Don Pedro Reservoir - Hetch Hetchy Project

Hetch Hetchy Project

While Lake Don Pedro is not part of the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct, its tunnels cross under the upper end of the reservoir. Lake Don Pedro could easily be tied into that system in the future, and the efforts of the Restore Hetch Hetchy group to drain the reservoir in the Hetch Hetchy Valley depend largely on that possibility. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), of which Hetch Hetchy Water and Power is a division, provided about 45% of the funds for construction of the 1971 New Don Pedro Dam and so has the right to store 570,000 acre feet (700,000,000 m3) of water in the reservoir. Each year, San Francisco takes about 230,000 acre feet (280,000,000 m3). The rights of the MID and the TID are senior to those of SFPUC, however, so in dry years MID and TID can draw down the reservoir to meet their own needs before providing water to San Francisco's Hetch Hetchy Water and Power.