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Inventory of the Saline Water Barrier Collection, 1929-1963

Processed by Randal Brandt and Vanessa Yan. Water Resources Collections and Archives Orbach Science Library, Room 118 PO Box 5900 University of , Riverside Riverside, CA 92517-5900 Phone: (951) 827-2934 Fax: (951) 827-6378 Email: [email protected] URL: http://library.ucr.edu/wrca © 1999 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

Inventory of the San Francisco MS 84/3 1 Bay Saline Water Barrier Collection, 1929-1963 Inventory of the San Francisco Bay Saline Water Barrier Collection, 1929-1963

Collection number: MS 84/3

Water Resources Collections and Archives

University of California, Riverside Riverside, California Contact Information: Water Resources Collections and Archives Orbach Science Library, Room 118 PO Box 5900 University of California, Riverside Riverside, CA 92517-5900 Phone: (951) 827-2934 Fax: (951) 827-6378 Email: [email protected] URL: http://library.ucr.edu/wrca Collection Processed By: Randal Brandt and Vanessa Yan Date Completed October 1999 © 1999 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

Descriptive Summary Title: The San Francisco Bay Saline Water Barrier Collection Collection number: MS 84/3 Creator: Water Resources Collections and Archives Extent: 2 boxes (ca. 1 linear ft.) Repository: Water Resources Collections and Archives Riverside, CA 92517-5900 Shelf location: Water Resource Center Archives. Abstract: Collection of materials covering various saline water barrier plans for San Francisco Bay, with emphasis on the Reber Plan. Language: English. Access Collection is open for research. Publication Rights Copyright has not been assigned to the Water Resources Collections and Archives. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Water Resources Collections and Archives as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], The San Francisco Bay Saline Water Barrier Collection, MS 84/3, Water Resources Collections and Archives, University of California, Riverside. Access Points Reber plan. Biemond plan. Saline water barriers--California--San Francisco Bay.

Inventory of the San Francisco MS 84/3 2 Bay Saline Water Barrier Collection, 1929-1963 Salt water encroachment--California--Delta Region. Water resources development--California--San Francisco Bay Area. Bridges--San Francisco Bay (Calif.) Dams--San Francisco Bay (Calif.) Schedler, C. W. (Carl William) Reber, John, 1887-1960. Savage, John Lucian, 1879-1967. Scope and Content This collection consists of reports, correspondence, addresses, essays, news clippings, magazine and journal articles, maps, and drawings detailing several ideas and schemes for constructing salt-water barriers across San Francisco Bay. During the early 20th century, San Francisco Bay Area officials considered many different ideas for solving a variety of problems, including a dwindling supply of fresh water, congested roadways, insufficient means to handle trans-bay traffic, and the encroachment of saline waters into the upper San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. In response to these problems, several visionary individuals and groups developed multi-purpose plans for the area. By far, the most popular and well-publicized plan was the Reber Plan. Originally called the San Francisco Bay Project, the plan was developed by John Reber, a former schoolteacher and theatrical producer. Reber's plan would create two fresh water lakes in the upper and lower bays by means of earth and rock fill dams between Richmond and Marin County, and San Francisco and Oakland. Over these dams would pass high-speed roads and railways. The Reber Plan claimed it would provide 20,000 acres of additional filled land, increase the deep-water harbor by 50 miles, and conserve 2,400,000 acre-feet of fresh water annually. Critics pointed out the plan's destruction of commercial fisheries, increased sewage disposal problems, adverse effects on the ports of Oakland, Stockton, and Sacramento and flooding potential. Although it attracted considerable attention, even that of the editors of the Saturday Evening Post, the Reber Plan was opposed by the State of California, the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers and was never adopted.

Reber Plan

Box Box 1, Joyous map of the Reber Plan. [n.d.]. Folder 1 Physical Description: 2 pieces. Scope and Content Note New Year's card sent out by Mr. and Mrs. John Reber; includes Reber's business card.

Folder 2 Reber, John. Statement on behalf of the Reber Plan.[1946]. Physical Description: 89 leaves, typescript. Scope and Content Note Includes biographical information and Reber's history of the development of his plan.

Folder 3 Legislation related to the Reber Plan. 1949-1953. Physical Description: 5 pieces. Scope and Content Note Bills introduced to the California legislature, includes: AB 1838; AB 488; 527; AB 3489; and SB 416.

Inventory of the San Francisco MS 84/3 3 Bay Saline Water Barrier Collection, 1929-1963 Reber Plan

Folder 4 Resolutions supporting the Reber Plan. 1941-1959. Physical Description: 30 pieces. Scope and Content Note File includes resolutions and endorsements of the California legislature, the Mission Optimist Club, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the United States Congress, the California Farm Bureau, the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau, the St. Francis Kiwanis Club of San Francisco, the Shafter (Calif.) Chamber of Commerce, the Madera County National Farm Loan Association, the Madera County Board of Supervisors, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, San Francisco District, and others.

Folder 5 Statements and addresses by Brigadier General Philip G. Bruton on the Reber Plan. 1948-1951. Physical Description: 7 pieces. Scope and Content Note Includes presentations made at the Irrigation Districts Association of California, Semi-Annual Convention, the Farm Bureau Land and Water Western Regional Conference, and the Dolwig Committee of the California Assembly on Tidelands Reclamation and Development, Related Traffic Problems and Relief of Congestion on Transbay Crossings.

Folder 6 California Water, Transit and Defense Project, Inc.1952. Physical Description: 4 pieces. Scope and Content Note Correspondence pertaining to the Reber Plan between Henry E. Tweed and Bernard A. Etcheverry, brochure entitled Water for 30 million Californians, and memoranda.

Folder 7 Allen Engineering Associates, Inc.1952-1955. Physical Description: 7 pieces. Scope and Content Note Correspondence, maps, brochures, and proposals chiefly related to "The High Line" Toll Expressway and Water Pipe Lines.

Folder 8 C. W. Schedler file. 1946-1955. Physical Description: 3 pieces. Scope and Content Note Includes Comments on the Reber Plan, The Reber Plan: data taken from report of the Joint Army-Navy Board on an Additional Crossing of San Francisco Bay, and Salinity control barriers in the San Francisco Bay, which discusses the Reber Plan, the Biemond Plan, and other barrier plans.

Folder 9 California Development Program. [n.d.]. Physical Description: 5 pieces. Scope and Content Note Materials lobbying for construction of salt water barriers "to accomplish the double purpose of conserving water plus solving trans-bay land transportation for all time to come."

Folder 10 Pacific Rural Press.1947-1953. Physical Description: 6 pieces. Scope and Content Note Reprints of articles published in California Farmer, letters written by editor John E. Pickett, etc.

Inventory of the San Francisco MS 84/3 4 Bay Saline Water Barrier Collection, 1929-1963 Reber Plan

Folder 11 Miscellaneous statements, addresses, comments, correspondence, etc., related to the Reber Plan and other saline water barrier plans for San Francisco Bay. 1949-1962. Physical Description: 10 pieces. Scope and Content Note Includes: Statement on the Reber Plan to the Senate Committee on Public Works, San Francisco,Dec. 12 1949, by William Q. Wright; Statement by the Bureau of Reclamation relative to the water problems of the San Francisco Bay Area,Dec. 1949; Recreational aspects of the Reber Plan,Dec. 5, 1949, by Miss Josephine D. Randall, San Francisco Superintendent of Recreation; Testimony by Col. Dwight F. Johns, Division Engineer, before the hearings of Senate Subcommittee on Rivers and Harbors and Flood Control, San Francisco, Dec. 12, 1949; Statement before the Fact-Finding Committee of the California Assembly on Tidelands Reclamation and Development, Related Traffic Problems, and Relief of Congestion on Transbay Crossings, San Francisco, Mar. 7-8, 1951, by John E. Pickett; Representative sites for salt water barriers below Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta,Oct. 16, 1952, by T. R. Simpson; Statement of comments and proposals concerning California water shortage, Bay Area reclamation, and transbay crossings,June 9, 1959, by Andrew C. Swanson; Barriers in the San Francisco Bay system,Apr. 29, 1955, by Walter G. Schulz; Salt routing in a tidal estuary,[1956?], by Don H. Nance; San Francisco Bay barrier study,[1962], by W. J. Homan.

Folder 12 The Savage report.1951. Physical Description: 3 pieces. Scope and Content Note Summaries, comments, etc. on Report on development of the San Francisco Bay Region, by John L. Savage and International Engineering Company, focusing on the portions of the report dealing with the Reber Plan, by C. W. Schedler,John E. Pickett, and R. F. Kelker, Jr.

Folder 13 Press releases announcing hearings, meetings, publications, etc., related to the Reber Plan. 1950-1954. Physical Description: 10 pieces.

Folder 14 Maps, diagrams, etc., of the Reber Plan. 1942-1954. Physical Description: 16 pieces.

Folder 15 Magazine articles, reprints, etc., on the Reber Plan. 1930-1958. Physical Description: 22 pieces. Scope and Content Note Includes: The salt water barrier, by Ben Allen, published in Pacific Purchasor,Apr. 1930; San Francisco Bay Project, published in Western Construction News,Mar. 1942; The Reber Plan, by Dan Cameron, published in California Engineer,Dec. 1947; They want to rebuild San Francisco Bay, by Frank J. Taylor, published in the Saturday Evening Post,Nov. 18, 1950; The great San Francisco Bay bridge fracas: ol' man Reber, he jest keeps rollin' along, published in Fortnight,Nov. 26, 1951; The Reber Plan, by Loren Salladay, published in San Jose State Engineer,Dec. 1954; etc.

Folder 16 Newspaper clippings on the Reber Plan and saline water barriers. 1946-1958. Physical Description: 2 folders.

Inventory of the San Francisco MS 84/3 5 Bay Saline Water Barrier Collection, 1929-1963 Reber Plan

Box Box 2, Nishkian, L. H. Folder 17 Report on the Reber Plan and bay land crossing to Joint Army-Navy Board, San Francisco, August 12-15, 1946.San Francisco: Real Estate Association of San Francisco, Inc. [distributor], 1946. Physical Description: 1 v., typescript. Scope and Content Note Includes reprints of articles appearing in San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco News, Engineering News-Record, Pacific Rural Press, and San Francisco Progress.

Folder 18 Schedler, C. W. Disadvantages of the Reber Plan presented before Joint Army-Navy Board on Second Bay Crossing, San Francisco, California, August, 1946. Physical Description: 13 leaves, typescript, bound.

Folder 19 Allin, B. C. Analysis of the Reber Plan for hearing before Joint Army-Navy Board on Second Bay Crossing, San Francisco, Calif., August 12, 1946. Physical Description: 50 leaves, typescript. Scope and Content Note Statement of consulting engineer against the Reber Plan.

Folder 20 Schedler, C. W. Comments on the Reber Plan.Dec. 1949. Physical Description: 24 leaves, typescript, bound. Scope and Content Note Prepared for Sen. Sheridan Downey at the hearing of Public Works Committee in San Francisco, California.

Folder 21 Savage, John L. Report on development of the San Francisco Bay Region.San Francisco: International Engineering Company, Inc., 1951. Physical Description: ca. 140 leaves, typescript (mimeo.), bound. Scope and Content Note Prepared for the Fact-Finding Committee of the California Assembly on Tidelands Reclamation and Development, Related Traffic Problems and Relief of Congestion on Transbay Crossings,Jan. 1951. Includes significant discussion of the Reber Plan and recommendations for modification.

Miscellaneous Saline Water Barrier Materials

Box Box 2, Cushing, Paul J. Folder 22 Salt water barriers in the San Francisco Bay.Mar. 6, 1953. Physical Description: 6 leaves, typescript. Scope and Content Note Address presented before the American Society of Civil Engineers, at San Francisco, California. Discusses various barrier plans, including the Reber Plan, Savage Plan, etc.

Folder 23 Cushing, Paul J. Analysis and report on a salt water barrier dam across north San Francisco Bay below . Mar. 25, 1953. Physical Description: 10 leaves, typescript. Scope and Content Note Report developed with the assistance and concurrence of Warren H. McBryde,John Reber, Capt. O. W. Swainson, Gen. Philip G. Bruton and others. Discusses several possible sites.

Inventory of the San Francisco MS 84/3 6 Bay Saline Water Barrier Collection, 1929-1963 Miscellaneous Saline Water Barrier Materials

Folder 24 American Society of Civil Engineers, San Francisco Section, Committee on Bay Barriers. Bibliography on San Francisco Bay barriers.[1954?]. Physical Description: 13 leaves, typescript.

Folder 25 Oakland Chamber of Commerce, Industrial Water Committee. Summary of Walker R. Young report on the salt water barrier project below confluence of Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, California. Dec. 1, 1930. Physical Description: 32 leaves, typescript.

Folder 26 C. C. Walker file. 1920-1930. Physical Description: 5 pieces. Scope and Content Note Walker's plan was to build a barrier dam across the instead of a bridge. Includes correspondence, pamphlet ( Dam - bridge, which?), etc.

Folder 27 Commonwealth Club of California.1929-1930. Physical Description: 8 pieces. Scope and Content Note Reports, addresses, remarks, etc., related to salt water barriers presented to various sections of the Club. Includes The salt water barrier, published in Transactions of the Commonwealth Club of California, vol. 24, no. 9 (Dec. 31, 1929).

Folder 28 Analyses of proposals considered by the Hoover-Young Commission as solutions to the salt water encroachment problem in the upper reaches of San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. 1930. Physical Description: 2 pieces (37 leaves). Scope and Content Note Letter reports to C. W. Schedler, President of the Association of Water Users of Contra Costa and Solano Counties, Pittsburg, Calif., dated Dec. 8th and Dec. 19th, respectively, written by H. W. Crozier, Consulting Engineer.

Folder 29 Report on Sacramento, San Joaquin & Kern Rivers, California : prepared under provisions of H.Doc. no. 308, 69th Cong., 1st sess. Appendix "D", Tidal currents & silt. [1930?]. Physical Description: 52 leaves, typescript (photocopy). Scope and Content Note Includes: Study of tidal currents and silt movements in the San Francisco Bay Area with particular reference to the effect of a salt water barrier upon them / by C.I. Grimm, Principal Engineer.

Folder 30 Study of tidal currents and silt movements in the San Francisco Bay Area with particular reference to the effect of a salt water barrier upon them. Study of the design and operation of a salt water barrier in the San Francisco Bay. [1930?]. Physical Description: ca. 86 leaves, typescript. Scope and Content Note "Prepared in connection with report upon Sacramento, San Joaquin and Kern Rivers under provisions of House Document 308, 69th Cong., 1st sess."

Inventory of the San Francisco MS 84/3 7 Bay Saline Water Barrier Collection, 1929-1963 Miscellaneous Saline Water Barrier Materials

Folder 31 Water problems of California. 1953-1955. Physical Description: 3 pieces. Scope and Content Note Includes: Salt water barriers in the San Francisco Bay, by B. L. Nishkian (presented at San Francisco Convention, Mar. 3-6, 1953, Waterways Division, American Society of Civil Engineers); Water problems of California, by O. W. Swainson (comments made in Sept. 1955 on the feasibility of construction of barriers in the San Francisco Bay system; discusses the Biemond Plan).

Folder 32 Bay Barriers, Incorporated, Petaluma, California. 1952-1962. Physical Description: 4 pieces (ca. 20 leaves). Scope and Content Note Correspondence, addresses, etc., of Beaven J. Badger, President.

Folder 33 San Francisco Salinity Control Barrier Investigation of the Water Project Authority of the State of California.1953-1954. Physical Description: 4 pieces. Scope and Content Note Investigation authorized by the Abshire-Kelly Salinity Control Barrier Act of 1953. Includes: Statement with regard to the San Francisco Salinity Control Barrier Investigation, by Herbert A. Howlett and second and third progress reports of the Board of Consultants.

Folder 34 Tomasini, T. A. A positive program, 1920-1955: a combined road and water system for California: exhibits & data: Tomasini Combined Projects.[1955?]. Physical Description: 16 leaves, typescript. Scope and Content Note Includes copies of correspondence.

Folder 35 United States. Army. Corps of Engineers. San Francisco District. Comprehensive survey of San Francisco Bay and tributaries, California : summary of appendices, exhibits and supplements.July 1963. Physical Description: 25 leaves, typescript. Scope and Content Note Survey examines several aspects of the feasibility of constructing salt water barriers. Includes: Chronological development of comprehensive San Francisco Bay survey.July 1963.

Inventory of the San Francisco MS 84/3 8 Bay Saline Water Barrier Collection, 1929-1963