The restored ceiling of the Sunol Water Temple. The empty sections were never completed [1]
1922 map showing the pipelines of the SVWC and the Sunol Water Temple
The San Francisco Water Department is an agency in San Francisco that provides water service to residents of the San Francisco Bay Area. The San Francisco Water Department privately holds substantial amounts of undeveloped land in many parts of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Since the mid-19th century much of the Alameda Countywatershed was owned by a private enterprise, the Spring Valley Water Company (SVWC), which held a monopoly on water service to San Francisco.[2][3]
Municipal efforts to buy out the SVWC had been a source of constant controversy from as early as 1873, when the first attempt to purchase it was turned down by San Francisco voters because the price was too high.[6] Other sources claim that as one born into wealth and classically educated, Bourn was partially motivated by a sense of civic responsibility.[7]
Prior to construction of the Hetch Hetchy aqueduct, half of San Francisco's water supply, approximately 6 million gallons per day passed through the Sunol temple.[8] The SVWC, including the temple, was purchased by the City of San Francisco in 1930 for US$40 million.[4][6]
^ ab Hanson, Warren D. (1994). San Francisco Water and Power: A History of the Municipal Water Department and Hetch Hetchy System, 3rd edition, San Francisco, CA: City and County of San Francisco. OCLC31224846.
^ Hanson, Warren D. (2005). San Francisco Water and Power: A History of the Municipal Water Department and Hetch Hetchy System, 6th edition, San Francisco, CA: City and County of San Francisco. OCLC60658054.
^ Brechin, Gray A. (1999). "Water Mains and Bloodlines", Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 72-73. ISBN 0520215680.
