O'Shaugnessy
Dam andthe Hetch-Hetchy Reservoir
O'Shaugnessy
Dam and
SACRIFICED SO THAT SAN FRANCISCO COULD GROW
Okay, Hetch-Hetchy isn't in the Mono Basin, but it is close enough (like Bodie).
A spectacular valley in Yosemite National Park, like Yosemite Valley, inundated
by a reservoir. John Muir desperately tried to prevent this rape of Yosemite
National Park from happening. This provides water for San Francisco and power
for you and me.
SIDEWAYS WATERFALL
The throngs in Yosemite Valley don't come here much, but if they did they could
see a sideways waterfall. This is looking downstream from the crest of the dam.
Isn't the Tuolumne River beautiful? Bet it is that pretty under the dam and
reservoir too. So is the dam necessary? Would San Francisco dry up without it?
Well, compare the following figures:
| San Francisco Water Storage Reservoirs | Los Angeles Water Storage Reservoirs | |||
| Hetch-Hetchy | 360,000 AF | Lake Crowley | 183,000 AF | |
| Cherry Lake | 268,000 AF | Grant Lake | 48,000 AF | |
| Lake Eleanor | 26,000 AF | Other Aqueduct (6 res.) | 83,000 AF | |
| S. Bay/Penninsula (4 res.) | 225,000 AF | TOTAL | 314,000 AF | |
| TOTAL | 879,000 AF | L.A. relies on MWD in dry years, and overall an average of 20% of L.A.'s 600,000 AF supply comes from MWD. | ||
So San Francisco has almost three times the storage as L.A.! Subtract Hetch-Hetchy, and San Francisco would still have 519,000 AF of storage--almost double that of L.A.!
FREE THE RIVERS --J. MUIR
Some clever stuntman at one time painted a big black crack on O'Shaugnessy Dam
and next to it wrote "FREE THE RIVERS --J. MUIR." You can see the
white paint covering the black in the center of this photo if you look closely.
Indeed, we are beginning to free the rivers, slowly, one by one. Groups like American
Rivers and Friends of the River
are pushing this noble agenda. As for the Tuolumne River, the Sierra
Club is active in reversing the deed that crushed its founder, John Muir.
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Gregory J. Reis
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