Approved: Hetch Hetchy Upgrades Please City and Greenies

class="bordered" align="right"/>It looks like come the big dry or the big one, 2.6 Bay Area citizens won't go thirsty. The city has approved a $4.4 billion upgrade to the Bay Area's biggest water system to protect us all from imminent drought and quake catastrophe. The Hetch Hetchy system is hurting: among the 85 individual projects to be carried out, miles of pipelines will be replaced, a dam will be built, and several seismic upgrades will be put in place. The city will also be digging a five-mile tunnel under the bay for "supplies." And a groundwater tap plan persuaded environmentalist NIMBYs who didn't want tons more water pumped out of local rivers and creeks, for fear of ecosystem damage. And so it flows.
· S.F. panels OK $4.4 billion Hetch Hetchy upgrade [SF Gate]For more stories from Curbed SF, go to sf.curbed.com.