From what I have read, Trinity gets more of its water from snow melt than many of the others. Love easy to read and understand information. Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and Water System [21] Miwok names are still used for features, including Tueeulala Fall, Wapama Fall, and Kolana Rock. Contact information: Yosemite National Park [5] The valley was slowly becoming known for its natural beauty, but it was never a popular tourist destination because of extremely poor access and the location of the famous Yosemite Valley just twenty miles to the south. [24] It is likely that the edible grass was blue dicks. Generation at the Kirkwood power plant would depend on the natural flow of the Tuolumne River, and would be significantly diminished during late summer and fall. In 1967 the Robert C. Kirkwood Powerhouse started commercial operation followed by a New Moccasin Powerhouse in 1969 when the Old Moccasin Powerhouse was taken out of service. [citation needed], The Hetch Hetchy Valley began as a V-shaped river canyon cut out by the ancestral Tuolumne River. Water System - SFPUC Hours Unlike other areas of Yosemite, the road to Hetch Hetchy is open only during daylight hours. I love it and use it regularly. Hoffman observed a meadow "well timbered and affording good grazing", and noted the valley had a milder climate than Yosemite Valley, hence the abundance of ponderosa pine and gray pine. Curious why Shasta lake seems to be making big gains in water coming in and Trinity not so much? The blue line indicates the reservoirs water level one year ago today. CHERRY LK NR HETCH HETCHY CA. Station ID Elev Latitude Longitude County Operating Agency; TRINITY R: TRINITY LAKE: CLE: 2370 : . Units are in kaf, thousands of acre feet. Kudos to the designers. Water in California is a complex topic. The Great Alaskan Land Fraud and the Pinchot-Ballinger Controversy caused both Richard A. Ballinger and Gifford Pinchot to resign and be fired respectively. This is a marimekko (or mekko) graph which may take some time to understand if you arent used to seeing them. Ive been meaning to search for aquifer levels. over the past few days. Launching a campaign for the protection of the valley, they maintained that another location for a reservoir could be found outside of the national park. As the grazing of livestock damaged native plants in the Hetch Hetchy Valley, mountaineer and naturalist John Muir pressed for the protection of both valleys under a single national park. If you are on a computer, you can hover your cursor over a reservoir and the dashboard at the top will provide information about that individual reservoir. It updates hourly using data from the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) website, giving an up-to-date picture of California reservoir levels. Visualization of Extreme Wealth. Agriculture and recreation are limited in the immediate vicinity of the reservoir due to its protected status, but nearby areas offer opportunities for hiking, fishing, and camping. If you click on the "list" button in the top right of the dashboard, it will show a list of the reservoirs (in order of size from largest to smallest) and you can check which ones you would like to display. Hetch Hetchy is accessible only by car. [12] During the last glacial period, the Tioga Glacier[13] formed from extensive icefields in the upper Tuolumne River watershed; between 110,000 and 10,000 years ago Hetch Hetchy Valley was sculpted into its present shape by repeated advance and retreat of the ice, which also removed extensive talus deposits that may have accumulated in the valley since the Sherwin period. Hetch Hetchy Valley: Battle To Restore, History & Recreation Another not monitored by the State? This site is a great tool, especially as we try to climb out of these drought years. People go to Yosemite for many reasons. Arg. Its going up very slowly. The dam and reservoir, combined with a series of aqueducts, tunnels, and hydroelectric plants as well as eight other storage dams, comprise a system known as the Hetch Hetchy Project, which provides 80% of the water supply for 2.6 million people. Local News Despite Record Drought, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir Levels At 92 Percent June 9, 2015 / 5:17 PM / CBS San Francisco Great resource! Mountain Tunnel, a key . Hetch Hetchy is on the main stem of the Tuolumne River and is part of the Tuolumne watershed. In addition, the purity of the water is such . 2009-06-01 Interactive California Reservoir Levels Dashboard - Engaging Data Supporters of the dam countered that a reservoir in Hetch Hetchy would offer tremendous social and economic benefits. Restore Hetch Hetchy Glen Canyon and Hetch Hetchy | Restore Hetch Hetchy This local water is captured in reservoirs located in San Mateo and Alameda counties. The National Park Service concluded that two years after draining the valley, grasses would cover most of its floor and within 10 years, clumps of cone-bearing trees and some oaks would take root. Saved to my favorites now. Said San Francisco resident William Denman in 1918, "The first time I went into the Hetch Hetchy the mosquitoes were intolerable. The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail is a 1,210-mile (1,950 km) trail extending from Nogales on the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, through the California desert and coastal areas in Southern California and the Central Coast region to San Francisco. Current conditions of Lake or reservoir water surface elevation above NAVD 1988, Lake or reservoir water surface elevation above NGVD 1929, and Reservoir storage are available. It takes a fair amount of work to make graphs compared to other more plug-and-play libraries but its very customizable, which is a plus. DWR is one of many local, State and Federal entities that dictate water releases. Pipelines 1 and 2 cross the San Francisco Bay to the south of the Dumbarton Bridge, while pipelines 3 and 4 run to the south of the bay. [17] The valley's abundant plants provided nourishment for mule deer, black bears and bighorn sheep. The dam was built in the early 20th century to provide water and hydroelectric power for San Francisco. All of this work is nothing short of brilliant. the reservoir stores some 117 billion gallons of water and provides the San Francisco Bay Area with 180 million gallons per day. According to the U.S. Forest Service, the lakes watershed is ~920,000 acres. The prominent summit on the right is Kolana Rock (5,772'), situated across the reservoir from Hetch Hetchy Dome (6,197'). The road to Hetch Hetchy is closed from October to June. This is the dilemma with Californias water storage setup. https://cdec.water.ca.gov/dynamicapp/QueryDaily?s=HTH Its currently listed on this page as 29kaf full, but the usgs.gov page below says Hetch Hetchy is at 299.7kaf full. Its fluctuating between ~107% and ~20% from one hour to the next (reading 107.6 atm). I wonder if you can get data on CA groundwater levels and do simple data updates. https://engaging-data.com/ca-reservoir-level/ Usually with warm ARs, you get a dramatic increase in inflow, which can fill even very large reservoirs relatively quickly, like Oroville in 2017. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. In November 2012, San Francisco voters soundly rejected Proposition F,[86] which would have required the city to conduct an $8 million study on how the flooded valley could be drained and restored to its former state. PDF Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System Water Supply and Delivery Status 4,698 Proponents of the dam replied that out of multiple sites considered by San Francisco, Hetch Hetchy had the "perfect architecture for a reservoir",[43] with pristine water, lack of development or private property, a steep-sided and flat-floored profile that would maximize the amount of water stored, and a narrow outlet ideal for placement of a dam. 24hr Change. During the winter months, they let water out of the reservoirs in anticipation of large storms. San Francisco applied to the United States Department of the Interior to gain water rights to Hetch Hetchy, and in 1908 President Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of the Interior, James R. Garfield, granted San Francisco the rights to development of the Tuolumne River. This is a great and very thoughtfully designed web site! I havent spent much time looking at it but that data is on the CDEC website. ft, Historical average is near unattainable these days. By Phillip G That said, most of its outflow makes its way down Feather River (via Rock Creek Reservoir) and ultimately into Orville. Due to its increasing population, San Francisco was already facing chronic water and power shortages. Lake or reservoir water surface elevation above NGVD 1929, ft Many examples of red-barked manzanita can be seen along the Hetch Hetchy Road. [8], Meadow plants unavailable in the lowlands were particularly valuable resources to these tribes. Plus its a high elevation reservoir, so should fill more later from snowpack, doesnt fill as fast from rainfall. The overall capacity of Isabella Lake is 568,000 acre-feet. Site identification number Each site in the USGS data base has a unique 8- to 15-digit identification number. The summer months are really where we have the opportunity to achieve those savings.". Then it has the appearance of something filling up, while still providing all the detail. when levels receded to Also a little nit. The Hetch Hetchy Power System consists of three hydroelectric powerhouses: Moccasin, Kirkwood (pictured right) and Holm. Nate, thanks for the insight. (Beth LaBerge/KQED) S 2007 If we get a hot early summer and the snow melts rapidly they will likely using the spillway to keep lake levels down. Hidden in Yosemite National Parks peaceful northwest corner, Hetch Hetchy Valley is a treasure worth visiting in all seasons. Isabella is filling quite slowly in order to test out the new $500 million spillway. Thinking more about it. Over the last week the lake has received ~67,000 acre-feet, mostly from the lower portion as the temperature above 5000 feet has barely gotten above freezing of late. So with that as a caveat were likely on our way to low 90s percent full California wide around 1 July this year (is my estimate). But I would never have imagined how to put all the important information into a single plot. Some simply marvel at some of the world's most spectacular granite walls and tallest waterfalls. So on Jan 10 were at 82% of the average for Jan 10. Have you looked into that side of the water management equation? Curt, Good point re the colder weather dropping more snow instead of rain at higher elevations this year. Really appreciate the work you did to build this graph. Water Aug 15, 2021 Glen Canyon and Hetch Hetchy Valley Reservoir levels have dropped as a result of the drought gripping much of the American West. I live in the central valley. This was helpful to project seasonal trends & storm impacts. Hollister, CA 95023. It is also the amount of water in a cube that is 352 feet per side (about the length of a football field). The Hetch Hetchy reservoir, which supplies water for San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area, was at 77% of its 360,000-acre-feet storage capacity in January compared to 73% in. Bay Area: Do You Know Where Your Water Comes From? | KQED Oct 5, 2022, 9:18 PM Save Is the reservoir low like most in California, such that a hike to Wapama Falls might not be as nice? [67], Those in opposition of dam removal state that demolishing O'Shaughnessy Dam would take away a valuable source of clean, renewable hydroelectric power in the Kirkwood and Moccasin powerhouses; even if measures such as seasonal water diversion into the powerhouses were employed, it would only make up for a fraction of the original power production. [26], In the early 1850s, a mountain man by the name of Nathan Screech[27] became the first non-Native American to enter the valley. Hetch Hetchy water level? - Yosemite National Park Forum O'Shaughnessy Dam is a 430-foot (131 m) high concrete arch-gravity dam in Tuolumne County, California, United States.It impounds the Tuolumne River, forming the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir at the lower end of Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, about 160 miles (260 km) east of San Francisco. [35] Muir, who himself had briefly worked as a shepherd in Hetch Hetchy, was known for calling sheep "hoofed locusts" because of their environmental impact. From hydrology analysis to planning your next adventure, our maps make it easy. Spring and early summer bring brightly colored wildflowers, including lupine, wallflower, monkeyflower, and buttercup. Below 4000 feet it is melting, but there is relatively little. Amid a worsening drought, water supplies at one important reservoir are are currently Storage change is roughly 2(inflow-outflow) to give an idea of inflow when the data isnt there. O'Shaughnessy Dam (California) - Wikipedia The long battle over Hetch Hetchy asked Americans to weigh the true cost of progress. I see many of the local canals flowing with lots of water. Ill pass it along to friends. They are releasing water into the canals. The Hetch Hetchy Road begins just outside of the park on Highway 120, near the Big Oak Flat Entrance Station. Heres an example of that data for Shasta, where you can see the daily inflows and outflows: So many facets beautifully chartered. Snowy winter days give adventurous visitors a chance to explore on skis or snowshoes. function reloadiframes(){
[8], While its cousin Yosemite Valley to the south had permanent Miwok settlements,[25] Hetch Hetchy was only seasonally inhabited. It could be the 180% of historical average of snowpack, which will be melting in a couple months. Hetch Hetchy is a valley, a reservoir, and a water system in California in the United States.The glacial Hetch Hetchy Valley lies in the northwestern part of Yosemite National Park and is drained by the Tuolumne River.For thousands of years before the arrival of settlers from the United States in the 1850s, the valley was inhabited by Native Americans who practiced subsistence hunting-gathering. Within 50 years, vegetative cover would be complete except for exposed rocky areas. The overall storage is said to have dropped by 57.4 to 56.4 (or 302 kaf). It has no natural inflow or out flow. Hetch Hetchy to Wapama Falls and Rancheria Falls (Yosemite National [54][55], After passing through the powerhouses, Hetch Hetchy water flows into the 167mi (269km) Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct which travels across the Central Valley. It was the only tool that I could find that would allow me to make a vertical marimekko graph. Hetch Hetchy Reservoir California Fishing, Camping, Boating Hi Keith, you could de-select the large reservoirs from the menu at the top right. The imputed motive was to divide the environmental movement: to see residents of the strongly Democratic city of San Francisco coming out against an environmental issue. The proportion of blue to brown will show how full it is, while the red line shows the historical level that reservoir is typically at for this date of the water year. The final phase was completed in 1938, raising the height of the dam to 430 feet. "[19], People have lived in Hetch Hetchy Valley for over 6,000 years. Gray pine, incense-cedar, and California black oak grow in abundance. Is that from melting snow and rain water coming from the mountains and filling it up? Cherry LK NR Hetch Hetchy CA - USGS Water Data for the Nation Wondering why Trinity seems so relatively unresponsive to fill. It used to be full (and beyond). however, Ill update the code to include it soon. How come the totals disagree with the cal map graphic? //this function is called from the javascript from within the iframe after the contents of iframe are loaded (and after an additional 150ms delay)
Thank you for the time and effort in creating the graphs. permitted on the narrow, winding Hetch Hetchy Road. https://www.turnto23.com/news/local-news/army-corps-of-engineers-monitoring-isabella-dam between those who wish to retain the dam and reservoir, and those who wish to drain the reservoir and return Hetch Hetchy Valley to its former state.