Construction Progress of the Hetch Hetchy Water Supply of San Francisco, California

O'Shaughnessy, M. M.

doi:10.1061/taceat.0003174

T. Am. Soc. Civ. Eng.

1922

DOI: 10.1061/taceat.0003174

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Construction Progress of the Hetch Hetchy Water Supply of San Francisco, California

M. M. O'Shaughnessy

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“…89 "It is to the advantage of San Francisco," he patiently explained to cost-conscious critics, "to begin as soon as possible to generate the power which is a by-product of the water development, so that the revenue from power sales can be used to pay interest and redemption charges on bonds, reducing the burden to be carried by the taxpayers on the water project." 90 Electricity revenues never covered anywhere near the project's total cost, but O'Shaughnessy arranged for at least part of Hetch Hetchy to be built on a pay-as-you-go basis.…”

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Bill and Mike: How Two Irishmen Slaked the Thirst of California’s Great Cities

Gendzel¹

2022

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How is it possible for almost 40 million people to live in a semi-arid coastal region of North America where rain falls unpredictably, and even then, in only one season of the year? How can California's warm, dry, sunny climate support a chain of vibrant, bustling conurbations along the Pacific Coast, teeming with multi-millions of people, despite the lack of any substantial fresh-water source within hundreds of miles? What daily marvels of hydraulic engineering are required to sustain California's two bestknown cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco, with nearly five million residents between them, plus over 20 million more in their metropolitan areas? And, most improbably of all, how did two immigrants from a small, impoverished, well-watered island halfway around the world solve two of America's toughest urban infrastructure problems by bringing water to California's parched metropoli more than a century ago? That rather incredible story is the subject of this chapter. 2California's water problems are well known, but poorly understood. TV news stories of drought-caused water shortages in California invite a simple knee-jerk response: why would anyone build big cities in a drought-prone area in the first place? 1 TV news viewers in other parts of the country are likely to change the channel in a huff, grumbling to themselves: "What were those crazy Californians thinking? What did they expect when they built cities in a desert? Don't they all have lawns and swimming pools anyway?" Some of these skeptics presumably build their own homes in flood or hurricane zones where they expect U.S. taxpayers to bail them out-literally, figuratively, and repeatedly-when the inevitable floods occur. 2 But aside from hypocrisy, what else is wrong with this common misconception regarding California's alleged lack of water to support its cities?

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Bill and Mike: How Two Irishmen Slaked the Thirst of California’s Great Cities

Gendzel¹

2022

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Construction Progress of the Hetch Hetchy Water Supply of San Francisco, California

Cited by 1 publication

References 0 publications

Bill and Mike: How Two Irishmen Slaked the Thirst of California’s Great Cities

Bill and Mike: How Two Irishmen Slaked the Thirst of California’s Great Cities

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