San Francisco Water Supply Progress

The first of May, 1928, is one of the reddest-letter days in the whole history of the water supply of San Francisco. On that day the voters of the City approved two bond issues of vital importance; one in the amount of $24,000,000 for the completion of the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct, the other for $41,000,000 to finance the purchase by the City of the works of the Spring Valley Water Company. The 24 Million Hetch Hetchy bonds carried; Yes, 93,396; No, 11,497; Spring Valley bonds carried; Yes, 81,377; No, 20,852. Acquisition of the private water company's property will terminate over fifty years of intermittent negotiation toward that end. Broad-gauge civic leaders have from the beginning favored the plan. Elections held in 1910, 1915, 1921 and 1927 gave large majorities in favor of the Spring Valley Company purchase but not the twothirds necessary to approve a bond issue. The principal lines of adverse argument were based on the fear of political interference in the management of the water business and the lack of a proper understanding of the need for thorough coordination between the Hetch Hetchy project with its sources nearly 170 miles distant, and the Spring Valley system with its reservoirs and watersheds near San Francisco and its distributing mains throughout the City. The new Hetch Hetchy bond issue provides for the construction of the remaining links in the aqueduct from the Sierra Nevada to the point of connection with the local system.