More Light on the Destructive Hetch Hetchy Scheme.
John Muir · Scholarly Commons (University of the Pacific) · 1913
More Light on the Destructive Hetch Hetchy ? Scheme The Yosemite National Park is not only the greatest and most wonderful national playground in California, but in many of its features it is without a rival in the., whole world. It belongs to the American people, and in world-wide interest ranks with the Yellowstone and the Grand Cation of the Colorado. It embraces the headwaters of two riversΓÇöthe Merced and the Tuolumne. The Yosemite Valley is in the Merced basin; the Hetch Hctchy Valley, the Grand Canon of the Tuolumne, and the Tuolumne Meadows are in the Tuolumne basin. Excepting only the Yosemite Valley, the Tuolumne basin in its general features is the more wonderful and the larger half of the park, .ΓÇó. . The Hetch Hetchy Valley is a wonderfully exact counterpart of the great Yosemite, not only in its cliffs and waterfalls and peaceful river, but in the gardens, groves, meadows and camp grounds of its flower1)', park-like floor. ..,:>;In 18'JO Congress, with wise foresight, dedicated to the American ^people for all time this great health-giving playground. The Yosem- jte Valley had already been made a park and it was primarily to ';:* preserve the Hetch Hetchy Valley and Tuolumne Meadows from destruction that the greater Yosemite National Park was created. This was done ten years before San Francisco began to covet the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Negligently allowing opportunity after opportunity for making adequate provision for a future water supply to slip away and pass I into private bands she finally awoke to the fact that one of the cheap- I est sources remaining was the so-called Hetch Hetchy source on the I Tuolumne River in the National Park. This source attracted San j Francisco solely because Congress had set it apart for the use and rec- I reation of all the American people and consequently during all these 1 years it had remained free from private claims. V San Francisco is making desperate efforts to get Hetch Hetchy ror a reservoir, planning to flood the valley to a depth of two or three hundred feet, burying all its grove and garden camp grounds. The effect of flooding the Hetch Hetchy Valley would be the same as if the Yosemite Valley were flooded, leaving not a single spot for a camp. This same application by the city for water rights in Hetch Hetchy has been denied several times in the past. Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock refused it in most emphatic terms in 1903, saying: "Presumably the Yosemite National Park was created such by law because of the natural objects, of varying degrees of scenic importance, located within its boundaries, inclusive alike of its beautiful small lakes, like Eleanor, and its majestic wonders, like Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite Valley. It is the aggregation of such natural scenic features that makes the Yosemite Park a wonderland which the Congress of the United States sought by law to preserve for all coming time as nearly as practicable in the condition fashioned by the hand of the CreatorΓÇöa worthy object of national pride and a source of health- fid pleasure and rest for the thousands of people who may annually sojourn there during the heated months." A little later Secretary of the Navy Mctcalf rendered a concurring opinion. In 1909-10 the city applied to Congress, but recognizing that the bill would be defeated it was allowed to die. Secretary of the Interior Garfield granted a qualified permit to use Lake Eleanor first, but Secretary of the Interior Ballingcr called on the city to show cause why the Hetch Hetchy portion of this permit should not be eliminated, and Secretary of the Interior Fisher in 1913 confirmed this order, saying that there was grave danger in creating such a precedent where only the saving of money was involved. Encouraged by the change in administration at Washington the city is again asking Congress for this priceless wonderland which belongs to all the American people. The city has been persistently working in Washington for months with unlimited financial backing at i ts command and is now striving to rush the Hetch Hetchy Raker Bill -'ΓÇó through at scandalous speed without allowing time for the people, the owners of the park, to be heard in its defense. After passing thife House and being blocked in the Senate it will be called up -for final action December 1st, and it is vital that every person who reads this letter, no matter how little weight he thinks his request may have, should write to his Senators in Congress and to President Woodrow Wilson asking that the wise forethought and labor of years may not be undone, and urge that this new administration shall not create the dangerous precedent of destroying and turning to commercial uses the parks dedicated to the people. Already, emboldened by this assault, there are other interests at work hoping to get a foothold in the vicinity of Yosemite Valley itself. No part of the people's parks will be too grand or too sacred to escape unscathed from hungry hordes of despoilers if this destructive Hetch Hetchy scheme prevails. SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF NATIONAL PARKS WESTERN BRANCH JOHNMUIR, PRESIDENT. OTHER SOURCES AVAILABLE FOR SAN FRANCISCO. The Advisory Board of Army Engineers on Feb. 19, 1913, after investigating the water supply situation of San Francisco, arrived at the following conclusion: ' V "The Board is of the opinion that there are several sources of water supply that could be obtained and used by the city of San Francisco and adjacent communities to supplement the near-by supplies as the necessity develops. From any one of these sources the water is sufficient in quantity and is, or can be made, suitable in quality, while the engineering difficulties are not insurmountable. The determining factor is principally one of cost." In the face of this report, the truth that San Francisco can obtain abundance of pure mountain water for present and future needs without invading the Yosemite Park can no longer be questioned. SAN FRANCISCO CLAIMS AN EMERGENCY. As an excuse for haste in railroading the Raker bill through Congress at this extra session under the overshadowing tariff and cur- ; rency bills, it is called "an emergency measure." It is well known that San Francisco needs water, but her own engineers admit that the'-j present supply can be more than doubled by adding- nearby sources, " and under the circumstances this is the only possible plan of development before the city goes to any of the Sierra streams. Brigadier-General H. M. Chittenden, U. S. A., who recently made an elaborate investigation of San Francisco's water supply needs reported as follows: "So far as quantity is concerned there is no present necessity for a resorf to the Sierra, and will not be for an indefinite period to come." The claim San Francisco's Representatives are making that portions of the city are without water and that there is a water famine imminent, is entirely aside from the question, for this situation cannot be relieved in any way by the Hetch Hetchy, even if the city gets it, for it must go elsewhere for water in the meantime. The city officials and the water company have finally come to an agreement and have commenced the construction of a dam in the Calaveras Valley across the bay, which will add 40,000,000 gallons daily to the present supply, doubling it, and will relieve the situation so that it will be unnecessary to commence any Sierra project for many years to come. The estimates of Engineer H. H. Wadsworth, who assisted the Army Board, and the conclusions of the Army Board itself indicate that it will be many years before these nearby sources are exhausted and that San Francisco's present claim of emergency is not consistent with the facts. John R. Freeman, the leading engineer employed by the city, reported that construction work on the Hetch Hetchy project could be deferred for several years and that it would be greater economy to utilize nearer sources meanwhile. (See pp. 69, 74, Freeman report, 1912). HETCH HETCHY SOURCES RECENTLY PROVEN INSUFFICIENT IN QUANTITY AND MORE EXPENSIVE THAN OTHER SOURCES. Recent government records completely refute San Francisco's claim that enough water can be conserved in the Hetch Hetchy project to supply the irrigation districts with the amount guaranteed them by the terms of the Raker bill now pending in Congress and also furnish the amount estimated to be necessary for the city. Ever since August 1, 1911, the flow of the Tuolumne river has been less than the amount required to satisfy these two uses, and the water stored in the system would have been drawn on to make up the deficiency. Prior to October 1, 1918, the reservoirs would have been completely drained and no water from the Tuolumne source would have been available for the bay cities during the entire year 1913 and no probability of more water until April, 1914, when the snows melt. Oh the other hand, the streams flowing into the Sacramento Valley carry an abundance of water over and above what can possibly be used for irrigation in that valley. The foregoing statements are contained in an address made by Clement H. Miller, C. E., before the San Francisco Center of the f California Civic League and are supported by data from government reports which cannot be refuted. Mr. Miller says that "there are, beyond any doubt, two sources available, probably three, and possibly four, that can supply the ftdl requirements of the bay cities at less cost than the Hetch Hetchy project." Mr. Miller states that it would be a crime to take water from the Hetch Hetchy source for San Francisco and deprive lands in the San Joaquin Valley of water absolutely essential for irrigation when there is a tremendous surplus and unavoidable annual waste from the Sacramento river and its tributaries. The Tuolumne water can be stored for th