Editing Hetch Hetchy (section)

===Damming===
{{main|O'Shaughnessy Dam (California)}}

In 1906, after [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|a major earthquake]] and subsequent fire that devastated San Francisco, the inadequacy of the city's water system was made tragically clear.
San Francisco applied to the [[United States Department of the Interior]] to gain water rights to Hetch Hetchy, and in 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of the Interior, [[James R. Garfield]], granted San Francisco the rights to development of the Tuolumne River.<ref name="Hanson">{{cite web
|url=http://centerwest.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/gradnonhanson.pdf
|title=The Hetch Hetchy Letters: If a Group of Intellectuals Argues in a Forest, and then that Forest is Submerged Under Water, Does Their Argument Matter?
|publisher=Center of the American West
|author=Hanson, Jason L.
|access-date=2013-05-30
|archive-date=2014-07-02
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140702135055/http://centerwest.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/gradnonhanson.pdf
|url-status=dead
}}</ref> This provoked a seven-year [[natural environment|environmental]] struggle with the environmental group [[Sierra Club]], led by [[John Muir]]. Muir observed:<ref name=muir/>

<blockquote>Dam Hetch Hetchy! 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.</blockquote>

Proponents of the dam replied that out of multiple sites considered by San Francisco, Hetch Hetchy had the "perfect architecture for a reservoir",<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://humboldt-dspace.calstate.edu/bitstream/handle/2148/60/Davies.pdf?sequence=1
|author=Davies, Leslie T.
|title=San Francisco-Hetch Hetchy Valley Connection
|publisher=Humboldt State University
|date=May 2006
|access-date=2013-05-31}}</ref> with pristine water, lack of development or private property, a steep-sided and flat-floored profile that would maximize the amount of water stored, and a narrow outlet ideal for placement of a dam.<ref name="Hanson"/> They claimed the valley was not unique and would be even more beautiful with a lake. Muir predicted that this lake would create an unsightly "bathtub ring" around its perimeter, caused by the water's destruction of [[lichen]] growth on the canyon walls,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_21662101/hetch-hetchy-controversy-could-yosemites-second-valley-be|title=Hetch Hetchy controversy: Could Yosemite's 'second valley' be restored?|newspaper=San Jose Mercury News|first=Paul|last=Rogers|date=2012-09-30}}</ref> which would inevitably be visible at low lake levels.

Since the valley was within [[Yosemite National Park]], an act of [[United States Congress|Congress]] was needed to authorize the project. The U.S. Congress passed and President [[Woodrow Wilson]] signed the [[Raker Act]] in 1913, which permitted the flooding of the valley under the conditions that power and water derived from the river could only be used for public interests. Ultimately, San Francisco sold hydropower from the dam to the [[Pacific Gas and Electric Company]] (PG&E), which led to decades of legal wrangling and controversy over terms in the Raker Act.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Hetch_Hetchy_Story,_Part_II:_PG%26E_and_the_Raker_Act|title=The Hetch Hetchy Story, Part II: PG&E and the Raker Act|publisher=FoundSF}}</ref>

The controversy over Hetch Hetchy was in the context of other political scandals and controversies, especially prevalent in the Taft administration. The Great Alaskan Land Fraud and the [[Pinchot-Ballinger Controversy]] caused both [[Richard A. Ballinger]] and [[Gifford Pinchot]] to resign and be fired respectively. The openings in the Taft administration led to the eventual success of the Raker Act.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mansfield|first=Gabriel|date=2018|title=The Forbidden Water: San Francisco and Hetch Hetchy Valley|url=https://www.eiu.edu/historia/5Historia2018GMansfield.pdf|journal=Historia|volume=27|pages=24–31}}</ref>

Work on the Hetch Hetchy Project began in 1914. The {{convert|68|mi|km|abbr=on}} [[Hetch Hetchy Railroad]] was constructed to link the [[Sierra Railway]] with Hetch Hetchy Valley, allowing for direct rail shipment of construction materials from San Francisco to the dam site. Construction of O'Shaughnessy Dam began in 1919 and was finished in 1923, with the reservoir first filling in May of that year. The dam was then {{convert|227|ft}} high; its present height of {{convert|312|ft}} was achieved only later, in 1938.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tchistory.org/tchistory/Wonders_10.htm|title=Hetch Hetchy Water and Power System|publisher=Tuolumne County Historical Society|access-date=2013-05-26|archive-date=2015-03-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150318022530/http://www.tchistory.org/tchistory/Wonders_10.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> On October 28, 1934 – twenty years after the beginning of construction on the Hetch Hetchy project – a crowd of 20,000 San Franciscans gathered to celebrate the arrival of the first Hetch Hetchy water in the city.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://archives.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=3471|title=Idyllic Pulgas Water Temple still offers comfort for weary wanderers|newspaper=San Mateo Daily Journal|date=April 2, 2001|first=Paul D.|last=Buchanan}}</ref>

The Early Intake (Lower Cherry) Powerhouse began commercial operation five years before the O'Shaughnessy Dam was completed. The first Moccasin Powerhouse in [[Moccasin, Tuolumne County, California|Moccasin, California]] began commercial operation in 1925 followed by the Holm Powerhouse in 1960 (the same month the Early Intake Powerhouse was taken out of service).  In 1967 the Robert C. Kirkwood Powerhouse started commercial operation followed by a New Moccasin Powerhouse in 1969 when the Old Moccasin Powerhouse was taken out of service.  Finally, in 1988, a third generator was added to the Kirkwood Powerhouse.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://outside.chromoly.net/HHWP/chronology.htm|title=Chronology of San Francisco's Water Development|access-date=2010-09-23}}</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="144px">
File:Hetch-Hetchy-dam-site.jpg|The narrow defile at the lower end of Hetch Hetchy Valley where San Francisco planned to dam the Tuolumne River, seen in 1914 before construction began
File:O'Shaughnessy Dam in Yosemite NP.JPG|The same area seen today, with O'Shaughnessy Dam and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.jpg|Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
</gallery>