The Battle over Hetch Hetchy: America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism

by Robert W. Righter

  27. Hamilton, "Human Engineering," 20.

  28. Story in the San Francisco Chronicle, October 27, 1934.

  29. Strike leaflet, in Central Files, Hetch Hetchy General, 1917-1922, 660-05.41, Yosemite Archives,Yosemite National Park (hereafter abbreviated asYNPA).

  30. SF City Engineer, 92/808 C, carton 2, folder "Reports 1922," BL. It is impossible to know exactly what Mr. Eckart meant when he referred to the "LWW strike." But more than likely his reference was related to the mass arrests of IWW leaders by the justice Department in 1917. In California about 20 members were arrested in September in Fresno for an alleged assassination attempt on California governor-elect William D. Stephens.They were held in jail for over a year. In January 1918 54 Wobblies were jailed in Sacramento. They remained incarcerated until finally, in December, the Justice Department brought them to trial. All were found guilty and sentenced to prison terms of one to ten years, but "they remained true to their IWW faith." No doubt some of these organizers and members, recently released from prison, influenced the Hetch Hetchy workforce. See Melvin Dubofsky, We Shall BeAll:A History of the IWW (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1969), 438-41.

  31. C. R. Rankin to W. B. Lewis, Supt.,Yosemite National Park, October 16, 1922, Central Files, Hetch Hetchy General, 1917-1922, 660.05-41,YNPA.

  32. SF City Engineer, 92/808 C, carton 2, folder "Memoranda 1921," BL; Starr, Endangered Dreams, 29.

  33. Wurm, Hetch Hetchy, 136.

  34. Ibid., 135-36.

  35. Ibid., 136.

  36. SF City Engineers, 92/808 C, carton 2, folder "Reports 1922," BL.

  37. Ibid., carton i, folder "1929-1930 Corr.," BL.

  38. Speech to the Down Town Association, May 25, 1925, in SF City Engineers, 92/808 C, carton "Writings, Hetch Hetchy," folder "May 28, 1925," BL.

  39. Fresno Republican, July 8, 1923.

  40. "O'Shaughnessy Dam Dedication," Municipal Record 16 (July 19, 1923), in SF City Engineer, 92/808 C, carton 4, folder "O'Shaughnessy Dam Dedication scrapbook," BL.

  41. Quoted in Jackson, Building the Ultimate Dam, 6.

  42. Cronon, Natures Metropolis, xvii, 56-57.

  43. Beverly Hodghead to O'Shaughnessy, March 29, 1923, SF City Engineer, 920808 C, carton 4, folder "O'Shaughnessy Dam Dedication scrapbook," BL.

  44. Clifford M. Holland to O'Shaughnessy, July 19, 1923; Milt Clark to O'Shaughnessy, n.d., in ibid.

  45. Wurm, Hetch Hetchy, 187, 191. The electrical production and distribution system is covered in greater detail in chapter 8.

  46. M. M. O'Shaughnessy, "Construction Progress of the Hetch Hetchy Water Supply of San Francisco, October, 1921," in SF City Engineers, 92/808 C, carton 2, folder "Reports 1922" BL.

  47. Brechin, Imperial San Francisco, 72-73; see also Gray Brechin, "Water Rites: San Francisco's Water Temples Celebrate Classical Civilization," Almost History, August 1989, 14-17. My wife and I visited the Sunol Temple in the spring of 2002. Though the structure was severely damaged by the 1996 earthquake, the city of San Francisco has rebuilt it. According to Rob Cyr, a SFMUD employee for 20 years, the temple used to be a gathering palace for picnickers and hikers, but now, while it is open to the public, visitors are not encouraged to stay.

  48. "Alameda County's Interest in Hetch Hetchy Grant," speech of Hon. Joseph R. Knowland of California in the House of Representatives,August 29, 1913, copy in the Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

  49. M. M. O'Shaughnessy, "The Hetch Hetchy Project," The Star, June 1, 1920, 16-18, in SF City Engineer, 92/8o8 C, carton "Writings, Hetch Hetchy" folder "June 1, 1920"BL.

  5o. J. H. Kimball, EBMUD, to O'Shaughnessy July 27, 1923; O'Shaughnessy to Kimball, July 28, 1923; Marston Campbell, EBMUD, to Mayor James Rolfe, February 15, 1924, in SF City Engineer, 92/808 C, Box 1, folder "Corres. 1923" and folder "Corres. 1924," respectively, BL.

  51. O'Shauglmessy to John Freeman, April 1, 1924, Freeman to O'Shaughnessy, April 15, 1924, in ibid., folder "Corres. 1924."

  52. M. M. O'Shauglmessy "The Water Problem of the Bay Region," March To, 1924, ibid., carton "Writings, Hetch Hetchy," folder "March 10, 1924," BL.

  53. "The $39,000,000 Water Project of the East Bay Cities," Engineering NewsRecord 93 (December 11, 1924), 961.

  54. "East Bay Hetch Hetchy League Resolution," July 26, 1924 in SF City Engineer, 92/808 C, carton "Writings, Hetch Hetchy, folder, 1924; "The $39,000,000 Water Project."

  55. "The $39,000,000 Water Project," 960.

  56. Some facts obtained from East Bay Municipal Utility District, http://www. ebmud.com/about-ebmud/overview/district-history.

  57. Quoted in Brechin, Imperial San Francisco, 270.

  58. "Transcript of meeting of mayor, board of supervisors, and the Advisory Water Committee, June 19, 1924," 11-12, in SF City Engineer, 92/808 C, carton 2, folder "Meeting, June 19, 1924," BL.

  59. San Francisco Bulletin, November 14, 1923.

  60. Wurm, Hetch Hetchy, 221.

  61. Ibid., 222.

  62. Egan, Last Bonanza Kings, 242-46. Bourn's FiLoLi estate, named for his motto of"Fight, Love, Live," is now managed for the public by the National Historic Trust.

  63. SF City Engineer, 92/809 C, carton 3, folder "Site Inspection, March 1932," BL.

  64. Ruth H. Willard, "Pulgas Water Temple," in Carol Green Wilson, ed., Sacred Places of San Francisco (San Francisco: Presidio Press, 1985); also in Book Club of California, Newsletter 52, no. 4 (n.d.).

  65. San Francisco Call, October 12, 1934.

  66. San Francisco Chronicle, October 29, 1934; "Celebration of the First Delivery of Hetch Hetchy Water to San Francisco's Crystal Springs Lake, San Mateo County" program for the October 28, 1934, opening of the Pulgas Temple, in BL; Harold L. Ickes, The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes, vol. 1, The First Thousand Days, 1933-1936 (NewYork: Simon and Schuster, 1953), 214.

  67. "Celebration of the First Delivery of Hetch HetchyWater."

  68. Hundley, The Great Thirst, 275.

  69. Leslie W Stocker, "Some Engineering Features of the Enlargement of the O'Shaughnessy Dam,".Journal of theAmericanWaterWorksAssociation 27 (August 1935), 986-92.

  70. Ibid.

  71. See correspondence between Harold Ickes to Elwood Meade, December 1934, in Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Cent. Classified Files, 1907-1936, files 12, 13, pt. 6, National Archives, College Park (hereafter abbreviated as NACP).

  8. THE POWER CONTROVERSY

  i. Pinchot's views are best expressed in Gifford Pinchot, The Power Monopoly: Its Make-up and Its Menace (Milford, Pa., 1928), a privately printed tract in which he accused "investor-owned" companies in Pennsylvania of "ruthless exploitation, uninterrupted and unrestrained by anything approaching effective Government intervention and control." He felt the same animosity toward the Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

  2. Richard F Hirsh, Power Loss: The Origins of Deregulation and Restructuring in the American Electric Utility System (Cambridge, Mass.; MIT Press, 1999) 13-14.

  3. Hughes, Networks of Power, 266.

  4. Congressional Record, Senate, 63rd Cong., 1st sess., vol. 5o (December 6, 1913), 347.

  5. Judson King, The Conservation Fight: From Theodore Roosevelt to the Tennessee Valley Authority (Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1959), 42.

  6. H.R. 7207, 63rd Cong., 1st sess., passed the House of Representatives on September 3, 1913.j. Horace McFarland and others credited Kent with adding section 6. See Morrison,) Horace McFarland, 170.

  7. George Norris, Fighting Liberal: The Autobiography of George W. Norris (New York: Macmillan, 1945), 162.

  8. SF City Engineer, 92/808 C, box 1, folder "Reports 1916," 11, BL.

  9. M. M. O'Shaughnessy to Herbert Hoover, Secretary of Commerce, November 8, 1923, in Dept. of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Cent. Classified Files, 1907-1937, file "April 1923 to December 1923," box 2000, National Archives, College Park (hereafter abbreviated as NACP).

  so. San Francisco Examiner, September 9, 1923.

  11. "An Open Letter
to Our City Engineer," San Francisco Examiner, December 10, 1923.

  12. "Report on open meeting at the St. Francis Hotel sponsored by the Commonwealth Club," San Francisco Daily News, November TO, 1923.

  13. Issel, Cherny, San Francisco, 1865-1932, 182-83.

  14. Ibid., 184.

  15. Agreement between the City of San Francisco and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, signed July 1, 1925, copy in Records of U.S. Attorneys and Marshalls, Northern Department of California, San Francisco, Civil Cases, 1899-1950, 4173, RG 118, box 6, National Archives, San Bruno.

  16. Telegrams from Mayor James Rolph to President Calvin Coolidge, June 26, 1925; Gifford Pinchot to Secretary HubertWork,June 27, 1925;William Kent to Secretary Hubert Work, June 26, 1925, in Dept. of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Cent. Classified Files, 1907-1936, RG48, box 2002, loose folder, NACP Also see Issel, Cherny, San Francisco, 1865-1932, 184.

  17. Washington Daily News, August 11, 1925.

  18. Los Angeles Record, August 24, 1925.

  19. Mayor James Rolph to Honorable Ray Lyman Wilbur, June 19, 1930, in Dept. of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Cent. Classified File, 1907-1936, RG48, box 2002, letters folder, NACP. Also see "Statistics from Hetch Hetchy Water Supply & Power Project," Special Report by the Dept. of the Interior upon Financial History for Raker Act Hearings, Washington, D.C., April 8, 1935, in Dept. of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Cent. Classified Files, 1907-1936, RG48, box 2004, NACP.

  20. "Memorandum by Lewis E Byington, President of the Public Utilities Commission of the City and County of San Francisco," 9-10, before the Secretary of the Interior, dated May 6, 1935, in Dept. of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Cent. Classified Files, 1907-1936, RG 48, box 2000, files 12, 13, pt. 7, NACP.

  21. Ibid., i.

  22. Hirsh, Power Loss, 14-15.

  23. "Memorandum by Lewis F. Byington," To-IT.

  24. Memorandum for the Secretary, from Arthur Demaray, Acting Director, National Park Service, June 27, 1933, in Dept. of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Cent. Classified Files, 1907-1936, RG 48, box 2000, files 12, 13, pt. 6, NACP.

  25. "In re the contract between San Francisco and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company in relationship to the Raker Act, August 24, 1935," by Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, in ibid., pt. 7.

  26. Advertisement against Amendment no. 1, San Francisco Chronicle, April 30, 1935.

  27. Perhaps the most inflammatory letters came from Charles Pyral, who identified himself as an "Illumination Engineer" and the head of the "Municipal Ownership League of California." Pyral recounted stories of how the PG&E paid for supervisors to party at "booze fests" at an "Italian boot-legging joint" where supervisors were wooed by PG&E executives. Such activities were part of the "power trusts"' stranglehold on San Francisco and the Bay Area. Pyral named the perpetrators of such activities, and although Ickes was skeptical, he did thank Pyral for his efforts. When the rather paranoid Pyral asked that Ickes guard his letters against those enemies who might use the information against him, Ickes did, although he hinted to Solicitor Nathan R. Margold that Pyral "probably overemphasizes the importance of the matter." See Dept. of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Cent. Classified Files, 1907-1936, RG48, box 2000, files 12,13, pt. 6, NACP.

  28. This analysis is based on a long letter from F Emerson Hoar, consulting engineer, to Harold Ickes, February 17, 1936, in ibid., box 2001, files 12, 13, pt. 9, NACP. Hoar denied any particular interest in the matter and, by my reading, presented the secretary with a rational, objective view of the San Francisco situation.

  29. Arthur Caylor, "The Whirligig," San Francisco News, n.d.

  30. Memorandum for the Secretary, from Nathan R. Margold, Solicitor, n.d., Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Cent. Classified Files, 1907-1936, RG48, box 2001, files 12, 13, Pt. 9, NACP.

  31. Memorandum for the Secretary, from Nathan R. Margold, Solicitor, December 15, 1936, in ibid., pt. 10, NACP. Also see Tim Redmond, "Hetch Hetchy Power Debacle," San Francisco Bay Guardian, 4, http://wcvw.clovisnews.com/trails/ hetch-hetchy-power.html.

  32. Some of the chronology used comes from "Hetch Hetchy Bonds, 1941: Plan Nine With Comments," San Francisco Call-Bulletin Library, deposited in Vertical Files-Water-H etch Hetchy, History Room, San Francisco Public Library. The documents and assembled chronology were undoubtedly for the use of the newspaper's reporters.

  33. US. v. City and County of San Francisco, April 22, 1940, in 587 U.S. 7, 11 (1940).

  34. The Rossi-Ickes telegram exchange may be found in "Hetch Hetchy Bonds, 1941: Plan Nine with Comments."

  35. Harold L. Ickes, The Secret Diary of Harold L. Ickes, vol. 2, The Inside Struggle, 1936-1939 (NewYork: Simon and Schuster, 1954), 422.

  36. Figures from "Hetch Hetchy Bonds, 1941: Plan Nine with Comments."

  37. See "Hearing Relative to the Hetch-Hetchy Power Project as Affecting the City of San Francisco by the Recent Ruling of the Supreme Court," Harold L. Ickes, Chairman, May 21, 1940, typescript in Dept. of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Cent. Classified Files, 1937-1953, RG48, box 3870, file 12-47, pt. 4, NACP.

  38. Elizabeth CosbyWomen's City Club of San Francisco, to Hon. Harold Ickes, May 30, 1939, in ibid.

  39. See Donald J. Pisani, Water and American Government: The Reclamation Bureau, National Water Policy, and the West, 1902-1935 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002), 205-10.

  40. San Francisco Examiner,August 2, 1940;Arthur Caylor,`Behind the News," San Francisco News, July 31, 1940.

  41. U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, Committee on Public Lands, Hearings onAmending Section 6 of theAct approved December 19, 1913 (38 Stat. 242), Commonly Known as the Raker Act 77th Cong., 2nd sess. (January 15-17, 19-24, 26, 27, 1942), H.R. 5964.

  42. "Hearing Relative to the Hetch Hetchy Power Project as Affecting the City of San Francisco by the Recent Ruling of the Supreme Court," pp. 4, 5, 10, 11, 13.

  43. Ibid., pp. 15, 16, 18, 96.

  44. "Disposition of Hetch Hetchy Power by the City of San Francisco, California," typescript of meeting at the Department of Interior, August 21, 1940, 10-11, in ibid, pt. 7.

  45. Hon. Harold L. Ickes to Mayor Angelo Rossi, December 4, 1940; Harold Ickes to Mayor Rossi, February 21, 1941; Rossi to Ickes, February 25, 1941; Ickes to Rossi, April 22, 1941; Ickes to Rossi, May 28, 1941, in "Hetch Hetchy Bonds, 1941, Plan Nine with Comments."

  46. Redmond, "Hetch Hetchy Power Debacle," 7.

  47. Memorandum for the Secretary from Abe Fortes, Division of Power, May 23, 1942, in Dept. of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Cent. Classified Files, 1937-1953, RG48, box 3871, file 12-47, pt. 11, NACP. San Francisco News, April 28, 1942.

  48. San Francisco News, July 22. 1943, December 1, 1944.

  49. Excerpt from the Annual Message of Mayor Roger D. Lapham to the Board of Supervisors, January 2, 1945, in Dept. of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Cent. Classified Files, 1937-1953, RG48, box 3872, file 12-47, pt. 12, NACP.

  5o. "Hetch Hetchy Development: General History" typescript for Dept. of the Interior use, n.d., in ibid., pt. 13.

  51. For a detailed story of the development of the Turlock Irrigation District, see Alan M. Paterson, Land, Water, and Power: A History of the Turlock Irrigation District, 1887-1987 (Glendale, Calif.: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1987). A less scholarly, yet helpful, history of the Modesto Irrigation District is Dwight H. Barnes, The Greening ofPara- dise Valley: Where the Land Owns the Water and the Power (Modesto, Calif.: Modesto Irrigation District, 1987).

  52. See Barnes, The Greening of Paradise Valley, 94-104, passim.

  53. See Oscar Chapman to Attorney General, September 1, 1950, and a file containing a number of SF power quarterly reports, both in Dept. of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Cent. Classified Files, 1937-1953, RG48, box 3872, file 12-47, pt. 13, NACP. In his memo Chapman stated that after a review, he determined that "there is reasonable compliance . . . under the present arrangem
ents, although the Department is likewise aware that San Francisco is not in strict compliance with its statutory provisions."

  54. Most of the facts are taken from Warren D. Hansen, A History of the Municipal Water Department and Hetch Hetchy System (San Francisco: San Francisco Water and Power, 2002), 46-47.

  55. Ibid. 48; Paterson, Land, Water, and Power, 306; interview with Patricia Martel by author, May 6, 2003.

  56. Paterson, Land, Water, and Power; 378-79.

  57. Ibid.; e-mail correspondence from Jerry Metal to the author, April 20, 2004.

  9. THE LEGACIES OF HETCH HETCHY

  i. Quoted in Wolfe, Son of the Wilderness, 342.

  2. John Muir to Robert Underwood Johnson, January 1, 1914, RUJ Papers, C-B 385, "Muir" folder, 3, BL.

  3. Jones,John Muir and the Sierra Club, 122.

  4. Morrison,) Horace McFarland, 173-93.

  5. John Ise, in Our National Parks, 188, gives credit to Representative John Lacy of Iowa for first introducing a national park bureau bill in 1900. It went nowhere, as did attempts in 1902 and 19o5.

  6. Richard Sellars, Preserving Nature in the National Parks: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 40-41.

  7. Ibid., 38-39.

  8. Albright, Schenck, Creating the National Park Service, 125-26. Sellars points out that the plotters often met in Kent's Washington home "on the corner of F and Eighteenth streets-the same house where plans had earlier been formulated for passage of the Hetch Hetchy legislation." Preserving Nature, 302 n 46. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., so eloquent in his defense of Hetch Hetchy and so instrumental in the molding of the "mission statement" of the Organic Act, had bowed out of the group, fearing conflict of interest with the Commission of Fine Arts, which was redesigning parts of Washington, D.C. See Morrison,_j. Horace McFarland, 185.

  9. Ise, Our National Parks, 19o.

  10. Albright, Schenck, Creating the National Park Service, 125.