Washington -- Dan Lungren, a Republican member of Congress from Sacramento County, wants to give the world "a second Yosemite Valley." The valley already exists, in Yosemite National Park - buried under 300 feet of water in the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, which provides San Franciscans and 1.7 million other Bay Area residents with pristine water straight from the Sierra.

All that would be needed would be to blow up the dam, which Yosemite godfather John Muir fought to his dying breath in 1914. The Schwarzenegger administration in 2006 estimated the cost at $3 billion to $10 billion.

Lungren said Yosemite holds a special spot in his heart, as it is where he met his wife. But his critics, pointing to his zero rating from the League of Conservation Voters, say Lungren's environmental record is anything but romantic.

They suspect that Lungren is taunting San Francisco liberals or positioning himself for a re-election race in a competitive district against Democratic challenger Ami Bera, who touts a " 'smart' and 'green' relationship with the earth."

"If tomorrow, Disney would announce that they are going to build a second Yosemite Valley for $2 billion or $10 billion, people would marvel at it, and they'd say, 'What a great idea, to give us a sense of this beautiful valley,' " Lungren said. "Well doggone it, God's already given it to us. Call me a romantic or whatever you want; if I could leave Congress having given back a valley like that for my kids and my grandkids, I'd consider that successful."

Opponents include two of California's most powerful Democrats, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, both residents of San Francisco, along with city and business leaders.

"If the purpose of this is to spend large amounts of money investigating a really dumb idea, then Lungren is on to something," said Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council, a business group. "I can't tell you what is deep in his heart and mind, but we're suspicious. He represents a region that has the most water consumption per capita of anywhere in California. ... If his issue is conservation and recycling, he certainly could spend more time focused in his own district."

San Franciscans may get to vote on the idea in November if the Restore Hetch Hetchy advocacy group in San Francisco collects 7,500 signatures to get it on the ballot. The city "doesn't recycle a drop" of its Sierra water, said Mike Marshall, the group's executive director. The city uses it once and then "treats it as sewage and dumps it in the bay."

Because the Tuolumne River, not the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, is the legal source of San Francisco's water, Marshall said it would be feasible to tap the Tuolumne downstream, partly by enlarging the Don Pedro dam.

"If you ask voters on the street, their first reaction is, 'Where will our water come from?' " Marshall said. "Once you tell voters the Tuolumne River is the source of San Francisco's water, they quickly open their ears to restoring the valley."

Supply shortfall

The problem, said Ed Harrington, general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which operates Hetch Hetchy, is that "anyone with a brain knows the river doesn't flow all year long."

A 2004 study by the Environmental Defense Fund called "Paradise Regained" conceded that without Hetch Hetchy storage, the Tuolumne would fall short of meeting San Francisco's needs every fifth year. The reservoir serves 7 percent of the state's population, creates hydroelectric power and sends the water to the Bay Area via gravity-powered pipelines.

"There are better ways to spend money to produce valuable infrastructure rather than destroy it," Wunderman said. "This whole thing is getting tiresome."

Lungren has asked Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to investigate whether San Francisco is violating the 1913 Raker Act, which authorized the dam. Lungren claims that the law requires San Francisco to use other water sources before tapping the Tuolumne. These include toilet-to-tap water recycling, rainwater harvests and groundwater.

Feinstein wrote her own letter to Salazar, insisting that tearing down the dam "makes no sense." Feinstein said the city is pursuing three water-recycling projects and is participating in the $193 million Bay Area Regional Desalination Project, which includes San Francisco's PUC and other regional agencies and aims to produce freshwater.

Harrington acknowledged that the city currently does not recycle any water. But he said San Francisco uses 55 gallons of water per person per day, a third of the statewide average, which includes lawn watering but not the millions of gallons used to irrigate farms.

Comes up periodically

The battle over restoring the Hetch Hetchy dates back to the Reagan administration. Democrats have always smelled a GOP stunt that forces Democrats to defend a dam in a national park and lets Republicans quote John Muir about the splendor of mountains.

President Ronald Reagan's interior secretary, Donald Hodel, first proposed restoring the Hetch Hetchy Valley in the 1980s, when Feinstein was mayor of San Francisco. The George W. Bush administration again proposed a study when Pelosi was House speaker. House Democrats removed funding for the study and blocked an attempt by Lungren to reinstate the money.

"The most powerful person in the House at the time was the speaker," Lungren said. "All I know is when I was debating it on the floor, I got some rather knowing looks from my friends on the Democratic side, and let's just say we didn't prevail."

Harrington said he can't debate Lungren's personal attachment to the park. "But let's face it," he said. "Everybody who has ever talked about going after Hetch Hetchy has been conservative Republicans who love to push it in San Francisco's face."