What was the Hetch Hetchy Valley issue explain?
Between 1908 and 1913, Congress debated whether to make a water resource available or preserve a wilderness when the growing city of San Francisco, California proposed building a dam in the Hetch Hetchy Valley to provide a steady water supply.
What was the significance of the plan to construct a dam and reservoir in the Hetch Hetchy Valley?
What was the significance of the plan to construct a dam and reservoir in the Hetch Hetchy Valley? It helped launch the environmental movement.
Why is Hetch Hetchy important?
Hetch Hetchy is unique because of its small holding capacity in comparison to the vast watershed feeding it. Not only does it supply 85 percent of the water for 2.6 million people in San Francisco, controlled releases via the O’Shaughnessy Dam are helping preserve downstream species—even in dry years.
Why did San Francisco want to dam Hetch Hetchy Valley?
San Francisco’s excuse for wanting a boating ban is to protect the reservoir’s water quality. They know that if park visitors are able to explore Hetch Hetchy’s spectacular terrain, many will want to see the reservoir emptied and water storage moved downstream, so the valley can be restored to its natural state.
Who was against Hetch Hetchy?
founder John Muir
Preservationist and Sierra Club founder John Muir did not testify before Congress, but he argued against the Hetch Hetchy plan in this excerpt from his 1912 book, The Yosemite. In the end Congress chose management over aesthetics, voting 43–25 (with 29 abstentions) to allow the Hetch Hetchy dam on federal land.
How does Muir describe Hetch Hetchy?
Thus, Hetch Hetchy, they say, is a “low-lying meadow.” On the contrary, it is a high-lying natural landscape garden. “It is a common minor feature, like thousands of others.”
What natural disaster was used as a justification for building the dam at Hetch Hetchy?
In 1923, the O’Shaughnessy Dam was completed on the Tuolumne River, flooding the entire valley under the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir….Hetch Hetchy.
| Hetch Hetchy Valley | |
|---|---|
| Type | Glacial |
| Age | 10,000–15,000 years |
| Geography | |
| Location | Yosemite National Park, California, United States |
Who fought against the Dam in Hetch Hetchy valley?
This provoked a seven-year environmental struggle with the environmental group Sierra Club, led by John Muir. Muir observed: Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people’s cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man.
Why did California want to build a dam in the Hetch Hetchy Valley describe the Anthropocentrist and Ecocentrist arguments?
Why did California want to build a dam in the Hetch Hetchy valley? Describe the anthropocentric and ecocentric arguments. anthropocentric people wanted to build it so they could get water. Ecocentric people didn’t want it because it would harm animals.
Does San Francisco own Hetch Hetchy?
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. Hetch Hetchy has generated controversy since it was first proposed as a source of water following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Was the approach to the environment that won the debate over California’s Hetch Hetchy Valley?
Conservation was about efficient use of available resources, about planning and control, and about “the prevention of waste.” In Hetch Hetchy, conservation won out.
Who was against the Hetch Hetchy Dam?
John Muir
“Dam Hetch Hetchy!”: John Muir Contests the Hetch-Hetchy Dam Preservationist and Sierra Club founder John Muir did not testify before Congress, but he argued against the Hetch Hetchy plan in this excerpt from his 1912 book, The Yosemite.
Where is the Hetch Hetchy Valley in California?
Tuolumne River. Hetch Hetchy is the name of a valley, a reservoir and a water system in California in the United States. The glacial Hetch Hetchy Valley lies in the northwestern part of Yosemite National Park and is drained by the Tuolumne River.
Why was Hetch Hetchy Valley protected from development?
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. National opinion divided between giving San Francisco the right to dam the valley and preserving the valley from development.
Where is the Hetch Hetchy Road east of the dam?
Upstream from the valley lies the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, while the smaller Poopenaut Valley is directly downstream from O’Shaughnessy Dam. 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.
How tall are the waterfalls in Hetch Hetchy Valley?
The O’Shaughnessy Dam is near Yosemite’s western boundary, but the long, narrow, fingerlike reservoir stretches eastward for about 8 miles (13 km). Wapama Falls, at 1,080 ft (330 m), and Tueeulala Falls, at 840 ft (260 m) – both among the tallest waterfalls in North America – are both located in Hetch Hetchy Valley.
