Restore Hetch Hetchy is a US non-profit organization seeking to restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park to its original condition. History The Hetch Hetchy Valley was sculpted by glaciers as recently as 10,000 years ago (like nearby Yosemite Valley). It has an elevation of 3,800 feet above sea level and is 3 miles long in an east to west orientation. The Hetch Hetchy Valley is in the northwest corner of Yosemite National Park, which was established in 1890. Even before the establishment of Yosemite National Park, the city of San Francisco began considering the Tuolumne River and Hetch Hetchy Valley as a possible location for a reliable water source. This sparked a social and political debate which lasted until the issue was brought before Congress. John Muir, a naturalist and president of the Sierra Club, fought vigorously against the proposition of flooding the valley, stating, "Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man." The construction of the O'Shaughnessy Dam (built 1915 - 1923) flooded the valley, creating the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. In the late 1980s, in response to an initiative by the Reagan Administration, the national Sierra Club created a group dedicated to restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park called the Hetch Hetchy Restoration Task Force. In 1999, the Club created a separate non-profit organization called Restore Hetch Hetchy (RHH). Because the reservoir in Hetch Hetchy is part of a water-diversion and electric-generating system on the Tuolumne River that includes the much larger downstream reservoir, Don Pedro (51% funded by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission), as well as SFPUC's own Cherry and Eleanor Reservoirs near Hetch Hetchy, RHH filed comments in 2011 before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on the 2015 relicensing of Don Pedro Reservoir. In 2015, Restore Hetch Hetchy sued San Francisco, arguing that the continuing existence of the dam and reservoir is a violation of the California Constitution's prohibition against any "unreasonable method of diversion". The Tuolumne County Courts dismissed the case, saying California Courts have no jurisdiction, as the dam was allowed by federal law. Restore Hetch Hetchy appealed, and the California Attorney General opined that the matter should be tried on the technical, not legal, merits. In July 2018, the appeals court threw out the lawsuit, declaring that Congress had