The St. Francis dam water began as a 75-foot high wave and scoured a path to the sea 2 miles wide and 70 miles long. In its wake it left much of Ventura county under yards of muck. I remind you that Eastside Reservoir will hold 260 billion gallons - almost 20 times as much water. Mono Lake, on the east side of the Sierra near Yosemite, was almost destroyed by LA in recent times for yet more water. But some hard-working environmentalists managed to save what is left of it.
Mono Lake is now on a long, slow road to recovery.
This reservoir, for a SF water supply, drowned what was the twin of Yosemite Valley. The recent proposal to remove the O'Shannesy dam that created it, to restore this valley, makes a mocking tribute to our wisdom and power. Now, in current events, a repeat of the 1997 rotenone treatment to kill all the fish of Davis Lake, a drinking water supply. Oops, I forgot Olivenhain's No Name dam near Mt. Israel, being built as we speak. Most of our rivers have been dammed more than once.