The Sacramento Bee’s Tom Philp wins Pulitzer Prize for series on Hetch Hetchy Valley

Assemblywoman Wolk says editorials spurred her to take action

“I have long respected Tom’s work on water issues. It was his articles and editorials that led me to write the Governor to encourage the state to further study the possibility of restoring the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Tom deserves this Pulitzer. He’s done an amazing job on this series.”

Last year, Assemblywoman Wolk and Assemblymember Joe Canciamilla (D-Pittsburg), wrote Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to request he initiate a state study on the feasibility of restoring the Hetch Hetchy Valley. The Governor’s Secretary of Resources, Mike Chrisman, responded by taking the historic step of directing state agencies to undertake a comprehensive study of the costs and benefits of restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park.

“This isn’t an easy story to tell,” said Wolk, Chair of the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee. “It is complicated and spans generations, back to 1890, when President Benjamin Harrison signed a bill designating the Hetch Hetchy Valley a protected national park. A hundred years later the political landscape has changed, as have methods of storing and delivering water. There are still very strong and differing opinions on Hetch Hetchy, but Tom has managed to give The Bee’s readers a fair and balanced account of all these issues. He unearthed a story that’s been buried in the history books, and he’s brought Hetch Hetchy to life. The State would not be studying the possibilities of restoration were it not for Tom Philp’s writing.”

The Hetch Hetchy Valley, considered by many to be “the second Yosemite” with comparable waterfalls and sheer granite walls, has been submerged in 300 feet of water since 1923 when the O’Shaughnessy Dam was built to create a reservoir for the city of San Francisco. The last serious proposal to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley came in 1987 under then President Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of Interior Patrick Hodell.