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12 Environs 1 (1988)

handle is hein.journals/environs12 and id is 1 raw text is: UCD School of Law Vol. 12, No. 1 Environmental Law Society January 1988 The Raker Act -- Is San Francisco violating federal law? By Marc Picker and Boyd Sprain Copyright 1987, U.C. Davis Environ- mental Law Society When Interior Secretary Donald Hodel announced his proposal to tear down 0' Shaughnessy Dam, drain Hetch Hetchy Lake and re- store the valley to its former natural state, there was some predictably bitter reaction. San Francisco Mayor Dianne Fein- stein followed in the ideological footsteps of her predecessors in lam- basting the idea as foolish and touted the Bay area's birthright to water rights obtained by city leaders at the turn of the century. But, what birth- right does an ille- gitimate child pos- sess? And, if the Raker Act of 1913 which authorized O'Shaughnessy Dam wasn't a political bastard, then what was it? San Francisco gets its rights under the 1913 bill intro- duced by California Congressman Raker and passed by Congress in one of the most bit- ter environmental battles in history. But, one factor left out of the reac- tion to Hodel's pro- posal is the Interior Secretary's legal ability to carry out the plan. The same congressional act which allowed San Francisco to use the valley gave the Inte- rior Secretary dis- cretion to regulate that use and enforce its provisions, or even seek reversion of the entire project to the federal gov- ernment if the Act is violated. CONGRESSIONAL BATTLES A seemingly in- nocuous bill termed the Right of Way Act of 1901 set the stage for the damming of Hetch Hetchy Valley. The bill, offered by California Congress-

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