He had journeyed to Washington to lobby the federal government on behalf of the project. [5], The valley is fed by the Tuolumne River, Falls Creek, Tiltill Creek, Rancheria Creek, and numerous smaller streams which collectively drain a watershed of 459sqmi (1,190km2). The water from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is used to supply system customers as well as to generate hydroelectric power; the reservoir is also operated to provide instream flows to benefit fisheries and other wildlife. 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. The regional water system provides water to 2.4 million people in San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and San Mateo counties. [21][33] Albert Bierstadt, Charles Dorman Robinson and William Keith were known for their landscapes that drew tourists to the Hetch Hetchy Valley. 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. No spam. 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. Located at 3,900 feet, it boasts one of the longest hiking seasons in the park. The larger issues at stake would frame environmental debates for years to come. 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. Muir and other defenders of Hetch Hetchy believe the fight revolved around two central issues. This limits their ability to access spawning habitat, seek out food resources, and escape predation. Like Muir, he was totally transfixed by the Hetch Hetchy Valley. 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. Since then, the "Hetch Hetchy System" has continued to grow, now including nine impoundments . [63] The city justified this as a temporary measure, but no attempt to follow through with completing the municipal grid was ever made. (In fact partially because it is so difficult and destructive to build large dams, we are running out of new supplies of water in California.) 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. 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. If you delight in getting off the well-beaten path, or if you are looking for a peaceful natural retreat, its perfection. By 1908, a different Interior Secretary, James R. Garfield, sided with the utilitarian conservationists and issued a permit for the Hetch Hetchy project. For instance, the WET company helps people see the beauty of water through magnificent water fountains. . [20] They hunted, and gathered seeds and edible plants to furnish themselves winter food, trade items, and materials for art and ceremonial objects. Sign up for the email list and join an active community of monthly readers. The trail includes spectacular views of Tueeulala and Wapama Falls. The restoration of Hetch Hetchy would be a simple task compared to some dam removal efforts. The city must pay a lease of $30,000 per year for the use of Hetch Hetchy, which sits on federal land. The battle for Hetch Hetchy wasnt just conservationists vs preservationists. This ballot measure is so problematic that SPUR has taken early action to oppose it. 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. Photo: Theresa Ho, Of course, the proposal was immediately opposed by environmentalists including the Sierra Club and John Muir. It involved the unintended consequences of efforts to shape the environment to meet human needs. 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. This is a place considered by John Muir to be equal in beauty to Yose. 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 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. [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. And, as you might imagine, it produces some of the cleanest municipal water in the United States. Next to John Muir, the most vocal defender of the Hetch Hetchy Valley was Harriet Monroe. Camping included, if needed; limited sites are shared among all the . The privately owned Spring Valley Water Company had required its customers to pay exorbitant rates for years. [24] It is likely that the edible grass was blue dicks. RELATED: Meet The Real Life Batman & Robin Of The National Parks. Wapama Fall is reached via a five-mile, round-trip hike that follows the shoreline of the reservoir with moderate up and downhill hiking. "[34], When Yosemite Valley became part of a state park in 1864, Hetch Hetchy received no such designation. "[22], The valley's name may be derived from a Miwok word earlier anglicized as hatchhatchie, which means "edible grasses"[8][23] or "magpie". The imputed motive was to divide the environmental movement: to see residents of the strongly Democratic city of San Francisco coming out against an environmental issue. 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. The water winds between granite features like Kolana Rock and Hetch Hetchy Dome. First, the beauty of the valley which they felt should not be sacrificed to build a dam. RELATED: A Woman Started The Environmental Movement (Can It Continue?). [57] Pipelines 3 and 4 end at the Pulgas Water Temple, a small park that contains classical architectural elements which celebrate the water delivery. If the dam were not to be built, it would only benefit the small percentage of Americans who actually visited the site and were concerned about the park's pristine condition. After 2.5 miles (4.0 km), youll reach the Wapama Falls Bridge with an up-close view of the lowest section of Wapama Falls. Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, encompassing 2,000 acres of federal park land, has clearly been maintained for the benefit of San Francisco with minimal consideration of the wider public whose tax dollarsand, in the case of visitors, entrance feessupport the national park. There is plenty to see and do right here, from kayaking on the water to climbing the magnificent domes above. 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. In contrast to the utilitarian view, the preservationist approach denied the assumption that the natural world existed solely to serve mans purposes. [2], Wapama Falls, at 1,080ft (330m), and Tueeulala Falls, at 840ft (260m) both among the tallest waterfalls in North America are both located in Hetch Hetchy Valley. The locations of these two formations roughly correspond with those of Cathedral Rocks and El Capitan seen from Tunnel View in Yosemite Valley. 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. [12] During the last glacial period, the Tioga Glacier[13] formed from extensive icefields in the upper Tuolumne River watershed; between 110,000 and 10,000 years ago Hetch Hetchy Valley was sculpted into its present shape by repeated advance and retreat of the ice, which also removed extensive talus deposits that may have accumulated in the valley since the Sherwin period. Us too! A) 5 billion B . [77][78], The economic wisdom of removing the dam has been frequently questioned. For your last day, enjoy a short hike on the shores of the beautiful Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The waterfall on the Tuolumne is now submerged under Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The Great Alaskan Land Fraud and the Pinchot-Ballinger Controversy caused both Richard A. Ballinger and Gifford Pinchot to resign and be fired respectively. But the ultra-liberal President Woodrow Wilson signed off in 1913 on the multi-decade construction of a series of dams within Yosemite National Park that flooded Hetch Hetchy Valley to create a massive reservoir, hydroelectric plants, and a 167-mile aqueduct for the sole benefit of the City of San Francisco. The grassroots organization of environmental activism, established by John Muir and his supporters, became a model for future environmentalists. Download the official NPS app before your next visit. strongly against restoration. Public disapproval nationwide with the Raker Act helped to bring about the creation of the National Park Service. He discovered it a few of years later. Show More. 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. [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. And it is the largest single source of water supply for the Bay Area. A full breakfast is served in the dining room. Some years later, water began flowing to San Francisco. [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. Rancheria Falls itself is a series of whitewater cascades that crashes through a narrow canyon on its way to the reservoir. Hetch Hetchy is an iconic, rare and spectacular landscape, Hetch Hetchy is part of Yosemite National Park and its damming and flooding is by far the worst destruction of our national parks have ever experienced Restoration would not only make Yosemite whole once again it would inspire people that we don't need to live with mistakes of the past" [2] From Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, the water flows through the Canyon and Mountain Tunnels to Kirkwood and Moccasin Powerhouses, which have capacities of 124 and 110 megawatts, respectively. We can't help it either. [21] Miwok names are still used for features, including Tueeulala Fall, Wapama Fall, and Kolana Rock. 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. The idea of punching a hole in or removing the dam and allowing the valley to be restored to its pre-development conditions has been around since the late 1980s. 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.. 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. The exploitation of Californias natural resources continued unabated in the years leading up to Hetch Hetchy. Environmentalists lost what was the opening battle in a fight to preserve Americas natural wonders. [72] The water storage provided at Hetch Hetchy could be transferred into Lake Don Pedro lower on the Tuolumne River by raising the New Don Pedro Dam 30ft (9.1m). The first is utilitarian conservation. Application Opening: February 10, 2023 Application Filing Deadline: March 3, 2023 Hourly Compensation: $27.3125 Recruitment ID: RTF0131751-01138303 (131752) APPOINTMENT TYPE: Temporary Exempt: This position is excluded by the Charter from the competitive Civil Service examination process and shall serve at the discretion of the Appointing Officer. 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. [5] Local legend attributes the modern name Hetch Hetchy to Screech's initial arrival in the valley, during which he observed the Native Americans "cooking a variety of grass covered with edible seeds", which they called "hatch hatchy" or "hatchhatchie". As we learned from Rachel Carsons Silent Spring, humankind can damage the environment while attempting to control it. The Hetch Hetchy Dam is destroying a piece of land that is the homes of multiple types of animals. Third, dams alter natural habitats and change the ways in which rivers function. [71], The dam would not have to be completely removed; rather, it would only be necessary to cut a hole through the base in order to drain the water and restore natural flows of the Tuolumne River. SPUR wholeheartedly agrees that planning for water quality and reliability is important. To begin the trail, cross the dam and pass through the tunnel. 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. It was the second tallest dam in the U.S. at the time. The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir also serves to provide energy in the form of hydroelectricity, with a capacity of over 200 megawatts a year. ", "San Francisco-Hetch Hetchy Valley Connection", "Hetch Hetchy controversy: Could Yosemite's 'second valley' be restored? More Than Just Parks | National Parks Guides. [40] By the 1880s, San Francisco was looking to Hetch Hetchy water as a fix for its outdated and unreliable water system. And today there is even an organization, Restore Hetch Hetchy, which is committed to doing just that. As surely as forests provided timber, so did they provide beauty, inspiration, and the renewal of over-citified spirits. I will agree to take down Hetch Hetchy, when we first replace it with a bigger new reservoir such as a bigger taller Yosemite Valley dam at El Capitan. Should natural resources be used to serve the greatest good for the greatest number? Divide the class into four small groups. [79] Some observers, such as Carl Pope (director of the Sierra Club), stated that Hodel had political motives[80] in proposing the study. In an effort to build this support, he published his bookThe Yosemitein 1912. Hetch Hetchy, for the time being, was safe, and it would not be inundated during Roosevelts watch.. There, he met the same Indian chief and his wives. [citation needed], The Hetch Hetchy Valley began as a V-shaped river canyon cut out by the ancestral Tuolumne River. history. That reservoir is New Don Pedro, and it rests over existing pipelines to the Bay Area. Richard Ballinger was a conservative who was one of the main characters who was responsible for the progressive-conservative split in the GOP in 1912 (leading to the creation of the Bull Moose party), which is the factor that determined the GOP would be on the right side of the political spectrum (and therefore ensuring the Democrats would be on the left side of the spectrum). O'Shaughnessy Dam is a 430-foot (131 m) high concrete arch-gravity dam in Tuolumne County, California, United States.It impounds the Tuolumne River, forming the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir at the lower end of Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, about 160 miles (260 km) east of San Francisco. No picture of the giant sequoia trees in Yosemite National Park manages to fully capture their immense size and majesty. The trail continues to climb for 1.8 miles (2.8 km) above the trail intersection, but you can turn around any time. Instead, it was a more complicated battle which pitted public interests against private interests. There are many places to stop and enjoy views of the rushing water before turning around to return to your car. As of October 2022, Hetch Hetchy was at 77.5% of its capacity. Then it travels through a series of mountain tunnels. Many are vital pieces of infrastructure that provide reliable water supplies, hydropower, flood control, and recreation. In the early 20th century, San Francisco flooded the Hetch Hetchy Valley, destroying "one of nature's rarest and most precious mountain temples." This is why the city can now ban new natural gas. The second concept is preservation. DWR also found that the planning studies necessary to refine the costs and benefits of restoration would cost $65 million alone. 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. Construction of O'Shaughnessy Dam began in 1919 and was finished in 1923, with the reservoir first filling in May of that year. [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. [42] They claimed the valley was not unique and would be even more beautiful with a lake. [17] The valley's abundant plants provided nourishment for mule deer, black bears and bighorn sheep. A bigger population will increase demand, meanwhile climate change could significantly reduce supply through drought and hydrological cycle changes. Impounded by O'Shaughnessy Dam, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir water passes through hydroelectric powerhouses before it enters the San Joaquin Pipelines, the Tesla Ultraviolet Treatment Facility, and the Coast Range Tunnel on its journey to the Bay Area. The battle over the Hetch Hetchy, in part, was a fight over public versus private ownership of vital resources such as water. John Muir once described Hetch Hetchy Valley as, a grand landscape garden, one of Natures rarest and most precious mountain temples.. 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. [74] A 2019 study commissioned by Restore Hetch Hetchy argued that draining the reservoir and equipping the valley with a tourism infrastructure comparable to that of Yosemite Valley (which receives around 100 times as many visitors annually as Hetch Hetchy's 44,000) could result in a "recreational value" of up to $178 million per year, or possibly an overall economic value of up to $100 billion. Buck Meadows is also a great place to spend the night. Youll just need to see them for yourself. Two additional reservoirs in the Hetch Hetchy RegionLake Eleanor and Lake Lloyd (also They acknowledge that a concerted effort would have to be made to control the introduction of wildlife and tourism back into the valley in order to prevent destabilization of the ecosystem,[68] and that it might be decades or even centuries before the valley could be returned to natural conditions.