The water is delivered by a gravity-based system and aqueduct to the Bay Area. According to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir can store as much as 117 billion gallons for the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System, which serves San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and San Mateo counties.
Does San Francisco still get water from Hetch Hetchy?
San Francisco draws its water from two major watersheds — the Tuolumne, which includes the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, Cherry Lake and Lake Eleanor, and the Alameda and Peninsula watersheds. Hetch Hetchy, a reservoir located in Yosemite National Park, provides about 85% of the city’s water supply.
Where does Hetch Hetchy get its water?
Hetch Hetchy water travels 160 miles via gravity from Yosemite to the San Francisco Bay Area. The remaining 15 percent of water comes from runoff in the Alameda and Peninsula watersheds. This local water is captured in reservoirs located in San Mateo and Alameda counties.
How does San Francisco get their water?
Our drinking water comes from a variety of protected sources carefully managed by the SFPUC. These sources include surface water stored in reservoirs located in the Sierra Nevada, Alameda County and San Mateo County, and groundwater supplies stored in a deep aquifer located in San Francisco and San Mateo counties.
Which city receives its freshwater supply directly from the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct?
San Francisco depends on Hetch Hetchy for its water. The city’s direct access to a large amount of stored water means that even when precipitation levels are lower than average, residents don’t start seeing mandatory water restrictions right away.
Can you swim in Hetch Hetchy?
Water Quality: Swimming and boating are prohibited in Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in order to maintain a clean source of drinking water.
Will Hetch Hetchy ever be restored?
The vision of Restore Hetch Hetchy is to return to the people Yosemite Valley’s lost twin, Hetch Hetchy – a majestic glacier-carved valley with towering cliffs and waterfalls, an untamed place where river and wildlife run free, a new kind of national park.
Does San Francisco own Hetch Hetchy?
The Hetch Hetchy Water and Power System is owned and operated by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. It provides on average about 265,000 acre-feet of water to 2.6 million people in 29 Bay Area cities spread across Santa Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda, and San Mateo counties.
Does San Jose get water from Hetch Hetchy?
The Hetch Hetchy Watershed provides most of the SFPUC water supply.
Where does South San Francisco get its water?
The South San Francisco District, normally receives over 80% of its water from the SF RWS from 11 turnouts off the San Andreas and Crystal Spring pipelines, with the remaining water pumped from 8 local district wells.
Is Hetch Hetchy water good?
Well, the good news is that our famed Hetch Hetchy supply is good to the last drop after all. The EWG report on the San Francisco City Water System (which excludes the Presidio and Treasure Island, for the record) records only nine types of contaminants, and only three at potentially alarming levels.
What is the greatest threat to San Francisco’s long term water supply?
The more fire, the greater the threat to the water quality, the dams and other hydroelectric equipment that keep San Francisco sated.
What is the Hetch Hetchy controversy?
Between 1908 and 1913, Congress debated whether to make a water resource available or preserve a wilderness when the growing city of San Francisco, California proposed building a dam in the Hetch Hetchy Valley to provide a steady water supply.
How do you think the water from Hetch Hetchy dam can generate electrical power for San Francisco?
She says the water first leaves Hetch Hetchy through the O’Shaughnessy Dam. Then it travels through a series of mountain tunnels. Along the way, it goes through a hydroelectric dam that generates enough electricity to power about 17 percent of San Francisco’s electricity needs.
How much water is in Hetch Hetchy today?
Currently, the reservoir is holding 93 billion gallons and continues to rise. The outlook calls for water storage to grow to 117 billion gallons, which is full capacity. During a normal year, snowmelt into the reservoir is enough to fill it completely three times.
Where does Santa Clara get its water?
Imported water
About 55 percent of Santa Clara County’s water supply comes from hundreds of miles away – first as snow or rain in the Sierra Nevada range of northern and eastern California, then as water in rivers that flow into Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta or directly to water conveyance systems.
Are there bears in Hetch Hetchy?
We headed north to Hetch Hetchy to see what those waterfalls were looking like. We kept a lookout for rattlesnakes and bears along the trail and had a surprising encounter with one of these.
Why is bear spray not allowed in Yosemite?
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Bear spray is actually considered a weapon according to the park’s regulations. According to Yosemite’s official website: “the possession, use, or discharge of pepper spray (including bear spray), pellet guns, and BB guns in Yosemite National Park is prohibited.”
Does the Hetch Hetchy have fish?
You’ll find rainbow, brook and brown trout in the reservoir, and can fish for them only from the shore. A successful spot to fish is on the stretch of Tuolumne River above the reservoir.
Will the Hetch Hetchy dam be removed?
The removal of the Hetch Hetchy dam and reservoir isn’t even in the planning stages yet; the measure on November’s ballot simply asked voters to earmark money for research and design of a new water system to take the place of the reservoir.
Could we dismantle Hetch Hetchy dam in Yosemite?
“The state of California Department of Water Resources report confirms that dismantling O’Shaugnessy Dam and draining the Hetch Hetchy reservoir are unwarranted and the cost is indefensible, particularly given the tremendous infrastructure needs facing our State,” the senator said in July 2006.