Hetchy Assignment. Please ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS ASKED

Guadalupe Martinez

10/22/19

Environmental Science

Prof. Foreman

Hetch Hetchy Case Study

One: Initial Thoughts

Hetch Hetchy was a natural monumental sculpture consisting of rocks, water systems including rivers, such as Toulumne, small streams, waterfalls, alongside food plants and animals. Therefore, it was a life-supporting valley. Moreover, I would want to visit this area to explore other natural resources found in the famous landscape (Farmer & Righter, 2006). Similarly, I would admire visiting the place to study how human activities have affected the valley’s structure and purpose. More importantly, exploring the area is necessary to identify reasons for land ownership arguments that have existed for so many years.

Two: Dam Justification

The dam construction was justifiable after San Francisco’s earthquake fires. However, after the beginning and completion of the dam construction; the project could be questioned since the city’s violations of the Raker Act of 1913 passed by the United States Congress; unfortunately, the city has started unwanted commercial activities at Hetch Hetchy, such as privately selling the hydropower from the dam. Water security is one of the key reasons that might have motivated the dam construction; a dam can raise the water level higher than natural increase and thus, water availability for irrigation and municipal use in all seasons irrespective of climatic changes and rapid population increase (Null & Lund, 2006). Lack of commercial development in the area could also have attracted the personal interests whose aim was to convert the valley into a house and resource center. The commercial operation of the dam started as early as 1918 before even the construction began in 1919.

Three: Restoration

Firstly, it is appropriate to restore Hetch Hetchy because it will be flooded enough to accommodate public interests and end arguments between environmental organizations and people living around. Besides, restoring the valley would create similar tourists’ experience as that found in Yosemite National Park. Therefore, retaining the beauty found in the restored Hetch Hetchy could attract many tourists across America and globally, particularly due to its historical reputation. Interestingly, restoration is necessary as this could serve as a lesson and remind us about current environmental problems to make far-informed decisions in the future than our fore-starters (Null & Lund, 2006). Therefore, restoration can act as a warning to many others accustomed to violating the provided laws.

Four: Yosemite Congestion

Extremely high admittance fee or regulation of the number of visitors by Yosemite’s officials on a daily or yearly basis might discourage potential clients; although they could not reduce overcrowding by the loyal visitors willing to pay higher prices for the services. However, extreme regulations could chase the tourists away completely. Moreover, a restored Hetch Hetchy cannot ease congestion at Yosemite since it will offer the same experience in the national park (Null & Lund, 2006). Therefore, visitors will equally tend to visit the two valleys due to this similarity as well as closeness in their locations. In fact, joining Yosemite and Hetch Hetchy could increase overcrowding further restoration suggests there will be increased natural resources and thus, hiking the demand of millions of tourists.

References

Farmer, J., & Righter, R. (2006). The Battle over Hetch Hetchy: America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism. The Western Historical Quarterly, 37(4), 508.

Null, S., & Lund, J. (2006). Restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley: The role of modeling in policy. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union, 87(42), 449.