The only local ballot measure San Franciscans rejected on Election Day was Measure F. It would have prompted an $8 million study into taking down the O’Shaugnessy Dam and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park, which currently supplies water for San Francisco and dozens of other Bay Area counties.
The most controversial local ballot measure facing San Franciscans this November — whether to develop a plan to reform the Hetch Hetchy water system and restore Hetch Hetchy Valley — reflects a question that cities everywhere are grappling with. As geologist Andrew Alden asked in a recent essay about the measure, "Do we want to arrange our society as if nature really matters?"
