The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1924-02-05
WATER FOR FRANCISCO
WILL FLOW 1855 MILES
HETCH HETCHY PROJECT
WILL FURNISH 100000
GALLONS DAILY.
TO BE READY in FOUR YEARS

Project Was Begun in 1914, and VIII
Cost $2O0,OOO,oOO. Necessary to
Build City on Mountain Side to
Carry on the Work.
SAN FRANCISCO-Water from
the Hetch Hetchy source, in the high
SierraNevada mountains of California.
will flow $50 miles by gravity into the
reservoirs of San Francisco within
about four years, according to present
plans. The enormous Hech Hetchy
project, involving in all its phases
something like $200,000000 is nearing
completion, though a vast amount of
work still remains to be done.
The latest ecomic problem in con-
nection with the Hetch Hetchy found
expression in request by the San
Francisco Board of Supervisors to the
State Railroad Commission to appraise
and fix the value of two private power
distributing systems now operating in
the city
City May Enter Power Business
In obtaining the water supply from
the mountains the city developed, al
most as by-product, electrical energy
which, though incomplete, can be
wholesaled within year to distribut-
ing companies for approximately ST.
100000 annually. A faction of citi-
zens, however, is urging the city not
to dispose of this power, but instead to
go into the power business by pur-
chasing the existing distributing sys-
TENS and selling light and power to the
people directly. Other residents are
opposing such a municipal business.
The Hetch Hetchy supply will give
San Francisco and adjoining commune
ties 400,000,000 gallons of pure noun
tain water daily, generous supply for
a community of 100000 inhabitants.
Hetch Hetchy also will be capable of
generating more than l,000000,000
kilowatt hours of electrical power an
nually. The city now uses about
870,000,O00 kilowatt hours
Work Started in 1914.
The efforts to secure Hetch Hetchy
water date back to 1901. There was
opposition in the begin
ming and the contest was carried
through three national administra-
tons. Finally bill, giving the city
all it had asked, was signed in 1913 and
work was started in 1914.
One of the first steps taken by the
city after obtaining the site was the
construction of a standard guage rail-
road 68 miles long to haul supplies,
cement and materials. At the east end
of the railroad now stands O'Shaugh
messy dam, which turned the valley be-
hind it into a beautiful lake seven
miles long. 1t cost $6,647 1864. 1t
was built to last 20 centuries and is
a monument to City Engineer M. M
O'Shaughnessy, whose withdrawal
from a position paying him $4,000 a
year to carry through the Hetch
Hetchy project for San Francisco at a
salary Of $4,000 lends touch of senti-
ment to a matter made up otherwise
of engineering and financing. The
reservoir behind the dam will hold
81, 900, 100000 gallons, the largest ca
pacity of any city west of Chicago.
Three Power Plants.
Hetch Hetchy Valley is at an eleva-
ton of $500 feet above sea level. Be-
fore it was flooded its floor was clear
ed Of timber The reservoir area COW
ers 1,500 acres, with drainage area
of 100000 ares By wagon road IL
miles above Hetch Hetchy is Lake
Eleanor, another reservoir holding g.,
00,000000 gallons of water.
The water, after being used in two
power plants, will pass into tunnel
already completed 1873 miles long and
ranging in size from IS feet 4 inches
by IS feet 6 inches to 10 feet 3 inches
by 10 feet 8 inches. The tunnel cost
IS, 100000 Below this tunnel will be
Priest dam and the reservoir for the
great Mocassin creek power plant,
which. when completed next June, will
be able to produce 00,000,000 kilowatt,
hours of electricity annually, equaling
the present total supply of San Fran
cisco. The vertical drop of water for
this plant will be 1875 feet
Ultimately the city will furnish 20O,-
900 hydro-electric horsepower from
the Hetch Hetchy system.
81 Miles of Tunnels.
To bring Hetch Hetchy water to the
door OF San Francisco will require 81
miles of tunnels 10 feet 3 inches in
diameter, and 90 miles of large steel
)ipe f1umeway. The entire aqueduct
will be thus inclosed. There will be
10 pumping, all the water flowing by
gravity. The salt marshes on San
Francisco bay will be crossed on
restles and a tunnel will be built un-
Ter the bay channel.
The city controls for the project 420,-
100 acres of watersheds, has bought
700 acres for reservoir sites and other
purposes and acquired more than $50
niles of railroad right of way.
To carry on the work it was neces-
airy to build small city in the noun
aims, including an office building, hos