America’s Most Controversial Dam
The battle for Hetch Hetchy details the convoluted politics of American environmental history. Hetch Hetchy Valley is located within the boundaries of Yosemite National Park, though, adroitly secured by the city of San Francisco as a reservoir site. James Phelan’s imperial vision was to harness the valley as the final phase of human use. The exploitation of California’s natural resources is deep and can be rooted back in Spain’s successful colonization of California, as a means of imperial expansion. California exemplifies how the anthropocentric political sphere has caused environmental degradation.
The people of the Bay Area, middle and working-class alike, saw the investment in abundant, pure water to be in their best interest. San Francisco leaders desired hinterland hegemony and were supported by the commissioners to protect the city’s water interests from private entry. An ominous sign for Hetch Hetchy was approved by congress in 1901 through the Right-of-Way Act. “This legislation opened the park to municipal water exploitation by authorizing rights of way across California parks, as well as other government reservations in the state, for electrical plants and transmission lines, for telephone and telegraph lines, for canals and pipes, and as one critic put in, ‘for about any purpose whatever’”(27). Although the debate on Hetch Hetchy Valley was more prominent between 1908 to 1913, the federal government was promoting economic growth and urban development long beforehand. This suggests the initial interest of giving San Francisco the right to dam the valley rather than preserving the valley from development. “For about any purpose whatever” suggests the leniency of legislators and policies and a lack of protection for California’s natural landscape. Besides, the majority of California residents have been in favor of development.
The colonization of California represents an anthropocentric view. The gold rush was to promote white settlement and economic growth while massacring nearly 100,000 Native Americans in California. The horrific act of white dominance over nature and people of color has been revealed in the process of colonizing California. The exploitation of California’s natural resources continued unabated in the years leading to Hetch Hetchy. “From simple pan placer mining, to river mining, to quartz mining, to hydraulic mining, all shared in the need of water”(31). The priority of economic growth disregarded the abundance of resources. Mining operations required prodigious amounts of capital and water, and it was financially supplied by Montgomery Street in San Francisco. The battle to preserve the Hetch Hetchy Valley was powerless, considering the support from federal and state officials for previous natural exploitation. “Other viable sites had been rejected by the city engineers and attorneys because they offered a briar patch of legal entanglements and expenses”(44) reflects the error in environmental policy to protect National Parks. The development of damming Hetch Hetchy reflects the theory of the treadmill of production. Also, support for the anthropocentric approach is unsustainable.
The battle over Hetch Hetchy reveals the conflicting philosophies of America’s public land system. The debate whether to preserve or conserve the Hetch Hetchy Valley raised the different approaches to environmental management. John Muir and the Sierra Club argued for the preservation of America’s landscape from development and eager for Congress to protect it from destruction. However, all levels of government, local, state, and federal, supported the conservationist theory of land management through its funding and policies. Working against Muir’s ideology was a conservationist, Gifford Pinchot. Pinchot believes that the environment should be used to benefit society and this ideal could have been influenced by the growing urban population of San Francisco. As a close friend and adviser of President Theodore Roosevelt, he had great influence in determining the fate of the Hetch Hetchy Valley. The infamous quote by Pinchot, “Greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time,” is subjective for unsustainable development. Theodore Roosevelt granted the development of damming Hetch Hetchy Valley, recommended by Pinchot, to meet its growing population after the dam of the Tuolumne River in 1908. The relentless development, despite hundreds of individuals and organizations sending in petitions, represents the power held by federal officials.
The history of environmental law needs to be evaluated when discussing how the Hetch Hetchy dam came to be. The 1897 Organic Act “proclaimed that the federal government, following the Forest Commission’s recommendation, would preserve new public lands for the use and necessities of citizens in the United States”(NEH). In other words, this law represented the movement toward the conservationist theory of land management. Therefore, the battle against the damming of Hetch Hetchy Valley was bound to fail. Anthropocentric has been the center approach for California’s development. Although the battle over Hetch Hetchy Valley was lost. It raised public awareness about the importance of preserving nature and helped create the National Park Service in 1916.
Reflecting on these issues unto California in 2020, the state has almost 1,500 dams, and “nearly 190 reservoirs have lost more than 50% of their original capacity”(Skelton). California was worshiped as one of the most environmentally diverse and sustainable places to live, but its government has made that an idea of the past. Water remains essential as it was in the 1960s and California has the highest debt-to-income ratio in the country. “In 2019, California’s use of the Colorado River-- a major water source for Southern California’s cities and farms-- dropped to the lowest level in decades” (Pottinger). The unintended consequences of the previous conservation and anthropocentric approach have led California on a high-speed rail to unsustainability.
Beccaro, T. (2018, April 19). The Top Four Reasons California Is Unsustainable. Retrieved January 20, 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasdelbeccaro/2018/04/19/the-top-four-reasons-california-is-unsustainable/?sh=35a4fb93a239
Keel, L., Gillis, A., Heitman, D., & Hanson, A. (2020, Winter). Frenemies John Muir and Gifford Pinchot. Retrieved January 21, 2021, from https://www.neh.gov/article/frenemies-john-muir-and-gifford-pinchot
Pottinger, L. (2020, March 03). Why the Big Drop in California's Colorado River Water Use? Retrieved January 20, 2021, from https://www.ppic.org/blog/why-the-big-drop-in-californias-colorado-river-water-use/
Righter, R. W. (2006). The battle over hetch hetchy : America's most controversial dam and the birth of modern environmentalism. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libproxy.uoregon.edu
Skelton, G. (2019, March 04). Capitol Journal: California should stop thinking about more dams. The state is brimming with them. Retrieved January 20, 2021, from https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-skelton-water-storage-california-20190304-story.html
