III. What will be the operative effects of the Raker Bill on San Francisco and the rest of California, outside the Yosemite National Park?
(1) The situation of San Francisco at the end of a long peninsula is not one favorable naturally for an abundance of water for a city of nearly half a million. During the golden days of ’49 the water supply came from a stream within the limits of the city. This stream is now in the Presidio and consequently is the property of the United States. Next Lobos Creek water was carried along the shores of the Golden Gate in a wooden flume and through a tunnel, then pumped to high reservoirs, from which it flowed through the city.
As the city grew, the Spring Valley Water Company came into existence and furnished water for the city from a storage reservoir on Pilarcitos Creek, about twenty-five miles from the city. This company has gradually developed its system and about twenty years ago in Alameda county, on the east side of the Bay, began to obtain water from a large area of gravel beds. This water was taken into a reservoir, thence through aqueducts and submarine pipes into San Francisco. San Francisco is now consuming about 50,000,000 gallons of water per day. Of this amount over 8,000,000 gallons come from private wells in different parts of the peninsula. The Spring Valley Water Company furnishes about 41,500,000 gallons, of which about 17,000,000 gallons come from San Mateo County.
City Engineer M. M. O’Shaughnessy of San Francisco testified before the House Committee on the Public Lands in Washington, June, 1913 that this city now needs 75,000,000 gallons of water per day and that about one-third of the city is without water and obliged to haul it in barrels and wagons. Development of the city has been considerably retarded through lack of water. Engineer O’Shaughnessy stated before the committee “for the past three or four months I have been making explorations all over the city in our narrow peninsula, trying to develop what strata there are that will be capable in an emergency of relieving our situation.”
The Spring Valley Water Company is endeavoring to relieve the stress of the situation by starting the construction of the so-called Calaveras dam in Calaveras Valley. But the supply of water behind this is uncertain. The company has built galleries seven or eight feet deep in the gravel beds, into which the water percolates.
After the disaster of 1906 San Francisco bonded itself for $6,000,000 and thereby constructed a high pressure auxiliary water system, operating about seventy-two miles of pipe. A reservoir was built at an elevation of 600 feet, filled through a pumping station drawing salt water from the bay. Another pumping station is now under construction at Fort Mason.
The city expects to buy the Spring Valley Water Company by condemnation in case purchase cannot be effected otherwise. Since the passage of the Raker Bill condemnation proceedings have been begun.
The territory on both sides of the Bay, extending south
to San Jose for about fifty miles, has a common interest in obtaining water. All of its people look to San Francisco to take the lead. A population of about 1,000,000 is included here, of which Alameda furnishes about 25,000, Oakland about 200,000, Berkeley about 50,000 and Richmond about 15,000. Under the law passed four years ago, known as the “metropolitan district act,” two or more municipalities are allowed to join together in a water supply association. Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda and some other towns on the Bay have joined to condemn the local water supply to include Lake Chabot. But in these towns the situation is even worse than in San Francisco. The eyes of the people are turned anxiously to that city in the hope that before long she may obtain such an abundance as to fill out their lack and to provide for the future of these rapidly growing cities.
The proposition of San Francisco is to build a dam across Hetch-Hetchy Valley 100 feet at the bottom, 760 feet at the top and 300 feet high. This will cover 1930 acres of land with water and extend the water back between seven and eight miles and one and one-half miles wide at the widest point. It is also proposed to build a dam 150 feet high and 1500 feet long at Lake Eleanor. This will flood 1443 acres. The Hetch-Hetchy dam and reservoir will supply in dry seasons 250 gallons a day per capita for 1,000,000 people. Colonel John Biddle of the Board of Army Engineers estimated the cost of the Hetch-Hetchy supply at $77,000,000.
The final development will give to the command of San Francisco between 400 and 500 million gallons a day. The dams will be of massive masonry. The water will be carried through cement-lined steel pressure pipes and concrete lined tunnels ten feet in diameter, cut through the mountains of the coast range. There will be about eighty-three miles of water tunnels. Under the formation of water districts this water can be divided between the two sides of the Bay and approximately 1,000,000 people can now use it. At the upper end of the aqueduct will be two main power-houses capable of developing 145,000 mechanical horse-power twenty-four hours each day of the year.
The present plans of the city provide for its water needs as far ahead as the year 2,000, when at the present rate of growth there will be over 3,000,000 people around the Bay, causing a necessity for 540,000,000 gallons of water daily.
(2) Before the House Committee in Washington, June, 1913, Colonel Biddle testified that he had made a personal examination of every available source of water for the city and in detail described the features of each source, its advantages and disadvantages. Each one was considered not merely as to benefits to San Francisco, but as to whether or not the taking of water would be harmful to other sections now using it for other than domestic purposes, especially for irrigation.
The testimony of Colonel Biddle was that all the water of California was needed for domestic use and irrigation; that as the State is settled more and more, and as better and better facilities are devised for irrigation, more and more the streams are becoming used for these purposes; and that the only available sources of water for San Francisco would reach either the Sacramento or San Joaquin rivers, both flowing into San Francisco Bay, one from the north and one from the south, and together forming a valley about 500 miles long.
The chairman of this committee, Scott Ferris, conducted the examination as follows:
“With the information before you, coupled with the results of these two investigations, if you were a member of this committee, having due regard for the rights of the irrigation people, those of the nature lovers, who believe that you should not interfere with the Yosemite National Park, and the needs of San Francisco, which system would you vote for?”
“Biddle—I would vote for the Hetch-Hetchy system.”
“Chairman—Would you feel, in casting a vote of that kind, that you had inflicted a greater wrong upon the irrigation people and the nature lovers than if you had voted for one of the other systems?”
“Biddle—No, sir.”
The other two members of the Board of Engineers gave this testimony:
“Colonel Cosby—I concur fully with the statement of Colonel Biddle. There is not the slightest question in my mind but that this should be used as the source of water supply, and not only that, but that it will be used as a water supply in a very short time independently of whether this project is adopted or not. I think the pressure will be so great to conserve the water up there that it will be used as a storage reservoir. It is by far the best storage reservoir in that section of the country, and water is so valuable there that they cannot afford to let it run to waste. If you deny the use of it to San Francisco, sooner or later the water will be put to other uses. Somebody will be asking for permission to utilize the Hetch-Hetchy Valley as a storage reservoir for irrigation purposes.”
“Chairman—What do you think of the equitable distribution made of it under the terms of this bill?”
“Colonel Taylor—I do not think the irrigation people have anything to complain of in this bill.”
In 1913 the official report of this Board of Army Engineers is stated:
“The Board believes that on account of the fertility of the lands under irrigation and their aridness without water the necessity of preserving all available water in the valleys of California will sooner or later make the demand for the use of Hetch-Hetchy as a reservoir practically irresistible.”
The testimony of the members of the Board obtained great weight because of their unquestioned technical skill and experience and their positions, entirely disconnected from local prejudice and interest.
That the Raker Bill will prove of considerable advantage to nearly all, if not to all, other interests of the State of California outside the Bay section affected by the Bill seems to have been clearly established.