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 Water and Power also wants to remove the giant bulkhead that seals up the tunnel with 40 nuts and bolts, Ritchie said. The terminus of the incomplete line was "conveniently located next to a PG&E substation", which connected to PG&E's private line which in turn bridged the gap to San Francisco. The locations of these two formations roughly correspond with those of Cathedral Rocks and El Capitan seen from Tunnel View in Yosemite Valley. Loss of the reservoir would decrease the Bay Areas water and energy security, requiring new water storage (possibly in reservoirs not owned by San Francisco) and the development of new water and energy supplies. This 1910 view shows Kolana Rock and Tueeulala Falls in the background.
This reservoir on the Sacramento River has been planned for decades Muir and other defenders of Hetch Hetchy believe the fight revolved around two central issues. In: Educational Resources, History, National Parks, Your email address will not be published. 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. while birds, bees, and butterflies help the river and waterfalls to stir all the air into music. Five country-chic rooms in the main building include en suite bathrooms, free WiFi and electric fireplaces. The larger issues at stake would frame environmental debates for years to come. "[19], People have lived in Hetch Hetchy Valley for over 6,000 years. 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. Within 50 years, vegetative cover would be complete except for exposed rocky areas. San Francisco could flood the valley and work began the following year. Building a dam there was off the table. They were both initially carved by rivers flowing down the Sierras relatively gentle western slope. Muir famously said, Dam Hetch Hetchy! Would that be an improvement? [20] They hunted, and gathered seeds and edible plants to furnish themselves winter food, trade items, and materials for art and ceremonial objects. It is the primary water source for about 2.5 million residents of the San Francisco Bay Area. Divide the class into four small groups. 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? The dam also provides flood control, irrigation, and water storage along the Colorado River. This is why environmental impact statements, which were not required prior to 1969, are so important today. The report cited other dam projects in making the argument that this project would increase tourism. [21][33] Albert Bierstadt, Charles Dorman Robinson and William Keith were known for their landscapes that drew tourists to the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Assign each group to analyze one or more . A Dam Removal in Progress. Get SPUR news and events delivered straight to your email inbox. The chief replied, There is no valley. Appreciate what nature created and what the city built there long ago. Franklin Lane served as the attorney for the city of San Francisco in 1903. Hetch Hetchy is dammed by the 430-foot-tall OShaughnessy Dam and has a storage capacity of 360,360 acre-feet. 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. Browers Hetch Hetchy: Undoing A Great American Mistake, makes a compelling case for restoring the valley to its previous glory. [17] The valley's abundant plants provided nourishment for mule deer, black bears and bighorn sheep.
Water System | SFPUC Some of these studies determined that the idea of draining the reservoir was technically feasible but incredibly costly. 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. [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. [66] In 2015, Restore Hetch Hetchy filed a complaint arguing that the construction of the dam had violated a provision in the constitution of California about water use, but the lawsuit was rejected by an appeals court and later the California State Supreme Court. The SFPUC tests its quality more than 100,000 times a year to ensure that it exceeds all safe drinking water standards. Garfield was responding to critics who believed that the federal governments primary responsibility was to use the nations public resources for development in the service for the greatest number of people. Wapama Fall is reached via a five-mile, round-trip hike that follows the shoreline of the reservoir with moderate up and downhill hiking. There is plenty to see and do right here, from kayaking on the water to climbing the magnificent domes above.
Argument Against The Hetchy Dam - 587 Words - Internet Public Library Show More. The battle over the Hetch Hetchy, in part, was a fight over public versus private ownership of vital resources such as water. 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. Although there are relatively few visitors to Hetch Hetchy, youll find most of them along the trail to Wapama Fall. About one million years ago, the extensive Sherwin glaciation widened, deepened and straightened river valleys along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, including Hetch Hetchy, Yosemite Valley, and Kings Canyon farther to the south. 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. [6][7], Upstream from the valley lies the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, while the smaller Poopenaut Valley is directly downstream from O'Shaughnessy Dam. There is no Starbucks here no daily parade of tour buses and RVs. The most prominent preservationist spokesman was John Muir.. [39], Interest in using the valley as a water source or reservoir dates back as far as the 1850s, when the Tuolumne Valley Water Company proposed developing water storage there for irrigation. You can expect one (short) email per month. [46], Work on the Hetch Hetchy Project began in 1914. Above all, one's behavior Argument Against The Hetchy Dam 587 Words | 3 Pages They suggest that draining the reservoir and turning Hetch Hetchy Valley into a tourist center similar to Yosemite Valley could be worth up to $178 million per year. Just before reaching the Bay Area, it passes through the Irvington tunnel near the city of Fremont, and the aqueduct splits into four pipelines at 373253N 1215555W / 37.548104N 121.932041W / 37.548104; -121.932041. 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. Such new supplies are not guaranteed to have the low greenhouse gas emissions profile that Hetch Hetchy water and power do and they could worsen climate change while increasing our vulnerability to it. We would be trading flooded acres in one place for flooded acres in another. In fact, this is so obviously a good idea that the SFPUC and other end users of Hetch Hetchy water have been doing it for years. The battle for the Hetch Hetchy Valleys future was not simply preservation versus conservation. As well dam for water-tanks the peoples cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man .
Hetch Hetchy Valley, Yosemite National Park, California The Greatest In an effort to build this support, he published his bookThe Yosemitein 1912. Enjoy elegant touches like wrap-around porches, and fresh-baked cookies served daily.
Hetch Hetchy Valley: Battle To Restore, History & Recreation [8], Before damming, the valley floor contained abundant stands of black oaks, live oak, Ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, and silver fir bordering the meadows, with alder, willow, poplar and dogwood in the riparian zone along the Tuolumne River.
Dbq Hetchy Project - 663 Words | Internet Public Library Congress would decide the fate of the Hetchy Hetchy Valley.
Tom Philp of The Sacramento Bee - The Pulitzer Prizes Activity 1: Analysis. A) 5 billion B . Had it been, the Sierra Clubs members would have presented a united front in opposition to its development. The law authorizing the dam passed Congress on December 7, 1913. The spacious rooms include access to a heated swimming pool, spa, playground, and laundry facilities. [75] The remaining deficit would likely have to be replaced by polluting fossil fuel generation. Pipelines 1 and 2 cross the San Francisco Bay to the south of the Dumbarton Bridge, while pipelines 3 and 4 run to the south of the bay. .
History - Hetch Hetchy - Sierra Club The entire valley is now flooded under an average 300ft (91m) of water behind the dam, although it occasionally reemerges in droughts, as it did in 1955, 1977, and 1991. [2]
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir (Yosemite National Park) - Tripadvisor Many examples of red-barked manzanita can be seen along the Hetch Hetchy Road. He said, So we come now face to face with the perfectly clean question of what is the best use to which this water that flows out of the Sierras can be put. 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. However, the same NPS study also finds that with intensive management, an outcome in which "the entire valley would appear much as it did before construction of the reservoir" is feasible. This time, in favor of those who wanted to build the dam. A) human well-being B) renewable energy C) environmental sustainability D) cultural services E) human population growth, The current total world population has just passed ________. Most people called it Hetch Hetchy, a mispronunciation of a Central Mohawk word for a plant that indigenous people were harvesting there when the first white man came along.. Due to extreme winter weather, Yosemite National Park is closed with no estimated date of reopening. He was opposed by then Mayor Diane Feinstein who argued that the dam was San Franciscans birthright. Through the manipulation of water, the company also had the power to determine which real estate became valuable and which languished. Garfield had granted San Franciscos request, but Ballinger ordered the city to show cause as to why Hetch Hetchy should not be deleted from their grant. While the debate goes on, Hetch Hetchy remains a relaxing and often-overlooked corner of the park much to the delight of hikers and backpackers who prefer less touristy experiences.
O'Shaughnessy Dam (California) - Wikipedia "[83], Opponents of dam removal have pointed out that the flooding of the Hetch Hetchy Valley has also deterred the crowds that overrun other areas of Yosemite National Park.
(Source: American Rivers, How Dams Damage Rivers). Located 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas, the dam captures water from the . Gravel, logs, and other important food and habitat features can become trapped. [85] Over the last 35 years, the idea has been studied by the Environmental Defense Fund, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the National Park Service, UC Davis, and several state agencies. [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). The main power facility in the system, the Moccasin Powerhouse, began commercial operation on August 14, 1925. It is spectacular: a miles-long placid blue lake nested within towering granite cliffs, from which waterfalls cascade. Hetch Hetchy Dome, at 6,197ft (1,889m), lies directly north of it. You could then scuba ElCapitan down to the valley floor. The Hetch Hetchy Dam in the Yosemite Valley, receives the bulk of it's water from the sierra snow pack miles above the reservoir. [8], While its cousin Yosemite Valley to the south had permanent Miwok settlements,[25] Hetch Hetchy was only seasonally inhabited. This effort was famously and vociferously fought by John Muir and was the subject of a national debate for years; the loss later galvanized the Sierra Club to successfully oppose large dams in Dinosaur National Monument and Grand Canyon National Park.
Winter storms fill Hetch Hetchy, renew debate about reservoir's future PDF ISSUE GUIDE Hetch Hetchy - theautry.org (Read SPURs analysis of this plan.) She says the water first leaves Hetch Hetchy through the O'Shaughnessy Dam. Native American cultures were prominent before the 1850s when the first settlers from the United States arrived in the Sierra Nevada. Building the Hetch Hetchy dam in such a remote location was an enormous project. Construction of O'Shaughnessy Dam began in 1919 and was finished in 1923, with the reservoir first filling in May of that year. DWRs meta-study found a range of costs from $3 billion to $10 billion for restoration and replacement of water and power sources. In the Bay Area, Hetch Hetchy water is stored in local facilities including Calaveras Reservoir, Crystal Springs Reservoir, and San Antonio Reservoir. [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. The Blackberry Inn Bed and Breakfast is just one of many welcoming businesses located on the way to Hetch Hetchy.
The Fight for Hetch Hetchy | Environment & Society Portal If youre especially in the mood to relax and let yourself be taken care of, The Blackberry Inn is a luxury bed and breakfast situated on 36 acres and surrounded by National Forest land. Youll just need to see them for yourself. Could you imagine building a dam inside a national park today? The surface of the water hides an additional 300 feet of granite cliffs and once-upon-a-time waterfalls within its depths. Indeed, Hetch Hetchy today[when?] The O'Shaughnessy Dam is near Yosemite's western boundary, but the long, narrow, fingerlike reservoir stretches eastward for about 8 miles (13km). The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir also serves to provide energy in the form of hydroelectricity, with a capacity of over 200 megawatts a year. The SFPUC tests its quality more than 100,000 times a year to ensure that it exceeds all safe drinking water standards. "[61][62], The battle over Hetch Hetchy Valley continues today[when?] Hetch Hetchy's restoration, after all, will benefit national . Swimming and boating are prohibited in Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in order to maintain a clean source of drinking water. Other trails also continue to Lake Vernon. The O'Shaughnessy Dam is near Yosemite's western boundary, but the long, narrow, fingerlike reservoir stretches eastward for about 8 miles (13 km). Coming from the San Francisco Bay Area youll pass right through Buck Meadows on Highway 120. But Hetch Hetchy, one of nature's perfect .
The Hetch Hetchy Valley: A Reservoir In The Sierra Nevada Mountains Of Two additional reservoirs in the Hetch Hetchy RegionLake Eleanor and Lake Lloyd (also Yosemite Westgate Lodge offers newly-remodeled and well-appointed modern accommodation. This was likely because of Hetch Hetchy's narrow outlet, which in years of heavy snowmelt created a bottleneck in the Tuolumne River and the subsequent flooding of the valley floor. In the northwest corner of Yosemite National Park you can find the Hetch Hetchy Valley. strongly against restoration. The proposed ballot measure calls for the creation of a task force that would spend $8 million to develop a long-term plan for improving water quality and reliability, remediating environmental damages caused by the water supply system, and identifying new water and renewable energy supplies so that Hetch Hetchy Valley could be returned to the National Park Service. Historians of the American conservation movement regard Pinchot as the foremost exemplar of the utilitarian approach to conservation, according to which man has a right to use natural resources, but also an obligation to use them wisely and efficientlyor as the classic criterion put it, the greatest good for the greatest number over the long run. As applied to forests and espoused by Pinchot, this meant that the nations forest reserves ought not to be maintained as inviolate sanctuaries, but opened to enlightened management.. As a 13.4-mile (21.4 km) round-trip hike, Rancheria Falls gets fewer day-hikers than Wapama Falls but is a popular backpacking stop. And, as you might imagine, it produces some of the cleanest municipal water in the United States. The Hetch Hetchy Valley is about 8 miles (13 km) from Yosemite Valley. The proposed study would also have been required to identify potential replacements for the water storage capacity and hydroelectric power production.[87][88]. Included with your registration: Two-day guided experience in Yosemite; one day at Hetch Hetchy and one day in Ackerson Meadow (Saturday, May 11, at 8 am, through Sunday, May 12, until about 3 pm). The dam was then 227 feet (69m) high; its present height of 312 feet (95m) was achieved only later, in 1938. [67], Preservation groups including the Sierra Club and Restore Hetch Hetchy state that draining Hetch Hetchy would open the valley back up to recreation, a right that should be provided to the American people because the reservoir is within the legal boundaries of a national park. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like The 1987 UN Commission on Sustainability first introduced the concept of ________ as a necessary focus for maintaining sustainability. Pinchot was recognized as a leader of the conservation movement. Owned by the city of San Francisco, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir provides water to 2.7 million residents and businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area. 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. More Than Just Parks | National Parks Guides. Exactly how San Francisco won the right to transform the bucolic valley into a It is part of our More than Just Parks Environmental Heroes series. The reservoir is fed by the Tuolumne River. Hoover Dam. These benefits include: Reservoir-based recreation - swimming, fishing, camping etc. There are four fundamental ways in which dams damage rivers. [21] Miwok names are still used for features, including Tueeulala Fall, Wapama Fall, and Kolana Rock. Second, the sanctity of the national parks which they believed should not be violated. Related. First, the beauty of the valley which they felt should not be sacrificed to build a dam. [30] After the valley's native inhabitants were driven out by the newcomers, it was used by ranchers, many of whom were former miners, to graze livestock. In 2007, in approving the environmental impact report for the Water System Improvement Program an investment of more than $4 billion to shore up the seismic reliability of the Hetch Hetchy water system the SFPUC gave itself, and its wholesale customers on the peninsula, ten years to develop a plan that would identify reliable alternative sources of water to meet the regions future growth in demand, rather than diverting more water from the Tuolumne River. The trail includes spectacular views of Tueeulala and Wapama Falls. Photo: Kim Lawson. But Hetch Hetchy was a federally protected as part of Yosemite National Park. 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. No picture of the giant sequoia trees in Yosemite National Park manages to fully capture their immense size and majesty. San Francisco was able to accomplish this in 1925 by claiming it had run out of funds to extend the Hetch Hetchy transmission line all the way to the city. [45], The controversy over Hetch Hetchy was in the context of other political scandals and controversies, especially prevalent in the Taft administration. 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 .