> >HETCH HETCHY EXPANSION

Mr. Walt Pettit January 6, 1998

Executive Director

State Water Resources Control Board

P.O. Box 100

Sacramento, CA 95812-0100

Re: Tuolumne River Watershed; Cherry Lake; Cherry Lake Fuse Gate Project

by City and County of San Francisco

Dear Mr. Pettit:

The City and County of San Francisco is proposing to increase the

maximum storage capacity of Cherry Lake in the amount of 11,600

acre-feet of water, from 273,500 acre-feet to 285,100 acre-feet. This

increase in storage would be accomplished by replacing the existing two

and one-half foot flashboards with a series of 26 steel fuse gates

approximately nine feet high, placed side-by-side across the 320-foot

wide Cherry Valley Dam spillway.

According to the City and County of San Francisco, the approval of the

project will require a water right permit from the SWRCB to increase the

appropriation and storage of water in the amount of 11,600 acre-feet.

The proposed project has the potential to cause adverse cumulative

impacts to the public trust resources of the Tuolumne River Watershed,

San Joaquin River Watershed, and the Bay Delta Estuary. Also, there may

not be water available for appropriation.

In the recent SWRCB Bay Delta Water Rights Hearing Notice of December

2, 1997, the City and County of San Francisco was excluded from being a

party to "Water Rights that may be responsible to Implement

Flow-Dependent Objectives".

We believe the City and County of San Francisco should be included as a

party to "Water Rights that may be responsible to Implement

Flow-Dependent Objectives" because it proposes to increase storage at

Cherry Lake. We also believe that the City and County of San Francisco's

entire Hetch Hetchy Project in the Upper Tuolumne River Watershed should

also be included as a party to "Water Rights that may be responsible to

Implement Flow-Dependent Objectives" because the Raker Act which

authorized that project requires that the City and County of San

Francisco comply to state law. And the City's project in the Upper

Tuolumne River Watershed was the first major unmitigated cumulative

impact that adversely affected the Bay Delta Estuary and the San Joaquin

River. The Board's authority in regulating the City and County of San

Francisco's project in the Upper Tuolumne River is the Public Trust

Doctrine and other applicable state law.

Please forward a timely copy of the City and County of San Francisco's

water right application to me when it is noticed by the Board because we

plan to file a public trust protest against the application.

A written response is appreciated.

Respectfully Submitted

_____________________________________________

Robert J. Baiocchi, Consultant

For: California Sportfishing Protection Alliance

P.O. Box 357

Quincy, CA 95971

Bus Tel: 530-836-1115; Fax: 530-283-2062

e-mail - cspa@psln.com

cc: Laurie Park

Hetch Hetchy Water and Power, Public Utility Commission

1155 Market Street

San Francisco, CA 94103

Interested Parties (numerous)