: Absolutely right! It's one of the greatest lessons I've ever got. And I take an active interest in that. I love to mentor young professionals, whether it be lawyers or utility folks, and try and impart what I got from others. Absolutely right. Piers.
[00:10:50] Piers Clark: Thank you very much for your time, Dennis.
It's been wonderful speaking with you.
[00:10:54] Dennis Herrera: Thank you, Piers.
[00:10:55] Piers Clark: You have been listening to the Exec Exchange with Piers Clark. And my guest today has been Dennis Herrera, general manager at San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. And we've been talking about the engineering marvel that is Hetch Hetchy. Thank you. Join us next time.