How San Francisco Sacrificed a Valley in Yosemite for Water and Power

The electrical energy that powers San Francisco ’s streetlight , schools , and international airport begins as a torrent of H2O inside — of all places — the supposed natural chancel that is Yosemite National Park . A century ago , a pristine vale was sacrificed so that San Francisco could go along to survive .

The Hetch Hetchy Power System is still responsible for San Francisco ’s municipal power , keeping the lights on in public buildings and the appurtenance sprain for the MUNI transportation organisation . This vast art object of infrastructure comprises a dike , three powerhouses , the company township of Moccasin ( which is completely owned by San Francisco ) , several substations , and C of miles of tycoon line of reasoning connect the metropolis to its lifeblood . A parallel system of pee pipes hold water from Yosemite into San Francisco .

Last summertime , San Francisco - based artistJenny Odellset out to see this organisation hiding in plain sight . Her projectPower Tripdocuments a reverse journeying , following the path of electricity backward from the city to Yosemite . She painstakingly traced the power lines using Google Maps ’s satellite view , map out the course that she afterwards take by car .

( We ’ve featured her workplace onsatellite image cutoutson Gizmodo , too . )

The route accept her preceding suburbs , vineyard , orotund expanses of grass , parking lots , and , ultimately , onto outback backroads as she dumbfound closer to the origin full stop . vast manmade social organization rose in austere dividing line out of nature .

“ To a person entirely unfamiliar with with contemporary civilization,”she writes,”it would seem obvious that the column and pipes ( the Kirkwood penstock ’s vertical drop being totally baffling to the eye , describable only as grand ) are monument . ” Yet her very presence aroused suspicion — both in the suburbs of Fremont and in the remote powerhouse near Yosemite , where ranger vehicle tailed her car .

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The penstock at the Kirkwood powerhouse , where water flows down to power turbines .

One of the strangest deal wasMoccasin , the ship’s company townsfolk less than twenty miles from the westerly edge of Yosemite . “ It felt very not receive , ” she said to me , “ I get the decided effect I was n’t supposed to be there . ”

Owned by the City and County of San Francisco , Moccasin was created to house faculty who keep the powerhouse nearby . Every house is indistinguishable , with the same cap of ruddy tile .

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Above : Moccasin Powerhouse , below : the house in Mocassin

For Odell , the experience illuminated how easy it was for massive infrastructure to enshroud — and how suspicious it might seem when someone went look , even for entirely unobjectionable reasons .

But to infer how our lives pertain to large movements of resources and energy around world — to be environmentally conscious , really — postulate looking at infrastructure .

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“ base is the point at which something that ’s so big it ’s hard to understand in the end amount down to your ordered series and you may see it , ” she tell . A tripping switch in San Francisco is where everyday life intersects with the immense national power grid .

Top : Old Mission Park in Fremont , middle : farm near Modesto , bottom : Warnerville substation

I first became aware of Hetch Hetchy last summertime , when wildfires in Central California began worrying masses in San Francisco . The same reservoir behind the dekameter that powers the urban center also cater it with piddle , and ash tree from the fire could contaminate the drinking provision . “ It ’s inconceivable to separate water from power , ” says Odell , who is work on another labor link up to water .

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Lack of water was a constant problem in the other days of San Francisco . After the devastating fires of the 1906 temblor , the metropolis look high and down for a honest rootage of water . As luck would have it , the idealistic location happened to be in the heart of Yosemite , a National Park created to preserve nature less than two ten in the first place . Over the protestation of environmentalists like John Muir , a dyke was establish and a vale flooded . You might call back this as asacrificial landscape , a vale destroy so that San Francisco could thrive . Even a National Park is not spar .

In late years , there ’s been a push to dismantle the dekameter and bushel the valley . There are other possible author of body of water for San Francisco , but theenvironmental argument against restorationis about exponent . Hetch Hetchy’s1.7 billion kilowatt hoursof hydroelectric tycoon every year are a comparatively clean-living informant of tycoon . The damage is already done , the forfeit made . Instead of deflect our eye , we should look at it .

The dkm in Yosemite

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