旧金山的新水供应。

旧金山的新水供应。

The vital question for San Franciscans is not one of aestheticism but of their adequate protection from fire, of whose disastrous effects they have had the direct experience. But, just so long as the Spring Valley Water company enjoys the monopoly of supply San Francisco and the other bay cities with water, this anxiety over adequate fire protection will continue. The aggregate population of these cities is about 600,000, to which San Francisco contributes five-sixths. For such a population the existing sources of water supply arc altogether inadequate, and this trouble is added to by the fact that the supply and its sources are in the hands of a private company—the only one, except that other company that furnishes water to Oakland. Berkeley. Alameda, and others. In order to obtain possession of the systems of these companies San Francisco is willing to pay a fair price: but considerable opposition has been manifested to the project by a certain clique in the city which seems to be determined to tight the question to the last ditch. The greater city, however, is determined to secure a municipal supply, and. there are other sources in the shape of streams—not including the Tuolumne—flowing from the Sierras into the great San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys. There would be no great difficulty in securing the water, were it not for the fact that ali these streams have been appropriated for power, mining and irrigation purposes. so that, even if they could be secured, their acquisition would be a very costly matter. San Francisco, however, lias secured permission from the Federal government to impound waters in the Hetch-Hetchy valley, where those of the Tuolumne, which heads on Mounts Lyall, Dana and other mountain heights, and flow's through the Tuolumne meadows at an elevation of some nine thousand feet, and then falls into a canon twenty miles in length, at whose lower end the walls spread out and form the Hetch-Hetchy valley, the floor of which is almost level. At the lower end of the valley the walls are so close together as to render it a comparatively cheap and easy task to build a dam two hundred and fifty feet high with an almost perfectly level floor. The objections urged against this plan were based (1) on the beauty of the spit which it was contended would be entirely wiped out, if such a dam were to be built, and (2) the danger of the pollution of the watershed by excursionists and campers-out from San Francisco. The last objection is undoubtedly urged by the aesthetes as one intended to bolster up the first. As the headwaters of the Tuolumne cannot be reached by way of Hetch-Hetchy, another and a longer and roundabout route, only to be undertaken during three months in the year by the strongest and most enthusiastic mountain-climbers, must be followed, and of these there are not enough to contaminate the waters even in the slightest degree, and, if the head-waters are reached, which can be clone only in the late summer, after all the streams that run through the Tuolumne, have dried up that river falls with broken water into a twenty-two mile canon and the waters are thoroughly aerated before they reach Hetch-Hetchy. The pollution-theory is thus knocked in the head, and the Federal government by its action has taken the commonsense view that aestheticism and magnificent scenery must yield to the necessities of the people in the way of water supply.

The vital question for San Franciscans is not one of aestheticism but of their adequate protection from fire, of whose disastrous effects they have had the direct experience. But, just so long as the Spring Valley Water company enjoys the monopoly of supply San Francisco and the other bay cities with water, this anxiety over adequate fire protection will continue. The aggregate population of these cities is about 600,000, to which San Francisco contributes five-sixths. For such a population the existing sources of water supply arc altogether inadequate, and this trouble is added to by the fact that the supply and its sources are in the hands of a private company—the only one, except that other company that furnishes water to Oakland. Berkeley. Alameda, and others. In order to obtain possession of the systems of these companies San Francisco is willing to pay a fair price: but considerable opposition has been manifested to the project by a certain clique in the city which seems to be determined to tight the question to the last ditch. The greater city, however, is determined to secure a municipal supply, and. there are other sources in the shape of streams—not including the Tuolumne—flowing from the Sierras into the great San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys. There would be no great difficulty in securing the water, were it not for the fact that ali these streams have been appropriated for power, mining and irrigation purposes. so that, even if they could be secured, their acquisition would be a very costly matter. San Francisco, however, lias secured permission from the Federal government to impound waters in the Hetch-Hetchy valley, where those of the Tuolumne, which heads on Mounts Lyall, Dana and other mountain heights, and flow's through the Tuolumne meadows at an elevation of some nine thousand feet, and then falls into a canon twenty miles in length, at whose lower end the walls spread out and form the Hetch-Hetchy valley, the floor of which is almost level. At the lower end of the valley the walls are so close together as to render it a comparatively cheap and easy task to build a dam two hundred and fifty feet high with an almost perfectly level floor. The objections urged against this plan were based (1) on the beauty of the spit which it was contended would be entirely wiped out, if such a dam were to be built, and (2) the danger of the pollution of the watershed by excursionists and campers-out from San Francisco. The last objection is undoubtedly urged by the aesthetes as one intended to bolster up the first. As the headwaters of the Tuolumne cannot be reached by way of Hetch-Hetchy, another and a longer and roundabout route, only to be undertaken during three months in the year by the strongest and most enthusiastic mountain-climbers, must be followed, and of these there are not enough to contaminate the waters even in the slightest degree, and, if the head-waters are reached, which can be clone only in the late summer, after all the streams that run through the Tuolumne, have dried up that river falls with broken water into a twenty-two mile canon and the waters are thoroughly aerated before they reach Hetch-Hetchy. The pollution-theory is thus knocked in the head, and the Federal government by its action has taken the commonsense view that aestheticism and magnificent scenery must yield to the necessities of the people in the way of water supply.