Hetch Hetchy: Time to Redeem a Historic Mistake - Sierra Club Would there be any room in an acquisitive society for wildness, or for non material spiritual values?. Most people turn around here anyway. Due to its high-altitude location at 3,900 feet above sea level and its snowmelt-fed water supply, water from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir behind O'Shaughnessy Dam does not require filtration. Once again, the political pendulum would swing. Finally, with the railroad complete, teams broke ground on the OShaughnessy Dam on August 1, 1919. It pitted a powerful city against a dedicated group of conservationists. The Freeman Report artfully depicted reservoirs in Norway, the United Kingdom and the eastern United States showing how nature and public utility worked together to improve their surroundings and provide long-term benefits for everyone. From this work, we have concluded that it is not wise to reduce water storage facilities considering the realities of a growing population and climate change. The glacial Hetch Hetchy Valley lies in the northwestern part of Yosemite National Park and is drained by the Tuolumne River. The SFPUC tests its quality more than 100,000 times a year to ensure that it exceeds all safe drinking water standards. It is spectacular: a miles-long placid blue lake nested within towering granite cliffs, from which waterfalls cascade. [37][38] However, ranchers who had previously owned land in the new park continued their use of Hetch Hetchy Valley a "sheep-grazing free-for-all [that] threatened to denude the High Sierra meadows"[37] before disputes over state and private properties in respect to national park boundaries were finally settled in the early 1900s. between those who wish to retain the dam and reservoir, and those who wish to drain the reservoir and return Hetch Hetchy Valley to its former state. The question Pinchot always asked was, What is the greatest good for the greatest number?, He was famously quoted as saying, Where conflicting interests must be reconciled, the question shall always be answered from the standpoint of the greatest good of the greatest number in the long run., RELATED: Gifford Pinchot: A 2021 Lesson From Americas First Forester, In his congressional testimony, Pinchot argued in favor of building the dam. For thousands of years, Native Americans subjected the valley to controlled bushfires, which prevented forest from taking over the valley meadows. Building the Dam. The U.S. Congress passed and President Woodrow Wilson signed the Raker Act in 1913, which permitted the flooding of the valley under the conditions that power and water derived from the river could only be used for public interests. Other trails also continue to Lake Vernon. As well dam for water tanks the peoples cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man.'. Let us introduce you to some of the unique giant sequoia groves in the Yosemite Mariposa County area the Merced, Tuolumne, and Mariposa Groves are inside Yosemite National Park, and the Nelder Grove is just outside the park boundary to the south. Although there are relatively few visitors to Hetch Hetchy, youll find most of them along the trail to Wapama Fall. Activity 1: Analysis. A Trip to Hetch Hetchy and the O'Shaughnessy Dam Dianne Feinstein, the mayor of San Francisco at the time, said in a Los Angeles Times story in 1987: "All this is for an expanded campground? RELATED: Meet The Real Life Batman & Robin Of The National Parks. Today the 117-billion-gallon reservoir supplies drinking water to about 2.5 million San Francisco Bay Area residents and hydro-electric power generated by two plants downstream. 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. These are called Bay Division Pipelines (BDPL) 1, 2, 3, and 4, with nominal pipeline diameters of 60, 66, 78, and 96 inches (1.5, 1.7, 2.0 and 2.4m, respectively). Hours: Year-round, but only accessible by car when the Hetch Hetchy Road is open. As a result, San Francisco secured a reliable and . Download the official NPS app before your next visit. But the reservoir has spared it some of the indignities of Yosemite Valley", "San Francisco Department of Elections, November 2012 Results", "San Francisco vote to study draining Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is defeated", "Hetch Hetchy Water and the Bay Area Economy", "Thesis: Water Supply Implications of Removing O'Shaughnessy Dam", "New Irvington Tunnel latest in Hetch Hetchy water system improvements", Current Conditions, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, California Department of Water Resources, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission: Hetch Hetchy Water and Power, California Resources Agency Hetch Hetchy Restoration Study, Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency on Hetch Hetchy dam, National Register of Historic Places in Yosemite National Park, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hetch_Hetchy&oldid=1131920349, History of the Sierra Nevada (United States), Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the National Park Service, Articles with dead external links from May 2019, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2022, Infobox mapframe without OSM relation ID on Wikidata, Pages using infobox bridge with empty coordinates parameter, All articles with vague or ambiguous time, Vague or ambiguous time from October 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 6 January 2023, at 11:49. Required fields are marked *. Next to John Muir, the most vocal defender of the Hetch Hetchy Valley was Harriet Monroe. "Dam Hetch Hetchy!": John Muir Contests the Hetch-Hetchy Dam The Hetch Hetchy Dam in the Yosemite Valley, receives the bulk of it's water from the sierra snow pack miles above the reservoir. Richard Ballinger was appointed his Interior Secretary. The proposed study would also have been required to identify potential replacements for the water storage capacity and hydroelectric power production.[87][88]. Hetch Hetchy | Hetch Hetchy Dam & Reservoir History | Yosemite.com Hetch Hetchy and Ackerson Meadow: Wildflowers and Bats [28][29] About 1853, his brother, Joseph Screech (credited in some accounts for the original discovery of the valley)[27] blazed the first trail from Big Oak Flat, a mining camp near present-day Lake Don Pedro,[30] for 38mi (61km) northeast to Hetch Hetchy Valley. Denouncing dam proponents as greedy, he wrote, These temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the Mountains, life them to the Almighty Dollar. As we learned from Rachel Carsons Silent Spring, humankind can damage the environment while attempting to control it. Even if we could obtain the several billion dollars necessary to carry out this endeavor (neither private nor public sources have yet been identified) some of the tasks involved may not even be possible. In this unmanaged scenario, where nature is left to take hold in the valley, eventually a forest would grow, rather than the meadow being restored. [31], During this time, the upper Tuolumne River, including Hetch Hetchy Valley, was visited by prospectors attracted by the California Gold Rush. Hetch Hetchy Dome, at 6,197ft (1,889m), lies directly north of it. In an effort to build this support, he published his bookThe Yosemitein 1912. Hetch Hetchy, unlike other water storage facilities in California, is relatively buffered from near-term climate change because of its high elevation. Slow down and spend the day at Tenaya Lake a beautiful and easy-to-get-to alpine lake cupped by granite domes. As Hetch Hetchy Reservoir Fills, Environmentalists Still Dream of Those in favor of dam removal have pointed out that many actions by San Francisco since 1913 have been in violation of the Raker Act, which explicitly stated that power and water from Hetch Hetchy could not be sold to private interests. John Muir, the first president of the Sierra Club, condemned plans to build the dam, saying, "Dam Hetch Hetchy! It spans 900 feet (270 m) with a 17-foot (5.2 m) wide trail across the top that hikers use to cross to the opposite side. The larger issues at stake would frame environmental debates for years to come. It forced elected representatives to consider what a national park designation truly meant and whether or not the land within these parks deserved protection. Youll just need to see them for yourself. . For John Muir, it was about preserving a natural wonder which could be enjoyed by generations to come. The landscape painter Bierstadt, who brought his German Romantic training to the valley in 1862, gave the world an even larger portrait, and one in extravagant color, that photographers could not match on any scale. Gravel, logs, and other important food and habitat features can become trapped. High temperatures prevail in summer months, but that is a small price to pay for the reward of vast wilderness filled with stunning peaks, hidden canyons, and remote lakes. In 2006, the California State Department of Water Resources (DWR) and Department of Parks and Recreation evaluated the cost estimates of multiple feasibility studies conducted between 1988 and 2005. The Hetch Hetchy Valley: A Reservoir In The Sierra Nevada Mountains Of But Hetch Hetchy was a federally protected as part of Yosemite National Park. His path roughly follows the John Muir Highway State Highway 132 that runs from Highway 49 in Coulterville up through Greeley Hill before connecting back into Highway 120 before Buck Meadows and the turn-off to Hetch Hetchy. That's about twice the amount of power lost when Hetch Hetchy will be restored. Specialty pricing may require . O'Shaughnessy Dam (California) - Wikipedia Spring snowmelt runs down the Tuolumne River and fills Hetch Hetchy, the largest reservoir in our water system. Bierstadts paintings and Muirs writings began to publicize the beauty of the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Only a tiny proportion of Yosemites visitors explore this out-of-the-way corner of the national park. Pinchot was Americas Forester. He served as the first head of the United States Forest Service. Hetch Hetchy Environmental Debates | National Archives [58], Water from Hetch Hetchy is some of the cleanest municipal water in the United States; San Francisco is one of six U.S. cities not required by law to filter its tap water, although the water is disinfected by ozonation and, since 2011, exposure to UV. It then cascades on its westward descent through the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, and enters the eastern end of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. [64] Peter Byrne of SF Weekly has stated that "the plain language of the Raker Act itself and experts who are familiar with the act (and have no stake in city politics) all agree: The city of San Francisco is not in violation of the Raker Act. Back in the early nineteen hundreds, when the debate start about The Hetch Hetchy dam being built a large majority of people did not realize or care how valuable nature is. Progressive political leaders, of whom Mayor Phelan was one, believed it was time to take this power away from the private interests and turn it over to the people. Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and Water System Once the glaciers retreated, tributaries leading into the main river were left hanging hundreds or thousands of feet above the valley floor, creating the beautiful waterfalls we know today. Following a fierce nationwide debate led by John Muir and Will Colby of the Sierra Club, the City of San Francisco was authorized by the U.S. Congress, in the Raker Act of 1913, to construct a dam and reservoir on the Tuolumne River in Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. But if you still have energy, continue past the bridge to Rancheria Falls. An adjacent building contains another five suites with vaulted ceilings, forest views and soaking tubs. The valley provided an escape from the summer heat of the lowlands. [17] The valley's abundant plants provided nourishment for mule deer, black bears and bighorn sheep. Seventeen species of bats inhabit the Hetch Hetchy area, including the largest North American bat, the western mastiff. In 1987, President Reagans Secretary of the Interior, Donald Hodel, proposed that Hetch Hetchy be restored. The chief replied, There is no valley. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. It's dumb, dumb, dumb. [79] Some observers, such as Carl Pope (director of the Sierra Club), stated that Hodel had political motives[80] in proposing the study. Most importantly, San Francisco would lose its source of high-quality mountain water, and would have to depend on lower-quality water from other reservoirs which would require costly filtration and re-engineering of the aqueduct system to meet its needs. The Hetch Hetchy Valley is about 8 miles (13 km) from Yosemite Valley. This 1910 view shows Kolana Rock and Tueeulala Falls in the background. (Read SPURs analysis of this plan.) The dam was then 227 feet (69m) high; its present height of 312 feet (95m) was achieved only later, in 1938. The battle for the Hetch Hetchy Valleys future was not simply preservation versus conservation. The most prominent preservationist spokesman was John Muir.. Including additions made between 1934 and 1938, the dam currently stands 430 feet (131 m) above the bedrock below. [15] When the glacier retreated for the final time, sediment-laden meltwater deposited thick layers of silt, forming the flat alluvial floodplain of the valley floor. [51][52] The aqueduct delivers an average of 265,000acreft (327,000,000m3) of water each year, or 31,900,000cuft (900,000m3) per day, to residents of San Francisco and San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alameda Counties. Exactly how San Francisco won the right to transform the bucolic valley into a The dam and reservoir, combined with a series of aqueducts, tunnels, and hydroelectric plants as well as eight other storage dams, comprise a system known as the Hetch Hetchy Project, which provides 80% of the water supply for 2.6 million people. In November 2012, San Francisco voters soundly rejected Proposition F,[86] which would have required the city to conduct an $8 million study on how the flooded valley could be drained and restored to its former state. The grassroots organization of environmental activism, established by John Muir and his supporters, became a model for future environmentalists. [18], Due to its abundant wetlands and stream pools, Hetch Hetchy was notorious among early travelers for becoming infested with mosquitoes in the summertime. A recent report evaluates the economic benefits of restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley. The battle over Hetch Hetchy was a fight to determine whether a beautiful valley would remain in its natural state or service the growing city of San Franciscos water needs. Even before it was finished, the massive . Without Hetch Hetchy as its primary reservoir, San Francisco will be forced to pump and filter its water for the first time in a century, and lose out on the 726 million kilowatt-hours produced by . For thousands of years before the arrival of settlers from the United States in the 1850s, the valley was inhabited by Native Americans who practiced subsistence hunting-gathering. If you love that insider feeling of discovering an often-overlooked gem, plan a stop at Buck Meadows on your way to or from Hetch Hetchy. We can't help it either. The reservoir is fed by the Tuolumne River. The Hetch Hetchy Road drops into the valley at the dam, but all points east of there are roadless, and accessible only to hikers and equestrians. San Francisco had its eyes on this water source early on and repeatedly tried to acquire water rights to the Tuolumne River. As well dam for water-tanks the peoples cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man . The locations of these two formations roughly correspond with those of Cathedral Rocks and El Capitan seen from Tunnel View in Yosemite Valley. Principally, dam removal on the Klamath will require annual replacement of 696 gigawatt hours of electricity by other means. The view in Hetch Hetchy Valley As you know by now, the hike is 90% along the reservoir so you always get to see the most beautiful blue water in all of California. Photo: Kim Lawson. Hetch-22 | Ethics: Climate Change - Galen Hiltbrand That trip is a 19.1-mile (22.9 km) out and back, or you can turn the hike into a loop that returns past Rancheria Falls (28.2 miles, 45.4 km). Hetch Hetchy ushered in a new era for the national parks. Worth a Dam? - Earth Island Journal Hetch Hetchy is a valley, a reservoir, and a water system in California in the United States. Hetch Hetchy is dammed by the 430-foot-tall OShaughnessy Dam and has a storage capacity of 360,360 acre-feet. [21][33] Albert Bierstadt, Charles Dorman Robinson and William Keith were known for their landscapes that drew tourists to the Hetch Hetchy Valley. This is a place considered by John Muir to be equal in beauty to Yose. Hetch Hetchy Valley Analysis - 1299 Words | Internet Public Library He was opposed by then Mayor Diane Feinstein who argued that the dam was San Franciscans birthright. In the Bay Area, Hetch Hetchy water is stored in local facilities including Calaveras Reservoir, Crystal Springs Reservoir, and San Antonio Reservoir. Dam the Hetch Hetchy! [8], While its cousin Yosemite Valley to the south had permanent Miwok settlements,[25] Hetch Hetchy was only seasonally inhabited. The Hetch Hetchy Valley was within Yosemite National Park and protected by the federal government, leaving it up to Congress to decide the valley's fate. Miners did not stay in the area for long, however, as richer deposits occurred further south along the Merced River and in the Big Oak Flat area. [citation needed], The Hetch Hetchy Valley began as a V-shaped river canyon cut out by the ancestral Tuolumne River. Located at 3,900 feet, Hetch Hetchy boasts one of the longest hiking seasons in the park and is an ideal place for thundering spring waterfalls and wildflower displays. Her poetic descriptions of Hetch hetchy won her the attention of powerful members of Congress. Some hydro-power dams withhold and then release water to generate power for peak demand periods, which is particularly disruptive to migrating fish. SPUR wholeheartedly agrees that planning for water quality and reliability is important. Even in the summer when Yosemite Valley is being explored by visitors from around the world, Hetch Hetchy remains an oasis of relative calm. [9] Formerly, a "small but noisy"[10] waterfall and natural pool existed on the Tuolumne River marked the upper entrance to Hetch Hetchy Valley,[11] informally known as Tuolumne Fall (not to be confused with a similarly named waterfall several miles upriver near Tuolumne Meadows).