benefits of hetch hetchy dam10 marca 2023
[84] Karin Klein has described Yosemite Valley as "so crammed that it looks more like a ripstop ghetto than the site of a nature experience. [35] Muir, who himself had briefly worked as a shepherd in Hetch Hetchy, was known for calling sheep "hoofed locusts" because of their environmental impact. Dam Hetch Hetchy! [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. [8], While its cousin Yosemite Valley to the south had permanent Miwok settlements,[25] Hetch Hetchy was only seasonally inhabited. Expect delicious meals and hearty portions to fuel your adventure or beat that post-hiking hunger. Those who presumed to speak for wealth, much of which flowed to San Francisco, believed they were transforming a pioneer land into a settled, civilized one. Get SPUR news and events delivered straight to your email inbox. This ballot measure is so problematic that SPUR has taken early action to oppose it. In the 21st century, Ken Brower, son of the renown environmentalist David Brower, wrote a fascinating account of the failed campaign to save Hetch Hetchy and the modern effort to Reverse an American Mistake, complete with speculation about how the rebirth of a wild valley might evolve. By 1908, a different Interior Secretary, James R. Garfield, sided with the utilitarian conservationists and issued a permit for the Hetch Hetchy project. She says the water first leaves Hetch Hetchy through the O'Shaughnessy 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. Have you been to Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite? Buck Meadows is also a great place to spend the night. Not far from there, youll find more budget-minded lodging at Buck Meadows Lodge. Subsequent proposals for development in our national parks have been defeated by citizen activists inspired by calls to remember Hetch Hetchy. 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. If the nation set aside some natural places as especially sacred, how far beyond their borders should a sense of the sacred extend? As the Hetch Hetchy Valley was part of Yosemite National Park, Hitchcock preferred to protect the park's natural wonders. Her poetic descriptions of Hetch hetchy won her the attention of powerful members of Congress. A bigger population will increase demand, meanwhile climate change could significantly reduce supply through drought and hydrological cycle changes. Hours: Year-round, but only accessible by car when the Hetch Hetchy Road is open. Bierstadt described the valley as "smaller than the more famous valley but it presents many of the same features in his scenery and is quite as beautiful. Should natural resources be used to serve the greatest good for the greatest number? The 68mi (109km) Hetch Hetchy Railroad was constructed to link the Sierra Railway with Hetch Hetchy Valley, allowing for direct rail shipment of construction materials from San Francisco to the dam site. The openings in the Taft administration led to the eventual success of the Raker Act. Related. In the autumn of 1871, John Muir visited Hetch Hetchy for the first time. No picture of the giant sequoia trees in Yosemite National Park manages to fully capture their immense size and majesty. Hetch Hetchy is on the main stem of the Tuolumne River and is part of the Tuolumne watershed. Friday, enjoy an evening about bats starting at 7 pm. A) 5 billion B . 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 glacial Hetch Hetchy Valley lies in the northwestern part of Yosemite National Park and is drained by the Tuolumne River. 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 waterfall on the Tuolumne is now submerged under Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. From the turn-off, the road winds for 16.5 miles up the old Hetch Hetchy railroad grade (26.5 km) to the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, passing many lonely trails along the way. 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.. 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. You may take easy hike to Wapama falls ( around 6 miles) or even more challenging hike to Rancheria falls ( around 14 miles). So visit Hetch Hetchy. To visit the waterfalls or Yosemites northern backcountry, you walk across OShaughnessy Dam. Hetch Hetchy water serves residents in four Bay Area counties, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Southern Alameda. It is the source of water for the city of San Francisco. The water shunted through them about 218 million gallons a day arrives in most city taps by gravity alone. Then, in 1906, a devastating earthquake caused a series of fires in San Francisco that destroyed 25,000 buildings across 490 city blocks. The deciding factor was whether or not the land in question had access to water. But Hetch Hetchy was a federally protected as part of Yosemite National Park. Although there are relatively few visitors to Hetch Hetchy, youll find most of them along the trail to Wapama Fall. Muir and other defenders of Hetch Hetchy believe the fight revolved around two central issues. For your last day, enjoy a short hike on the shores of the beautiful Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. In terms of quality, Hetch Hetchy water is so pristine that it is one of only a handful of water supplies in the country that doesn't need to be filtered, a process that is expensive and energy intensive. The Tuolumne River continues through Tuolumne Meadows and the associated park developments at an elevation of 8,600 feet. Hoffman observed a meadow "well timbered and affording good grazing", and noted the valley had a milder climate than Yosemite Valley, hence the abundance of ponderosa pine and gray pine. We can't help it either. The same features that make Hetch Hetchy Valley so spectacular also make it an ideal location for a dam. The O'Shaughnessy Dam is near Yosemite's western boundary, but the long, narrow, fingerlike reservoir stretches eastward for about 8 miles (13 km). There have been lawsuits over whether San Francisco violated the agreements of the Raker Act. [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. As in Yosemite, the sublime rocks of its walls seem to glow with life . Photo: Chris Migeon Specialty pricing may require . Hetch Hetchy, located at 3,900 feet in Yosemite National Park, is one of the park's most popular hiking . Many are vital pieces of infrastructure that provide reliable water supplies, hydropower, flood control, and recreation. Gray pine, incense-cedar, and California black oak grow in abundance. Animals were principally driven along Joseph Screech's trail from Big Oak Flat to Hetch Hetchy. Public disapproval nationwide with the Raker Act helped to bring about the creation of the National Park Service. [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. It would be almost impossible to build a new dam there today. Pinchot argued that applying the principle of the greatest good for the greatest number, meant the benefits accrued to the people of San Francisco from having the dam far outweighed leaving the valley in its current state. This time it was in favor those who wanted to preserve the valley for generations yet to come. [citation needed], The Hetch Hetchy Valley began as a V-shaped river canyon cut out by the ancestral Tuolumne River. The regional water system provides water to 2.4 million people in San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and San Mateo counties. [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. Seventeen species of bats inhabit the Hetch Hetchy area, including the largest North American bat, the western mastiff. For most of the year the waterfall offers a refreshing shower or cooling mist along with an amazing view. It is the primary water source for about 2.5 million residents of the San Francisco Bay Area. If youre excited about a long hike or backpacking trip, you can continue to Laurel Lake for a 14.2-mile (22.9 km) out and back. The Poopenaut Trail begins at a signed trailhead four miles past the entrance station. Within the ranks of the Sierra Club, there was a split between those San Francisco members who favored the dams municipal use versus those who believed this pristine area should not be tampered with under any circumstances. But how did the dam get to be here? 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. Water could be diverted into the Kirkwood and Moccasin Powerhouses using lower-impact diversion dams, providing power generation on a seasonal basis, and the enlarged height at Don Pedro would also increase power generation there. As the grazing of livestock damaged native plants in the Hetch Hetchy Valley, mountaineer and naturalist John Muir pressed for the protection of both valleys under a single national park. The main problem with the measure is that in spite of appearing to be about studying best options or planning for future water supplies, it has pre-determined the solution: draining Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. [41], In 1906, after a major earthquake and subsequent fire that devastated San Francisco, the inadequacy of the city's water system was made tragically clear. [50] The project is operated by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. By 1908, a different Interior Secretary, James R. Garfield, sided with the utilitarian conservationists and issued a permit for the Hetch Hetchy project. 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. benefits of hetch hetchy dam. Not to be outdone by Los Angeles, San Francisco had a greater feat in mind: dam the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park and pipe the water into San Francisco. 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. Camping included, if needed; limited sites are shared among all the . Enjoy elegant touches like wrap-around porches, and fresh-baked cookies served daily. Building a dam there was off the table. Only a tiny proportion of Yosemites visitors explore this out-of-the-way corner of the national park. No spam. 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. Eighty-five percent of the water comes from Sierra Nevada snowmelt stored in the Hetch Hetchy reservoir situated on the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park. But tearing OShaughnessy Dam down now in order to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley would be a disaster. To get the electricity they would need, they first built a smaller dam at Lake Eleanor. "[81] Hodel, now retired, is still[when?] Hetch Hetchy water travels 160 miles via gravity from . The Tuolumne River originates in the peaks above Tuolumne Meadows and is the major drainage system for the northern part of Yosemite. While opponents of the dam were hard pressed for financial support, the city of San Franciscos campaign was well financed. [5] Chief Tenaya of the Yosemite Valley's Ahwaneechee tribe claimed that Hetch Hetchy was Miwok for "Valley of the Two Trees", referring to a pair of yellow pines that once stood at the head of Hetch Hetchy. [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. Like Muir, she felt the beauty of the valley was a national treasure which ought to be preserved. Appreciate what nature created and what the city built there long ago. In 1913, Woodrow Wilson appointed Lane his Secretary of the Interior. 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. Hetch Hetchy, a glacially carved valley situated in the northern end of the park, was flooded and dammed in the early 1900s in order to serve as the primary drinking water source for parts of San Francisco and the Bay Area. The larger issues at stake would frame environmental debates for years to come. DWRs meta-study found a range of costs from $3 billion to $10 billion for restoration and replacement of water and power sources. a strong proponent of restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley and Senator Feinstein is still[when?] Guests at these suites receive breakfast on their patios. Indeed, Hetch Hetchy today[when?] Consider one project in progress that involves re-routing an entire river . A Dam Removal in Progress. (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 want to follow the old railroad line today, the Hetch Hetchy Road and most of the Mather Road were built on the old railroad bed and are beautiful scenic drives as well.