Bee readers have a lot to say about my June 24 column on the hypocrisy of Bay Area environmentalists who depict San Joaquin Valley residents as ignorant hillbillies making a mess of the desert and the Delta with their irrigated farms.

Here is a sampling of e-mail reaction:

"I was so happy to see your article. I know I'm not alone, but I've been saying the same thing for years. The people in San Francisco would have a whole different point of view on water and fish if they took down O'Shaughnessy Dam.

"My first knowledge of the dam was a picture of my dad as a young man sitting on the newly constructed O'Shaughnessy. He has the saddest look on his face. It looks like he had lost his best friend. My dad spent a lot of years in Yosemite as a young man and worked for Mr. & Mrs. Curry. He spent his off time hiking Yosemite and Half Dome before they had ropes and cables.

"Since then my husband and I have been there. I was extremely impressed by the beauty of the area and the shame of having a dam in that beautiful valley. I would love to see more articles about taking down the dam. I would also like to see Pelosi, Miller, Feinsten and Boxer eat their words."

Corky Harmon

"Your readers however should keep in mind that almost nowhere else in the Bay Area gets its water from Hetch Hetchy, and the East Bay MUD and other private providers are dependent on the Delta. Perhaps you should ask Green Party member Medea Benjamin if Feinstein's opposition to restoring Hetch Hetchy is one of the reasons Benjamin ran against Feinstein."

Avery Ray Colter
Bay Point, CA

"RE: your column on San Francisco and Hetch Hetchy.

"I was recently in San Francisco and stayed at the Fairmont. I also visited several restaurants. What astounded me was the amount of water that was being wasted everywhere I went.

"The Fairmont is supposed to be a Four Star establishment. They had 1960 era type shower heads that put out 3 times as much water as my shower head at home. Additionally, both rooms had toilets that could not be considered "low flow" by any measure. However, to their credit, the Fairmont did have a beautiful sign, crafted out of bamboo praising the Fairmont's water conservation efforts regarding towels. (How much bamboo is grown in San Francisco? Adding in the burned lettering, the cardboard backing and glue, what was the 'carbon footprint' of that beautiful little sign?)

"As for the restaurants, not all, but many of them had restrooms that had water wasting toilets AND, if you can believe it, faucets that dripped and/or had trickles of water flowing at a constant rate.These were not hole in the wall type restaurants, several of them were pricey San Francisco landmarks."

Y. Nichols

"I am so on board. How do we get this ball rolling? I am an avid hiker and have made lots of trips to this area, and have always been dismayed by San Francisco's pure hypocrisy. A national treasure in a national park ruined for one city's gain while we all lose."

Benjamin D. Speechly

"Thank you for your informed piece. We west-side farmers have had a target on our back for the last 20 years while Bay Area industries (like Chevron) and virtually all of the cities do more contaminating and water-abusing in a month than we do in a year. The enviros are using a good and well intended law, the Endangered Species Act, like a scalpel to cut up their targets while giving their friends and major funders a pass.

Stephen Patricio
President
Westside Produce
Firebaugh