Hetch Hetchy Timeline

Timeline of the ongoing battle over Hetch Hetchy 1871 – 2023

  • 1871 – John Muir first visits Hetch Hetchy
  • 1873 – John Muir first writes about the beauty of “Hetch Hetchy Valley,” in the Boston Weekly Transcript, March 25, 1873, an article later expanded in the Overland Monthly in the same year.
  • 1882 – City of San Francisco begins to consider Hetch Hetchy Valley as one of several places for the location of a reservoir.
  • 1890 – Yosemite National Park is established, including
    Yosemite Valley’s less famous cousin, Hetch Hetchy.
  • 1890 – San Francisco Mayor James Phelan first proposes
    damming the Hetch Hetchy Valley to create a reservoir for San Francisco.
  • 1892 – Sierra Club formed.
  • 1901 – Mayor James Phelan first files for water rights in the Hetch Hetchy
    Valley – using his own name.
  • 1903 – Mayor Phelan applies to the Interior Department for a permit for
    water storage in Hetch Hetchy Valley. Secretary of the Interior Ethan Hitchcock promptly denies the request, since Hetch Hetchy is in a national park. The City of San Francisco appeals, arguing it will only enhance the beauty of the park to have a reservoir. (Later, Muir would respond to this argument thus: “As well may damming New York’s Central Park would enhance its beauty!”) By the end of the year, Secretary Hitchcock denies the appeal.
  • 1904 – First of many Sierra Club “High Trips” to include Hetch Hetchy
    Valley.
  • 1905 – Mayor Phelan again applies for water rights to Hetch Hetchy, and
    the permit is once again denied. John Muir and William E. Colby launch
    8 – year campaign to prevent Hetch Hetchy from being dammed for a reservoir.
  • 1906 – The San Francisco Earthquake and Fire gives new impetus to the idea of enlarging the city’s water supply. James Garfield succeeds Hitchcock as Secretary of the Interior in November.
  • 1907 – San Francisco city officials meet with Secretary Garfield on July 24 to lobby for damming Hetch Hetchy. On August 30, the Sierra Club board of directors adopt a resolution addressed to the Secretary of the Interior strongly opposing damming of Hetch Hetchy Valley. Club leaders begin campaign in earnest against destroying Hetch Hetchy, urging the Club membership to write to President Roosevelt and Secretary of the Interior Garfield to oppose damming Hetch Hetchy Valley. That fall, John Muir, age 69, with his friend William Keith, re-visits Hetch Hetchy Valley, after a 12-year absence.
  • 1908 – On May 7, the City files a petition asking the Secretary of the Interior to reopen San Francisco’s application for water rights, requesting both Lake Eleanor and Hetch Hetchy Valley. The City’s application promised to develop Lake Eleanor first to full capacity before beginning development of the Hetch Hetchy site – a promise never fulfilled. Muir writes in the Sierra Club Bulletin that to dam Hetch Hetchy Valley
    one “may 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.” Willing to compromise, he urges President Roosevelt to give the city only Lake Eleanor. Muir sends a message to the 1908 Governors Conference on Conservation: “Nothing dollarable is safe, however guarded. Thus the Yosemite Park, the beauty glory of California and the Nation, Nature’s own mountain wonderland, has been attacked by spoilers ever since it was established, and this strife I suppose, must go on as part of the eternal battle between right and wrong.” But the City’s permit application is approved by Secretary of the Interior James Garfield, who had never visited Hetch Hetchy, only four days after he received it. Congress soon schedules hearings, and the Sierra Club begins producing circulars opposing the damming of Hetch Hetchy Valley, and schedules summer outings to Hetch Hetchy for 1908 and 1909.
  • 1909 – In congressional hearings, the City reverses itself and insists that it
    must have both Lake Eleanor and Hetch Hetchy Valley. Meanwhile, the Spring Valley Water Company again offers a buyout to the City of San Francisco – a far less costly option than building the Hetch Hetchy system. Sierra Club representatives testify at the Senate hearings on the issue, and senators and congressmen receive hundreds of letters from all over the country opposing the destruction of Hetch Hetchy Valley. Sierra Club leaders form a new organization, “The Society for the Preservation of National Parks” with notable figures across the country as leaders, to further publicize the campaign against the dam. John Muir and William E. Colby join the Sierra Club Outing of 1909 to Tuolumne Meadows and Hetch Hetchy Valley, which also includes notables such as poet Harriet Monroe, Dr. William Linn Jepson, founder of California botany, and other prominent scientists. Congress recommends that President Taft appoint a special commission to investigate the Hetch Hetchy issue, thus avoiding an immediate decision and delaying the City’s efforts.
  • 1910 – After considering the commission’s report, and visiting Hetch
    Hetchy Valley personally, in February Taft’s Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger suspends the interior Department’s approval for the Hetch Hetchy right-of-way, and asks the city to “show cause” why Hetch Hetchy Valley should not be removed from the Garfield grant. The City demands a hearing, held May 26. The Interior Secretary asks the City to prepare more data, and to make a study of other water sources sufficient for the Bay Area, and to do a thorough evaluation of a dam’s damage to the scenic features of Hetch Hetchy Valley. Poll of Sierra Club members votes 589 – 161 (79%) in support the Club’s position opposing the use of Hetch Hetchy Valley as a reservoir.
  • 1911 – Secretary Ballinger resigns in March, citing failing health. President
    Taft appoints Walter L. Fisher as the new Secretary of the Interior. That
    October, Secretary Fisher visits Hetch Hetchy, with a party that includes
    both San Francisco advocates and defenders of the Valley.
  • 1912 – In November, Secretary Fisher convenes a hearing on Hetch Hetchy, with advocates for both sides testifying. At the conclusion of the hearing, Secretary
    Fisher turns over all the testimony to his advisory board, all professional
    engineers. Woodrow Wilson is elected President, and would appoint former San
    Francisco City Attorney Franklin Lane as Secretary of the Interior. Lane supports
    damming Hetch Hetchy, though he never visited it. San Francisco renews its campaign to dam Hetch Hetchy; hires Michael M. O’Shaughnessy as city engineer.
  • 1913 – In February, the Interior secretary’s engineer’s report recommends damming Hetch Hetchy, though acknowledging other options existed. On March 1, three days before leaving office, Secretary Fisher decides that he lacks the statutory authority to grant a permit to San Francisco, thus throwing the decision to Congress. Over the rest of the year, Congress holds hearings, and the City lobbies hard. The New York Times repeatedly opposes damming of Hetch Hetchy, along with most other newspapers in the country. Senators receive thousands of letters opposing destruction of Hetch Hetchy Valley. But at the end of the year, Congress nonetheless passes the Raker Bill, allowing flooding of Hetch Hetchy Valley. The bill stipulates that the city could not sell water or power for resale. President Woodrow Wilson signs the bill on December 19. John Muir says he is “glad the fight for the Tuolumne Yosemite is finished,” and hopes that “some sort of compensation must surely come out of this dark damn-dam-damnation.”
  • 1914 – Last Sierra Club outing to Hetchy Hetchy Valley. John Muir dies on December 24.
  • 1923 – Construction of O’Shaughnessy Dam completed, at a cost of $100 million. One unidentified source says the construction cost the lives of 67 men and one woman [this may have included a woman shot during a 1922 robbery in a brothel in the Hetch Hetchy construction town of Groveland – see Wurm, pg.137.]. According to Robert W. Righter in his book, The Battle over Hetch Hetchy,  on pg. 146 Righter states that “During the more than 3 years it took to complete the dam, 17 Utah Construction Co. workers died in accidents.”   Righter cites Ted Wurm, Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Railroad, 1990 (reprint of 1973 edition), pg. 136, but that is not the correct page in the 2000 revised edition.  But on page 164, Righter gives a different number:  “A valley was gone and 89 lives had been lost in construction” which is the number Wurm gives on page 235 of his book, for lives lost in constructing the entire Hetch Hetchy water system (not just the dam). This figure may have included the estimated 7 to 11 men who lost their lives on June 8, 1930 and a subsequent series of twelve dead on July 17, 1930 from explosions in the Hetch Hetchy tunnel near Calaveras dam in the Alameda county hills, far from Hetch Hetchy Valley itself. (“Eleven Killed in Explosions,” San Pedro News Pilot, 9 June 1930) or earlier deaths occurring as early as 1922 in tunnel construction.
    The project transports water 160 miles by gravity alone to customers in San Francisco and 32 other Bay Area communities.
  • 1924 – San Francisco voters approve a bond proposition for $10 million to pay for a series of tunnels that would deliver water through the Sierra and Coast Range mountains.
  • 1928 – San Francisco voters approve $24 million in bonds to help further the Hetch Hetchy Dam Project.
  • 1934 – Completion and dedication of the Hetch Hetchy system; water is first delivered to San Francisco from O’Shaugnessy Reservoir..
  • 1938 – The O’Shaughnessy Dam is raised to its current 430-foot height.
  • 1947 – San Francisco voters approve $25 million for a second pipeline for the Hetch Hetchy system.
  • 1955 – Sierra Club publishes a film, Two Yosemites, filmed and narrated by David Brower, a passionate portrayal of the beauty of Yosemite Valley contrasted with the ugliness of the low-water Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.
  • 1961 – San Francisco voters approve $115 million in bonds to expand the existing hetch Hetchy system.
  • 1970 – Sierra Club board of directors recommends removal, rather than an expensive restoration or reconstruction, of both O’Shaughnessy Dam and Eleanor Dam. The Board also stated: “The question of how to remove O’Shaughnessy Dam, and the problems of how to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley to its once magnificent grandeur, should be studied in depth. The studies should include the problem of plant succession as the valley is drained, the removal of silt, and the practical alternatives available to San Francisco if the Hetch Hetchy water supply is lost.”
  • 1987 – Secretary of the Interior Don Hodel suggests removal
    of O’Shaughnessy Dam and the restoration of Hetch Hetchy
    Valley. Sierra Club Board re-affirms its 1908 policy, and adopts a further policy supporting taking a “long view” of the issue, and endorsing feasibility studies. Sierra Club establishes a national Hetch Hetchy Task Force with Sally Reid as chair.
  • 1988 – Legislative funding to study restoration of Hetch Hetchy is defeated in Congress.
  • 1990 – Sierra Club continues to advocate restoration; sponsors a display, “Restore Hetch Hetchy” at the Yosemite Centennial Symposium.
  • 1994 – Republican congressmen propose that the City of San Francisco should pay the federal government $25 million per year, since the city generates an average of $38 million annually from selling hydroelectric power from Hetch Hetchy to other municipalities. California Democrats in Congress kill the proposal.
  • 1997 – The Sierra Club’s California/Nevada Regional Conservation Committee establishes
    a Hetch Hetchy Task Force with Ron Good as chair.
  • 1998 – Harold Wood of the Sierra Club Hetch Hetchy Task Force creates a feature devoted to the restoration of Hetch Hetchy on the Sierra Club website.
  • 1999 – Leaders from several environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club, join together to form a new non-profit organization, Restore Hetch Hetchy,
    to focus exclusively on the goal of restoring Hetch Hetchy, and establish a website advocating restoration at http://www.hetchhetchy.org/.
  • 2000 – Restore Hetch Hetchy gains tax-exempt, tax-deductible status to pursue educational efforts.
  • 2001 – Restore Hetch Hetchy raises funds; hires Ron Good as Executive Director to further pursue a feasibility study for the restoration of Hetch Hetchy. Restore Hetch Hetchy invites people to join as members. Sierra Club Hetch Hetchy Restoration Task Force continues its efforts.
  • 2002 – October 19 – New York Times advocates feasibility study to see whether it would be economically and hydrologically feasible to remove the dam that created Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park; says San Francisco’s water needs could be met in other ways. [The NY Times seventh editorial on Hetch Hetchy, but the first in 89 years!
  • 2003 – Restore Hetch Hetchy releases a new video/DVD explaining its campaign to restore Hetch Hetchy. A University of California Master’s thesis indicates that it is feasible to restore Hetch Hetchy – the first of several recent studies to make this determination.
    View video on YouTube.
  • 2004 – Bush Administration proposes raising the rent for Hetch Hetchy from $30,000 to $8 million a year. The annual rent of $30,000 San Francisco pays for Hetch Hetchy has not changed since the 1920s. Nothing happens.
  • 2004 – September – Environmental Defense publishes a new study that shows that Hetch Hetchy can be restored in a way that would continue to supply the Bay Area with the same high-quality drinking water from the Tuolumne River. The study is accompanied by a new campaign and a virtual tour of Hetch Hetchy, narrated by John Muir himself.
  • 2004 – August – September. – Sacramento Bee publishes a series of 14 editorials and additional news articles, titled “Hetch Hetchy Reclaimed,” on the theme of restoring Hetch Hetchy. The series was written by Tom Philp, who in 2005 received a Pulitizer Prize for the series.
  • 2004 – November – California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Secretary of Resources announces the state will study restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite – Study will  look at costs for replacing water storage and economic benefits of restoring public access to unique valley, but will only use existing studies.
  • 2005 – Restore Hetch Hetchy publishes a feasibility study, Finding the Way Back to Hetch Hetchy.
  • 2005 – Sacramento Bee “Hetch Hetchy Reclaimed” series wins the 2005
    Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing
  • 2006:
    • July – California State government study of restoring Hetch Hetchy
      confirms earlier studies by Sierra Club, Environmental Defense, Restore Hetch Hetchy, and others, that restoration of Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park is feasible and practical, and can be achieved with no harm to San Francisco Bay Area water and power users and Central Valley irrigation districts. The debate now revolves around cost, not feasibility. Sierra Club Conservation Director Bruce Hamilton says that the battle over Hetch Hetchy Valley restoration ” illustrates the tenacity of this movement and the fact that the spirit and ideas and idealism of John Muir never died… It’s a piece of unfinished work that John Muir left to his heirs.”
    • October – Hetch Hetchy Informational Hearing.  Watch the complete three-hour October 10, 2006 Hetch Hetchy Informational Hearing held by the California Assembly Standing Committee on Water, Parks & Wildlife, from the webcast archive by The California Channel.
  • 2007 – January – Interior Department includes $7 million for further study
    of the benefits of restoring Hetch Hetchy in its proposed budget. In response, some politicians say they don’t even want to study the issue, while others say we need more information before making any decisions. Congress nixed the study proposal.
  • 2008 – Restore Hetch Hetchy’s Vision for restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley is succinctly and visually explained in a one minute YouTube video. Executive Director Mike Marshall explains that it is the Tuolumne River that provides San Francisco’s water supply, thus making feasible the draining Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park. Mark Cedarborg, RHH restoration experts explains visually how it is possible to restore the meadow and forest environments some 90 years after they were drowned.
  • 2009 – January – Restore Hetch Hetchy,
    which began as an offshoot of the Sierra Club’s Hetch Hetchy Restoration Task Force, hired a new executive
    director, Mike Marshall, who plans a new strategy in the effort to restore
    the valley. The group, moving from Sonora to San Francisco, plans to launch a grassroots campaign to educate San Franciscans on the environmental destruction wrought by Hetch Hetchy dam. The first step is explaining that tearing it down won’t mean losing their water. Once they understand that, we think the country’s self-appraised “greenest city” will change their thinking about continuing to destroy a valley in a major National Park. The group also begins “Muir’s March,” an annual fundraising effort where hikers take pledges for hiking the terrain of John Muir’s inspiration each summer.
  • 2010 – Campaign organization Restore Hetch Hetchy continues the effort to
    educate the public, and especially the citizens of San Francisco,
    about the viability of restoring Hetch Hetchy while continuing to
    supply water to San Francisco. The group reports the following poll results
    of Registered Voters of San Francisco:
    Margin of Error: 4% +/- July 2010

    If Restoration = Increase in Water/Power Rates
    42% Support
    43% Oppose
    14% Undecided

    If Restoration = NO Increase in Water/Power Rates
    59% Support
    31% Oppose
    9 % Undecided
    Poll conducted by David Binder Research, Inc.

  • 2011– July – The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for
    determines in re-licensing proceedings that the Don Pedro Reservoir’s
    effect on the Tuolumne River cannot be separated from that of other
    system reservoirs – in particular Lake Lloyd, Lake Eleanor and the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, all owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco. FERC concurred with comments filed by Restore
    Hetch Hetchy     as well as by other state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish and Game, and the State Water Board – recommending that the geographic scope of the environmental impact analysis for the relic en sing of Don Pedro extend upstream to Hetch Hetchy and downstream to the San Francisco Bay.
  • 2012 –
    • February – The San Francisco Examiner reports: Dam opponents eager to collect signatures for ballot measure
    • February – Sacramento Bee writes: Will San Francisco Vote to Drain Hetch Hetchy?
    • 2012 – November – Voters in San Francisco defeat a local ballot proposition, Proposition F, the “Water and Environment Plan” which proposed to have the City of San Francisco prepare a two-phase study that would evaluate how to drain the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir so that it can be restored by the National Park Service and identify replacement water and power sources. See official Voter Information Pamphlet (PDF) from DEPARTMENT OF ELECTIONS City and County of San Francisco www.sfelections.org which contains arguments pro and con the measure. The ballot measure asked for a study and nothing more. Could the dam be removed and could the needed water really be stored downstream? Is it feasible? What would it cost? The defeat does not mean the battle is over. Supporters of the group Restore Hetch Hetchy quickly regroup to continue the nearly 100 year fight.
  • 2013:
    January 22 – San Francisco Public Utilities Commission approved a plan to block the draining of Hetch Hetchy reservoir unless the 26 cities and water districts in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alameda counties that receive Hetch Hetchy water give their approval. Although San Francisco owns and operates the system of pipes, dams and tunnels, only one-third of the users of the water live in San Francisco. The other 1.7 million live on the Peninsula, in parts of San Jose and Alameda County. The 5-0 vote, which came after 13 minutes of discussion at a low-profile commission meeting on January 22, 2013, means that unless the move is overturned by a lawsuit, environmental groups can no longer hope to drain the reservoir simply by winning approval from the voters of San Francisco. See Effort to Drain Hetch Hetchy Dealt a Major Setback (San Jose Mercury News, January 24, 2013)
    August 1 – Heyday Books publishes Hetch Hetchy: Undoing A Great American Mistake by Kenneth Brower. The book is a graphically rich exploration of the pitched battle over an environmental tragedy and an inspiring reverie of a possible future.
    December 2 – Two former California Attorney Generals, a conservative and a liberal, in an op-ed titled Restore Yosemite? It can be done, join to argue in a guest editorial in the Los Angeles Times that we should take the opportunity of the centennial of the Raker Act to reform San Francisco’s water system and return Hetch Hetchy Valley to the American people.
    December 12 –
    Barbara Mossberg publishes an inspiring blog on HuffingtonPost titled “Restoring the Lovely Hetch Hetchy Valley Restores More Than A National Park.
    December 19 – Earth Island Journal publishes A Vision for Restoring Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley By Kenneth Brower. The article is an excerpt from Brower’s latest book, Hetch Hetchy: Undoing A Great American Mistake, imagining what restored valley would look like.
    December 19 – The San Francisco Examiner, publishing on the 100th anniversary of the approval of the Raker Act to dam Hetch Hetchy, reports 100 years after Raker Act was signed, the fight over Hetch Hetchy dam continues.
  • 2014:
    On November 4, California voters passed a 7.5 billion dollar water bond. Some conservation groups supported the bond, others opposed it. One possible project, however, that could be partially funded by the bond, is the expansion of Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County Such an expansion could be part of a plan to replace Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and make restoration possible.
  • 2015 – April 21 – The advocacy group Restore Hetch Hetchy files a lawsuit against the city of San Francisco asserting that asserts Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Reservoir violates California law. The plaintiff intends to show that the value of restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley is greater than the cost of making the water system improvements that would be necessary to move the point of diversion for Tuolumne River flows downstream of Yosemite National Park. The lawsuit asserts that as a result, continued operation of the reservoir is a violation of the prohibition against unreasonable methods of diversion in Article X, section 2 of the California Constitution. In a statement announcing the lawsuit, Restore Hetch Hetchy said: “As passionate as we are about restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley and Yosemite National Park, we are equally committed to ensuring a reliable water supply for San Francisco and other Bay Area communities. Therefore, our petition allows time for San Francisco to develop and implement a plan to assure that not one drop of water is lost and all hydropower is replaced with renewable sources.”The Sierra Club has issued the following statement in response to any inquiries about this lawsuit: “The Sierra Club is not a party to the Restore Hetch Hetchy lawsuit, and we have no comment on the substance of this particular case. Historically, however, the Sierra Club supports the valley’s restoration, as we have since we led the fight against damming Hetch Hetchy 100 years ago. Sierra Club founder John Muir called Hetch Hetchy Valley “a grand landscape garden, one of Nature’s rarest and most precious mountain temples.”
  • 2016
    • Tuolumne County Superior Court Judge Kevin M. Seibert ruled on April 28, 2016 against Restore Hetch Hetchy’s lawsuit following a demurrer and motion to strike from the City of San Francisco. Restore Hetch Hetchy has appealed the case to the California Court of Appeals, joined by five amicus briefs led by various parties. The California State Water Board and Attorney General, argue that the courts should schedule a trial “to determine the reasonableness of San Francisco’s water diversion at Hetch Hetchy..” Other support in amicus briefs came from former Yosemite National Park Superintendents, environmental law professors from Stanford University, and several former California statewide officials. Newspaper editorials continue in favor of restoring Hetch Hetchy, such as the Sacramento Bee calling to Restore Hetch Hetchy Valley, Help Restore the World.
  • 2018
    • July 10, 2018 – California’s Fifth District Court of Appeal ruled  that San Francisco’s use of Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park as a reservoir need not comply with the California Constitution’s requirement that the “method of diversion” be reasonable.
    • July 22, 2018- Staff and Executive Committee of Restore Hetch Hetchy met with Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, asking him to consider returning Hetch Hetchy to Yosemite National Park and the American people. After the meeting, Secretary Zinke posted the following on Twitter: “Good meeting with Restore Hetch Hetchy. Taking a fresh look at different opportunities and options to restore public access and recreation to the valley.”
    • October, 2018 – California Supreme Court declined Restore Hetch Hetchy’s request for review of the appellate court’s earlier ruling, a proceural ruling letting stand the appellate court’s ruling that San Francisco need not fully comply with the reasonableness provisions of the California Constitution.
    • Justin Rawls premieres an opera, Two Yosemites, about the remarkable 1903 camping trip of President Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir, drawing rave reviews.
    • Advocates continue to work for the restoration of Hetch Hetchy. For example, student Jessica Driver wrote a most thoughtful op-ed piece advocating restoration of Hetch Hetchy in The California Aggie (November, 2017)
  • 2019

For a comprehensive history of this epic battle, still waging, see:The
Battle Over Hetch Hetchy: America’s Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism by Robert W. Righter (2005)
.

Hetch Hetchy: Undoing A Great American Mistake by Kenneth Brower (2013).