The Battle Over Hetch Hetchy

A book I had read for another class was The Battle Over Hetch Hetchy. This book is a very informative novel describing the whole procedure of creating and building the “most controversial dam”, starting with the reasons why it was proposed, to the effort and time that went in to constructing such a debatable barrier. To begin, everything in the book was new information that I was eager to learn, as I never knew such a big part of the West Coast’s history included this decision. I found it very interesting that there were not two, but three sides to the decision of creating the dam; the Sierra Club was adamant about conserving the valley, while the city of San Francisco were desperate for a direct water source to the city. On top of both, the third position was the private industry behind the whole thing; these people did not care about the conservation of the valley or whether or not San Francisco would get a direct water source, they only cared about the income they would get from such a big project.

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