The morning call., 1890-12-24
THE WATER SUPPLY,
About That Which Comes From
Spurs of Mount Hamilton.

NILES, Dec. %, 1S90-How MANY San
Franciscans are aware of the source or
sources OF the water supply for such great
city? The subject has been impressed upon
the minds OF Niles people rather forcibly,
IN one way and another, within the past
two years. In the northern spurs OF Mount
Hamilton two tiny streams rise, and, bub-
bling and boiling over mighty powders, the
two-the Alameda and Calayeras streams
unite at The Forks Ia famous camping
ground into one whirling, dancing stream,
gathering up each tiny, tIickling streamlet
on its northern tip through jagged gorges,
piacdly winding close to the hiIlsides
through the lovely Sunol Valley, then turns
sharply to the west, and seeking the only
natural pass through the strip of Coast
Range hills, dashes through the Eight-mile
Canyon under bridge, round high bluffs.
emerging again into the lovely Alameda
Valley, south of Niles about an eighth of
mile, singing on to the bay, another eight
miles or more. The Niles Canyon, from the
little town of Sunol clear through to Niles,
Is filled in summer with the white tents of
campers. sometimes TO the number of 1000.
The wagon-road crosses and recrosseS the
stream as many as seven times, and nature
each year renews her beauties, for the little
helpless stream in summer rises to mighty
torrent in winter, completely obliterating
the 70 adway and making the canyon i'm
passable except by train. Each side of the
stream. from Niles (Which lies Immediately
at the western end of the canyon)
clear to the bay, on either side
III varying widths, lies some of the most
productive soil in the State. and here are
the famous orchards of this county. This
soil is from twenty to forty feet in depth,
OF the finest alluvial, resting upon gravel
bed, which is likewise a sort of lake living
as 1t we're in bed of clay and of varying
depths. This lake Of gravel is fed directly
tom the Alameda stream, there being three
or four sinks" between the canyon and the
bay. and large part OF the water drains
through these sandy sinks into the gravel
below. Wells dug in the circuit of this lake
have all common level, aud last but not
least, the orchards lying over this lake re-
ceiye this underground irrigation. That
tins is true was amply proven, because within
three weeks from the time the water was
turned into the pipes the stream was abso-
luteiy dry and the wells had dried up along
the creek border. The matter of injury to
orchards Is Yet in dispute, as last winter
was such wet season the results could not
be determined.
Quoting from the December Century, a
line or SO from Ranch and Mission Days
in Alta California" by Guadalupe Vallejo:
My father. Don }. j. Vallejo, about fifty
wears ago, made stone aqueduct and
several irrigation and mill di.ches from the
Alameda Creek, on which stream he built
an adobe fl0ur-mill, whose millstones were
brought from SPAIN" The mill sill stands
with its stones and the adobe house, near
Niles, both fallen to decay, but the stone
aQuedUct about 3 feet wide and or deep,
and mile in length, still exists, and laps
the stream more than a mile to the east,
carrying the water along the hillside toward
the old mill. When the Spring Valley Water
Company purchased the Alameda Creek and
tributaries, 1t also purchased all rights as
Tar west as Niles ana the old mill property.
About three years ago, after negotiating
Tor some time, they bought riparian rights
from Niles to the bay, aud at the he ad of
the stone aqueduct built dam. flte ring
houses, covered over the aQueduct which
was OF stone, Quarried out of the hillsldes
IN the canyon lwhere a fne-paying quarry
IS now sltuated), and digging an immense
trench thence along the thoroughfares to
the bay, laid three-foot boiler iron pipe,
carried it over the stream on a wire bridge
between the railroad and wagon bridge on
down to Dumbarton Point, where it was
carried across the bottom of the bay to the
other side, pumped up into reservoirs and
thence piped twenty miles or more into San
Francisco. The result in Niles Is that while
In the winter and spring the amount OF water
carried through the pipes is infinitesimal
compared to the stream-in the late sum-
mer and fall the water is gone from the
creeks and we miss 1t. The undertaking
was only completed year ago last past and
while the first few weeks Of that fall demon
strated the fact Of the dependence of the
wells upon the underground lake, which
receives its supply from the constant flow
of the streams, it will take two or three
years, ana last winter being SO remarkably
wet, 1t will take longer. to prove what Is off
and on the engrossing question OF the
Observation-Disclosures or not the orchards
will be affected by the loss Of the water?
Tho digging of the trench, laying and
joining Of the heavy pipe and covering 1t