A HIGH PRICE TO PAY FOR WATER-APROPOS

OF THE GRANT OF THE HETCH HETCHY

VALLEY TO SAN FRANCISCO FOR A RESERVOIR.

in Century Magazine (1908)

      Too little was said at the White House conference of the conservation of one of our chief resources, our great natural scenery, though Mr. Horace McFarland made an impassioned appeal for its protection as a national asset. This is in no sense a local question. The Palisades and Highlands of the Hudson, the White Mountains, the Adirondacks, Niagara, the Yellowstone Park, the Arizona Canyon (to name but the chief of such treasures), belong to the whole country, and their invasion by special interests or their diversion to commercial uses should be a matter of the most vigilant scrutiny.

      The Secretary of the Interior, for reasons which doubtless appear to him good and sufficient, and with the approval of the President, has made over to the city of San Francisco, on certain conditions, as a reservoir for its water supply the wonderful Hetch Hetchy Valley, one of the most beautiful gorges of the Sierras, which, as part of the Yosemite National Park, was set aside in 1890, by reason of its scenery, for the recreation and use of all the people. This action has, on the face of it, the authority of a congressional provision (of February 15, 1901) by which the Secretary of the Interior may grant water privileges in the three national parks of California, "if not incompatible with the public interest." Whether the United States Supreme Court would hold  that such authority extends to the destruction to so large an extent of the original purpose of the reserve may yet be the subject of adjudication.

      In a matter relating to public lands the presumption is in favor of any course taken by President Roosevelt, Secretary Garfield, and Forester Pinchot. As our readers know, we have vigorously supported their enlightened services to the cause of forest conservation, as we have the services of preceding administrations. It was in this magazine that the movement for the creation of the Yosemite National Park first took public form in 1890, and the chief reason urged upon the Public Lands Committee for making the reservation-and we know whereof we speak- was to rescue from private invasion and for public use the rare beauty of the Hetch Hetchy and of the Canyon of the Tuolumne River, which flows through it. We therefore have particular regret that we do not find satisfactory the reasons officially given for the administration's extraordinary step, which, logically, would place the great natural scenery of the country at the service of any neighboring city which  should consider its appropriation necessary or even desirable.

      Let us say at once that we hold human life more sacred than scenery, than even great natural wonderlands, vastly as they contribute to save life and promote happiness; and if that were the issue, if San Francisco could not otherwise obtain an abundant water supply, we should be willing to dedicate to that purpose not only Hetch Hetchy, but even the incomparable Yosemite itself. But this is not the contention of Secretary Garfield in the official document granting the request. The administration's position is not that the step is a last resort, that no other source is adequate, but that Hetch- Hetchy    affords the most abundant and cheapest available supply of pure water. Even this is stoutly denied by the opponents of the scheme, who contend, moreover, that a dozen other adequate systems may be found. Eminent and disinterested engineers have declared the present supply excellent and capable of ample development, as the water companies claim, and since the city fixes the water rates, and at need may condemn and acquire these sources at reasonable cost, there would seem to be no dangerous "monopoly." Indeed, the permission to dam the beautiful valley into a lake is conditional upon the previous exhaustion by the city of the resources of Lake Eleanor, which is also in the national park. Other conditions are attached and compensations agreed upon which are believed by the secretary to be safeguards of the public interests, with the important omission, however, to provide safeguards against the destruction of the scenery; but the fact remains that of this great reservation, which is as large as the State of Rhode     Island, the northern third-for the watershed of the valley even above the Tuolumne Meadows must go with the valley itself-is to be withdrawn from the use of the people of the whole United States and given to the city of San Francisco. This involves a new principle and a dangerous precedent, and is a  tremendous price for the nation to pay for San Francisco's water, and burden of proof that it is necessary is upon those who advocated the grant. It is not enough that it should be thought merely desirable.

   It is idle to attempt to discredit such defenders of the public's previous rights in the valley as John Muir and many other members of the Sierra Club and other like organizations by calling them "sentimentalists" and "poets." Cant of this sort on the part of people who have not developed beyond the pseudo-"practical" stage is one of the retarding influences of American civilization and brings us back to the materialistic declaration that "Good is only good to eat." Most of those who oppose the grant live in San Francisco and vicinity and are deeply   interested in the future of that redoubtable city; but they know the growing vogue of the few camping grounds of the health-giving park, into which, in the torrid and dusty summer, the people of the lowlands swarm in "the pursuit of happiness;" they know the exceptional beauty of the Hetch Hetchy, only surpassed in the Sierras by the neighboring Yosemite and by the distant and not easily accessible Kings River Canyon; they know also-to meet on its own ground the argument of cheapness-the money value of California's great natural attractions and that once to destroy the beautiful valley floor by flooding will be to render it irrecoverable.

       There is one ground of hope that the danger may be averted. By the time it can be demonstrated that Lake Eleanor is not adequate, it is likely to be generally recognized that a pure-water supply need not depend upon  mountain resources, but may be obtained by filtration from streams of less quality. Meantime the citizens of San Francisco, who (alone of Californians) are to vote upon the question, will do well to exhaust every other possibility of meeting their needs before giving their consent to the ruin of one of their imperial State's greatest natural treasure. We are confident that this issue would be the one most approved by the officials at Washington, who from conscientious motives have given assent to local official demands.