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dammed and the beautiful Hetch Hetchy Valley from being floodedll In the fall of 1912, the city presented a 400-page report on the project to every member of the United States Congress. The Spring Valley Water Company's vigorous op- position continued as it presented a rebuttal report to Congress. However, Congress was persuaded by the city and in 1913 passed the Raker Act authorizing the construction of Hetch Hetchy. President Wilson signed it into law on Decem- ber 19, 1913. The Hetch Hetchy project became functional in 1934 with the completion of a ISO-mile-long aqueduct extending from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir to Crystal Springs Reservoir in San Mateo County12 It was one of the first projects to take water that otherwise would have flowed into the Delta, and to transport the water around the Delta. Today the project supplies about 157,000 acre-feet of water per year, not only to San Francisco but also to other cities on the San Francisco Peninsnla. East Bay Municipal Utility District The principal water service agency in the East Bay area is the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD). From the 1840s until the early 1900s the East Bay was completely reliant on local sources, nearly depleting each source before it could develop a new one. The area suffered from both water quality problems and unreliable water deliveries. In 1906, the Peoples Water Company was incorpo- rated. Although its goal was to solve the water problems of the East Bay, dramatic population increases in tbe area made this goal unreachable. Peoples Water Company encountered financial diffi- culties, and in 1916 the East Bay Water Company was incorporated to bail it out. Soaring costs and the continued Wlfeliability of service prompted an election to determine whether the area should be served by a municipal utility district. EBMUD was established by the voters of the East Bay on May 8, 1923. EBMUD immediately began searching for a supply of water that it could import to meet the burgeoning needs of its ser- vice area. The nearest adequate water source was the Mokelumne River. An election in 1924 authorized the bonds for this project, and construction began in 1926. In June 1929, Mokelumne River water from the Pardee Reservoir reached the East Bay for the first time. 11 M. M. O'Shaughnessey, Hetch Hetchy-Its Origin and History, 1934, The Recorder Printing and Publishing Company. page 20, 24, 33-36. 12 Hetch Hetchy, pages 130-131. San Francisco's O'Shaughnessy Dam and Hetch Hetchy Reservoir San Francisco's Hetch Betchy aqueduct (150 miles long) was completed in 1934 and was one of the first projects to take water that otherwise would have flowed into the Delta. EBMUD = East Bay Municipal Utility District Chapter 1 A Brief History 9