can you smoke on royal caribbean cruise ships benefits of hetch hetchy dam. 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. Hetch Hetchy and many others were built by . You can expect one (short) email per month. ", "Three Square Miles of Open Space: Is It Enough? The valley provided an escape from the summer heat of the lowlands. And in a larger sense, the waters of California served as the converting agents. Giving a Dam: Congress Debates Hetch Hetchy - George Mason University The San Francisco Bulletin printed a Dec. 1, 1913, story calling the bills opponents a crowd ofnature lovers and fakers, who are waging a sentimental campaign to preserve the Hetch Hetchy Valley as a public playground, a purpose for which it has never been used.. It pitted Gifford Pinchot, Americas first forester, against John Muir, Americas legendary conservationist. [79] Some observers, such as Carl Pope (director of the Sierra Club), stated that Hodel had political motives[80] in proposing the study. Put another way, if Congress denied the city of San Francisco the Hetch Hetchy Valley, the California Progressive leaders suspected that it would only be a matter of time before the emerging Pacific Gas and Electric Company would grab the area. Some years later, water began flowing to San Francisco. Day 6: Hetch Hetchy Reservoir to San Francisco. Park entry (as needed). Then, well need to weigh our options for other new large water supplies, all of which will have enormous environmental tradeoffs: think of building a desalination plant, fighting with Los Angeles over the Sacramento Delta, building a peripheral canal or siting new large dams in presently undammed Sierra mountains and foothills. Photo: Chris Migeon. . The National Park Service conducted research to determine what would happen if the dam were removed, and people have repeatedly proposed costly studies to further understand the consequences of removing the dam. The National Park Service concluded that two years after draining the valley, grasses would cover most of its floor and within 10 years, clumps of cone-bearing trees and some oaks would take root. Not far from there, youll find more budget-minded lodging at Buck Meadows Lodge. strongly against restoration. SPUR wholeheartedly agrees that planning for water quality and reliability is important. Hetch Valley Measure Pits Bay Area Against Environmentalists - The New Amid a worsening drought, water supplies at one important reservoir are 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. The Engineer as Lobbyist - JSTOR Right next to the Lucky Buck Cafe, youll find the Yosemite Westgate Lodge and Buck Meadows Lodge. If youre up for a driving adventure, try taking a little extra time to retrace parts of the route John Muir described in his book, My First Summer in the Sierra. 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. Here are just some of the hurdles we would need to cross: Identify water supplies to meet about 18 percent of the regions water demand in dry years (which occur about 20 percent of the time), Permit and build 40 to 90 megawatts of renewable power to supply almost all municipal demand in San Francisco, Build and operate a water-filtration plant, because water stored further downstream than Hetch Hetchy will have to be filtered, Engineer and design a series of expensive and complicated infrastructure projects to re-engineer major components of the regional water system, then get those changes through the environmental review process, Somehow convince senior water-right holders like the Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts on the Tuolumne River to let us store our drinking water in their reservoirs. [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. [21] Miwok names are still used for features, including Tueeulala Fall, Wapama Fall, and Kolana Rock. Divide the class into four small groups. It is part of our More than Just Parks Environmental Heroes series. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This is interesting from an ideological perspective. There are four fundamental ways in which dams damage rivers. William Howard Taft became president in 1909. Teams completed the OShaughnessy Dam in 1923 and the reservoir filled for the first time in May of that year. It is the primary water source for about 2.5 million residents of the San Francisco Bay Area. Most of the dam would remain in place, both to avoid the enormous costs of demolition and removal, and to serve as a monument for the workers who built it. In Yosemite National Park, the Hetch Hetchy reservoir relies on the annual snowmelt to stay full. The inadequacy of the citys existing water supply came into sharp focus. And, as you might imagine, it produces some of the cleanest municipal water in the United States. 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 openings in the Taft administration led to the eventual success of the Raker Act. The network goes from the Sierra Nevada mountains, across the Central Valley and out to the coast, and serves 2.5 million Californians in 30 cities across four counties. Hetch Hetchy | Hetch Hetchy Dam & Reservoir History | Yosemite.com Hetch Hetchy Valley: Battle To Restore, History & Recreation PDF ISSUE GUIDE Hetch Hetchy - theautry.org But during peak spring flow, the thundering waterfall can wash over the bridge making it dangerous to cross. Hiking Hetch Hetchy: the unknown Yosemite National Park - 2TravelDads Shasta, Oroville, Hetch Hetchy and many others were built by damming large rivers. Hetch Hetchy Water and Power also wants to remove the giant bulkhead that seals up the tunnel with 40 nuts and bolts, Ritchie said. Today, descendants of these people still use milkweed, deergrass, bracken fern, willow, and other plants for a variety of uses including baskets, medicines, and string. Hetch Hetchy Water's Epic Journey, From Mountains to Tap As of 2013, the water storage and hydroelectric power supplied by the Hetch Hetchy Project serviced an estimated 2.6 million people in the San Francisco Bay Area. The first Moccasin Powerhouse in Moccasin, California began commercial operation in 1925 followed by the Holm Powerhouse in 1960 (the same month the Early Intake Powerhouse was taken out of service). "[22], The valley's name may be derived from a Miwok word earlier anglicized as hatchhatchie, which means "edible grasses"[8][23] or "magpie". Fortunately, that time has not yet come, so this November, vote no on the Water Sustainability and Environmental Restoration Planning Act of 2012. Lets keep Hetch Hetchy around for the forseeable future. A recent report evaluates the economic benefits of restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley. [13], Hetch Hetchy is home to a diverse array of plants and animals. Hetch Hetchy: Pros and Cons of Restoration - Yosemite Tales This ballot measure is so problematic that SPUR has taken early action to oppose it. Dams, including this one, dont last forever, and perhaps in a few generations the conversation about a different future for the Hetch Hetchy Valley may be worthwhile. In the Bay Area, Hetch Hetchy water is stored in local facilities including Calaveras Reservoir, Crystal Springs Reservoir, and San Antonio Reservoir. Let the dam at Hetch Hetchy stand - sfchronicle.com Spring snowmelt runs down the Tuolumne River and fills Hetch Hetchy, the largest reservoir in our water system. "[65] Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior in the late 1930s, said there was a violation of the Raker Act, but he and the city reached an agreement in 1945. 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. Even a short stroll from the car gives a magnificent view of the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir from the OShaughnessy Dam. 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. Winter storms fill Hetch Hetchy, renew debate about reservoir's future He was a firm believer in utilitarian conservation. An adjacent building contains another five suites with vaulted ceilings, forest views and soaking tubs. The dam is a small portion of the overall Tuolumne River/San Francisco storage system that benefits the Bay Area. What should be the fate of prairies, wetlands, or coastal marshes? [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. ", "San Francisco-Hetch Hetchy Valley Connection", "Hetch Hetchy controversy: Could Yosemite's 'second valley' be restored? The Hetch Hetchy Dam is destroying a piece of land that is the homes of multiple types of animals. [citation needed] The George W. Bush administration proposed allocating $7 million to studying the removal of the dam in the 2007 National Park Service budget. San Francisco applied to the United States Department of the Interior to gain water rights to Hetch Hetchy, and in 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of the Interior, James R. Garfield, granted San Francisco the rights to development of the Tuolumne River. In contrast to the utilitarian view, the preservationist approach denied the assumption that the natural world existed solely to serve mans purposes. Dbq Hetchy Project - 663 Words | Internet Public Library On December 19, 1913, Congress passed and President Wilson signed the Raker Act which permitted the building of the OShaughnessy Dam and the flooding of the Hetch Hethcy Valley in Yosemite National Park. In 1987, President Reagans Secretary of the Interior, Donald Hodel, proposed that Hetch Hetchy be restored. This reservoir on the Sacramento River has been planned for decades Due to large cataracts on the Tuolumne River upstream, Hetch Hetchy Valley may have been in the uppermost range for native rainbow trout in the river. As the Hetch Hetchy Valley was part of Yosemite National Park, Hitchcock preferred to protect the park's natural wonders. [73] Furthermore, the removal of O'Shaughnessy Dam would not require costly sediment control measures, as would be typical on most dam removal projects, because of the high quality of the Tuolumne River water in the first 90 years since its construction, only around 2in (5.1cm) of sediment had been deposited in Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, much less than most other dams. [59] The water quality is high because of the unique geology of the upper Tuolumne River drainage basin, which consists mostly of bare granite; as a result, the rivers feeding Hetch Hetchy Reservoir have extremely low loads of sediments and nutrients. California O Shaughnessy Dam Analysis 1428 Words | 6 Pages. As the Hetch Hetchy Valley was part of Yosemite National Park, Hitchcock preferred to protect the parks natural wonders. [45], The controversy over Hetch Hetchy was in the context of other political scandals and controversies, especially prevalent in the Taft administration. Since the valley was within Yosemite National Park, an act of Congress was needed to authorize the project.