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Salt River Project
State: Arizona
Region: Lower Colorado Basin Region
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Salt River Project History (74 KB)
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General
The Salt River Project, located near Phoenix, Arizona, includes a service area of about 240,000 acres spanning portions of Maricopa, Gila and Pinal Counties in central Arizona. The land within the project is furnished a full irrigation water supply from the Salt and Verde Rivers and from 250 groundwater wells; about 26,500 acres are furnished supplemental irrigation water. The rivers are controlled by six storage dams, two of which were constructed by the Bureau of Reclamation. A diversion dam constructed by Reclamation serves 1,259 miles of canals, laterals, and ditches of which 842 miles are lined and piped. The power system includes five hydroelectric plants; three steam plants, two with separate combustion-turbine installations; and a combined-cycle plant. In addition, the Salt River Project participates in four coal-fired generating stations and the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, and built its own coal-fired station near St. Johns, Arizona. As of July 1983 (UPDATE????), the power system also included 1,533 circuit miles of transmission lines, 5,183 circuit miles of overhead distribution lines, and 11,146 cable miles of underground distribution lines.
History
Irrigation of the Salt River Valley began about 1867. The riverflow was erratic, varying from a small stream to enormous floods. During years of drought, the supply of water at low river stages was inadequate for the land in cultivation. River flows in excess of immediate needs or canal capacities were lost, due to lack of storage facilities. From 1867 to 1902, a number of diversion dams, canals, and laterals were constructed by private companies or through community effort. Difficulties caused by lack of water storage, inadequate diversion dams, and inequitable water distribution were so critical that many of the settlers left the valley. A committee was named to investigate the feasibility of a water storage system. A reservoir site located 80 miles from Phoenix, where Tonto Creek flowed into the Salt River, seemed the most practical. Such a reservoir would cost from $2 to $5 million. As a territory of the United States, Arizona was prohibited from assuming such a large-scale debt; private investors could not be induced to take on the financial risk necessary to construct the dam. The Salt River Valley Water Users` Association was incorporated on February 9, 1903, for the purpose of furnishing water, power, and drainage for the benefit of approximately 4,800 individual landowners.
Construction
Construction was started on August 24, 1903, and the first water was delivered in 1907. The original project system, composed of` Theodore Roosevelt Dam and Powerplant, Granite Reef Diversion Dam, and the improved main canals, was placed in service in 1909 and completed in 1911. The Salt River Valley Water User`s Association built Horse Mesa, Stewart Mountain, and Mormon Flat Dams during 1923-1930. On November 26, 1935, the association entered into a contract with the Bureau of Reclamation for the construction of Bartlett Dam, reconstruction or repairs to the spillways at Horse Mesa, Mormon Flat, Stewart Mountain, and Theodore Roosevelt Dams, and other improvements. All the work was started in 1936 and completed by 1939. In 1946, the Phelps-Dodge Corporation completed Horseshoe Dam on the Verde River under a water exchange agreement. From 1989 to 1998 (???), Reclamation modifyed several of the dams on the Salt and Verde Rivers. Irrigation water from the project helped transform a part of the Arizona desert into fertile farmland that produces millions of dollars worth of crops annually. The project delivers more than a million acre-feet of irrigation water to municipal, agricultural and urban irrigators in a 240,000-acre service area each year. Principal crops are wheat, grain sorghum, pasture, grain, alfalfa, barley, and citrus. (CROP DATA ACCURATE?) The Salt River Project, with an installed capacity of more than 5,000 MW, provides electric service to more than 700,000 residential, business and industrial customers in a 2,900-square-mile service area in parts of Maricopa, Gila, and Pinal Counties. Capacity assigned to flood control is 556,000 acre-feet. The Salt River Project has provided accumulated flood control benefits of $1,419,267,000 from 1950-1999. All reservoirs located on the Salt and Verde Rivers offer year-round boating and fishing for a variety of warmwater fish species. Waterfowl hunting is permitted in season. Theodore Roosevelt Lake contains a wildlife area and, as a wildlife refuge, is posted to permit hunting at certain times of the year. Theodore Roosevelt and Apache Lakes offer year-round motel rental facilities. Canyon, Saguaro, and Bartlett Lakes offer a variety of camping, picnicking, swimming, and other outdoor recreation opportunities. The Salt River below Stewart Mountain Dam offers outstanding trout fishing during certain times of the year. During 1993 the Salt River Project recorded 1,070,690 12-hour visitor days. (UPDATE??) The first hard-surface bicycle path placed on Salt River Project right-of-way was completed in 1975. The 11.5-mile Papago Loop Bicycle Path was made possible through an agreement between the project and the cities of Phoenix, Tempe, and Scottsdale. For specific information about any of these recreation sites, click on the name below. http://www.recreation.gov/detail.cfm?ID=1 http://www.recreation.gov/detail.cfm?ID=2 http://www.recreation.gov/detail.cfm?ID=3 http://www.recreation.gov/detail.cfm?ID=5 http://www.recreation.gov/detail.cfm?ID=6 http://www.recreation.gov/detail.cfm?ID=7 http://www.recreation.gov/detail.cfm?ID=8 Humanity`s resourcefulness inspired two attempts to draw life out of the desolation of Central Arizona`s Salt River Valley over the past 1,500 years. Building over the remains of an irrigation culture left behind by lost Indian tribe, the Hohokam, federal and private engineers of the early 20th Century adapted much when the United States Reclamation Service completed first its major work, the Theodore Roosevelt Dam. The scale of Reclamation`s plans separate the two efforts. The Roosevelt Dam was the Bureau`s first multipurpose undertaking, designed for flood control, irrigation storage and Central Arizona`s first hydroelectric power source. The dam stimulated area boosters to build Phoenix up from a desert outpost to the nation`s ninth largest metropolis in less than a hundred years. Hailed as an engineering triumph at its completion in 1911, the preliminary result of the Salt River Valley project was the creation of an agricultural oasis. The project`s ultimate consequence was the growth of one of the most urbanized areas in the United States anchored by a city whose name is synonymous with second chances -- Phoenix. The Salt River Project is located near Phoenix, and includes an area of about 250,000 acres. Project water comes from the Salt and Verde Rivers drains into a watershed area of 13,000 square miles. Roosevelt Reservoir, and five other private and Reclamation-built storage facilities (Horse Mesa, Mormon Flat, Stewart Mountain, Bartlett and Horseshoe) on the Salt and Verde Rivers form a continuous chain of lakes almost 60 miles long. Both rivers are controlled by six storage dams. The Theodore Roosevelt Dam and Reservoir on the Salt River is about 76 miles northeast of Phoenix in the Mazatzal mountains. A later Reclamation project, the Bartlett Dam and Reservoir, is located 48 miles northeast of Phoenix, and completed in 1939. Three other dams on the Salt River, Horse Mesa, Mormon Flat, and Stewart Mountain, were constructed by the Salt River Valley Water Users Association (hereafter known as the Association) between 1924-1930. Horse Mesa is located 65 miles northeast of Phoenix; Mormon Flat is 51 miles from Phoenix, and Stewart Mountain is 41 miles northeast of the city. An additional dam, Horseshoe, was built between 1944-46 by the Phelps Dodge Corporation under a contract with the Salt River Project. Horseshoe is located 58 miles from Phoenix on the Verde River. Built by Reclamation, Granite Reef Diversion Dam is four miles downstream of the confluence of the Salt and Verde Rivers, 22 miles east of Phoenix, and completed in 1908.(1) The valley`s climate is one of extremes. The long growing season of 304 days a year lures farmers to plant almost any crop. However, the annual precipitation of 7.7 inches, with most of it rainfall coming in the winter and early spring is inadequate for farming. Temperatures fluctuate from as low as 20 degrees up to highs of 120 degrees Fahrenheit. The blessings and bad fortune brought by these conditions meant different types of water storage and usage were necessary if agriculture was to succeed. Despite the dust, drought, unexpected and uncontrollable flooding and days of blazing heat, the Salt Valley had supported the Hohokam, a prehistoric people who were able to harness what nature had given them before the arrival of modern technology. The remnants of their canals and storage methods were the map leading to 20th Century development of the valley. Prehistoric irrigation in the Salt Valley is a saga of survival that concludes in mystery. It began around 200 B.C., when an Indian tribe irrigated the valley with water from the Salt River. The Pima Indians, have occupied the nearby Gila River Valley for the past 400 years, labeled the previous tribe `Hohokam,` meaning `the dead` or `those who have vanished.`(2) Archaeologists proclaim the efforts of the Hohokam to bring water to the desert to be the greatest irrigation feat by ancient man on the North American continent. The Hohokam dug nearly 250 miles of canals with stone hoes to irrigate corn, squash and cotton. Some canals measure 30 feet from crown to crown and 10 feet in depth. Except for periodic cleaning, water ran in the ditches for most of the year. One of the few examples of an irrigation culture in early North America, the Hohokam population numbered around 4,000 by 700 A.D. in settlements located in what are now modern Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa. Over the next 500 years, the Hohokam built more than 20 villages and 10 separate canal systems. For reasons known only to the Hohokam they left the valley around 1400 A.D. Speculation among historians and archaeologists surrounding the Hohokam exodus is that they may have faced a problem that bothered later settlers. The Hohokam might have been victims of their own ability as irrigators, as the capillarity of the desert soil waterlogged the land. Unable remove the water, the Hohokam tried to escape the moisture by elevating the floors of their homes and granaries. Archaeologists found surviving Hohokam structures built on the highest available ground before they disappeared into history.(3) If the Hohokam vanished, their methods survived in the farming practices of nearby tribes. In 1539, the Spanish arriving in Arizona noted the Yaquis, Maricopas and Pimas living in the vicinity of the Salt River Valley, all irrigating their lands using canals. The Spanish did not stay in the valley for long as they moved on to settle other communities in the Southwest. The valley remained unsettled by Anglos even after the United States acquired Arizona in 1848 as a result of the Mexican War. A subsequent rush of homesteaders and gold seekers chose routes bypassing Central Arizona as they headed West.(4) A government outpost in the new territory, Ft. McDowell, was established in September 1865. The cavalry`s demand for horse feed established a hay depot at a spot later called Phoenix. Phoenix`s growth, however, was triggered by creation of a private canal company in December 1867. By the end of the following year, a hundred residents had settled in vicinity. Other companies dug canals, and, within twenty years, more than 100,000 acres were under cultivation. Between 1868 and 1912, a total of 15 canals were dug across the valley.(5) Because water handling methods were crude and diversion into various canals haphazard, problems arose among settlers over water rights. Suspicion among neighbors in the valley was as much a part of the atmosphere as the dry air. In May 1879, a group of stockholders confronted a Mormon community six miles east of Tempe over the stockholders` assumption their water was stolen by the Mormons. One look at the dry canals convinced the party the Mormons were innocent. Others were not as lucky. A month later, a farmer wounded his neighbor with a shotgun blast to the head after he discovered him diverting water onto his property.(6) Periodic droughts during the late 1870s and 1880s emphasized the need for facilities to store excess water in addition to the existing underground wells. Poor water storage represented a lost opportunity compounding the hopelessness of brutal summer months when the Salt River would run at a trickle and crops would die. The land reverted back to its original barrenness during droughts, and some settlers repeated the trek of the Hohokam by moving out of the valley as the heat wore on. Drought stimulated organization among those remaining in the valley. The Maricopa County Board of Trade named a committee to investigate the feasibility of constructing a dam and a water storage system. On August 31, 1889, committee members meeting in Phoenix`s Dorris Opera House recommended a site 80 miles from Phoenix, below where Tonto Creek flowed into the Salt River. The committee felt the site`s advantages were a large basin buttressed on both sides by a narrow, rock-lined gorge.(7) The committee estimated the cost of the reservoir between $2 to $5 million. The committee pointed out that, as a territory of the United States, Arizona was prohibited from solely assuming any large-scale debts. It concluded Maricopa County should bond itself and all the land in the county should be assessed at its proportional share of the project`s cost. The members picked Benjamin A. Fowler to lobby Congress for permission for Maricopa County to bond itself. Fowler was later joined by a lawyer-engineer, George H. Maxwell, and the duo began to work with congressmen supporting the creation and passage of a reclamation bill. Their mission was to dispel the myth that the `Great American Desert` was worthless and convince the federal government`s most powerful men that the arid lands of the West were worth reclaiming.(8) Early in 1901, a joint proposal by Senator Henry Hansborough of North Dakota and Francis G. Newlands of Nevada to set aside money from the sale of public lands to support reclamation projects was defeated by Congress. Bouncing back immediately, Newlands, Fowler and Maxwell`s National Irrigation Association launched a lobbying and advertising campaign to convince legislators reclamation was good for the country. The succession of Theodore Roosevelt to the presidency in September 1901, supplied irrigation forces with a powerful ally. Roosevelt`s long-time love of the West, and support of a national reclamation policy, was the extra thrust needed to push the Hansborough-Newlands bill through Congress in 1902. He signed Hansborough-Newlands, now the National Reclamation Act, into law on June 17, 1902. The Act combined executive independence from Congress, nationalization and a scientific approach to natural resource management. The measure was the `first truly Progressive` undertaking of the Roosevelt administration.(9) With the Reclamation Act in place, the just born United States Reclamation Service (USRS) stipulated all local differences between landowners had to be settled. An additional prerequisite was creation of a landowners association. On Feb. 7, 1903, a 25-member committee known as the Salt River Valley Water Users` Association was incorporated. The Association represented 4,800 individual landowners who pledged their lands as collateral to receive federal funding for a Salt River reclamation project. The money the government would put into the project would be paid back by the Association out of water and power revenues one the system was in operation. The Association ensured rights to stored water would be equally available to all members, cost of construction and assessments would be distributed equitably, and creation of a central organization which would assume at a future date, the responsibility for operation and management of the project. They would also negotiate with the Reclamation Service, guarantee repayment of construction costs to the government, and enforce collection of payments from individual landowners. Sometimes the USRS could show its teeth toward local officials. In May 1908, a booklet produced by the Arizona Immigration Bureau crossed the desk of Frederick Newell incorrectly calling the Roosevelt Dam, `Tonto Dam.` Newell shot back a response, `The attempt to change the name to `Tonto Dam` or to perpetuate a local name, or nick-name. . .(is) an insult to the great man for whom (Roosevelt Dam) it is named.` Letters of apology were soon forthcoming from the Arizona Commissioner of Immigration.(10) On June 25, 1904, the agreement between the Association and the government was signed by Fowler, the recently elected first president of the Association and the Secretary of the Interior, Ethan A. Hitchcock. With the Association in place, the project was authorized by Hitchcock on March 14, 1903, in accordance with the act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 338). Forty years of confrontations, patience and planning were about to be resolved.(11) Once the torchlight parades ended and the congratulatory messages stopped reverberating throughout the valley, the task of carving a dam out of rock and riverbed began on the drawing board and in the field. As the first major project undertaken by the new Reclamation Service, director Frederick A. Newell stressed that Salt River, like other Reclamation projects, should strive for fiscal and structural stability. In charge of the project were Louis C. Hill, supervising engineer, Arthur Powell Davis, chief engineer of the Reclamation Service, and Fred Teichman, design engineer. These three men saw that the trees, stones and water of the valley would provide all the materials necessary to complete the dam. Newell commented in the Third Annual Report of the U.S. Reclamation Service that few reservoirs had been constructed in a location where the natural conditions were so favorable and the access so meager. Dam construction began August 24, 1903, but the first necessary engineering feat was construction of a road to the Tonto Basin, site of the proposed dam location.(12) The damsite was sixty miles away from the community of Mesa and forty miles away from the mining town of Globe. The railhead of the Gila Valley, Globe and Northern Railway ran out of Globe, but the USRS preferred to build their own supply line to the damsite. The Mesa to Roosevelt path followed an ancient Indian route known as the Apache Trail. The trail shadows the southern rim of the Salt River Canyon for two miles below the damsite. The next thirty miles it runs four miles south of the canyon, climbing a steep grade. Near Mormon Flat, the road diverts to the south to Goldfield and then east across the flat land of the valley into Mesa. IIn late 1903, the Reclamation Service suspended construction in an attempt to gather financial support from local communities to finish the road. Valley businessmen soon realized the importance of finding money to complete the job. Congress passed special legislation granting the towns of Phoenix, Mesa and Tempe to bond themselves and borrow money to complete the road. Bonded for $67,500, Phoenix provided the majority of the local funds to proceed with construction. In the spring and summer of 1904, construction resumed where the terrain was more difficult and the weather hotter. Apache Indians were enlisted as part of almost 400 force account laborers to finish the last difficult miles. Once workers carved out the 64 mile Apache Trail, freight and equipment first crossed it in December, 1904. Called `almost as great a monument to [Hill`s] engineering ability as the Roosevelt Dam itself,` the road cost over $200,000 to complete. By 1911, at completion of dam construction, a total of 112 miles of roads were built leading to the dam at a cost of more than $500,000.(13) In those early days of dam construction, burro teams pulled wagons on a two-rut wagon road leading southeastward to Globe. In the spring and fall of 1905, a succession of torrents damaged the road to the point where `flood followed flood, each succeeding one greater than that before it, with hardly enough time intervening to permit repairs to be made before work was again swept away.` An estimated three million acre-feet of water wiped out preliminary construction at the dam site three times.(14) In early 1904, a sawmill in the Sierra Ancha Mountains 30 miles northeast of Roosevelt was completed by contract labor. A total of 3 million board feet of lumber was cut for use in everything from bridges to tunnel timbering to camp construction. A narrow gauge railroad was also built to carry limestone and clay for cement from the mountains above the dam site. The cement plant produced 338,500 barrels of cement at a saving of $600,000 to the project.(15) Twenty bids for construction were opened on February 23, 1905, with the John O`Rourke firm of Galveston, Texas awarded the winning bid on April 8. The O`Rourke proposal was to complete the dam in two years at a cost of a little over $1.1 million. Losing bids ranged from $1.3 to $2.7 million with an average completion time of 30 months. O`Rourke`s crew was responsible for securing equipment, installing the machine plant, stripping the quarries for stone and driving piles for a coffer dam and flume. Reclamation laborers would be in charge of providing power, cement, and sand to build the toolhouse, gatehouse, a reinforced bridge on top of the dam, outlet tunnel and sluice gates. In a letter from Davis to Hill, Davis explained the Reclamation Service had its reasons for opening work to contract labor, `Where work is advertised and universal competition invited, no criticism can be made against the award of a contract although the prices may be higher than it was expected the work could cost.` In late 1904, Louis C. Hill left the project to become Reclamation`s southwest supervising engineer. Hill`s replacement as Engineer-in-Charge, Chester W. Smith, would monitor the work of the O`Rourke and government crews.(16) The traditional look of the curved, gravity masonry dam would be Reclamation`s `flagship,` exuding `permanence and stability` to all who viewed it. As the young Service`s first major project, a more modern structural arch dam would not suit the Tonto Basin, or communicate the grandeur and workmanship Reclamation sought to present. The faces of the dam were carved from hand-hewn stones to give each rock a finished appearance. In between the faces, the dam was filled with large boulders and mortar. Laborers cut nearly 350,000 cubic yards of stone out of the mountains. During 1905-06, twenty-six immigrant Italian stonemasons were the most celebrated workers of the hundreds employed by the contractors and government. Known as `rockmen,` the stonecutters were brought out from Pittsburgh to carve the limestone that gives Roosevelt Dam its distinctive appearance. Not every aspect of the dam was completed with as much detail. In a November 15, 1904 dispatch from engineer George Wisner to Frederick Newell, Wisner stated the concrete lining of many tunnels was `without exception, the worst concrete construction we have ever inspected.` Wisner believed the inspector and contractor did not know how to mix and handle concrete to achieve the results Reclamation was looking for.(17) The rockmen represented only one of the many ethnic groups working on the dam. Living in three separate camps (O`Rourke`s Camp, Government Hill, and Roosevelt) surrounding the damsite, the worker`s living arrangements offer an insight into the social attitudes of early twentieth century Arizona. In 1910, O`Rourke`s Camp consisted of 42 percent white Americans, 15 percent Spanish emigrants, 11 percent black Americans, three percent Mexican nationals and two percent Chinese. No American Indians or Mexican-Americans lived in the contractor`s camp. O`Rourke hoped to attract 300 to 500 workers to Roosevelt, but the most contract workers employed at one time was a little over 200. Common laborers of all types were paid $2 a day; drillers, $2.75; carpenters, $3.50 to $5, and sub-foremen, $3.50. The government deducted 75 cents per day for meals.(18) At Reclamation`s Government Hill camp, 80 percent of the 168 people living there were white Americans, followed by 10 percent Italians. Louis C. Hill referred to many of the white workers as `hoboes,` but he took a paternalistic tone when describing Apache laborers, `I do not know of any better class of workmen or unskilled laborers than these Apaches proved to be. They were especially valuable to us in view of their ability to maintain themselves without an elaborate camp in some of the out-of-the-way places.`(19) An intriguing mixture of peoples lived at the Roosevelt camp. Out of 306 employees in 1910, Roosevelt was home to 28 percent Native Americans, 25 percent Mexican-Americans and 13 percent Mexican nationals. Native-born American whites made up the remaining 34 percent of Roosevelt`s population. Because of its isolated location, Roosevelt`s worker-citizens built a water and sewage system, a refrigerator plant to produce ice, cottages for engineers and tents for the workers. Soon electric and telephone lines were in place along with a vegetable garden and a bathhouse. As a reminder to workers that this was a government-run job, a jail was built to hold those in violation of the no liquor rules set down by the temperance minded Reclamation Service.(20) The 1906 annual Reclamation report listed Roosevelt`s population at 2,000. The 1910 census listed only 707 residents. After 1912, the sole inhabitants of the camps were weeds and desert rats. In an abandoned graveyard outside of Roosevelt, 21 markers list the names of laborers who died during the dam`s construction. A total of 30 workers died during the project. These fatalities included two Reclamation Service managers: George Greenwald, USRS head carpenter, and engineer Almon H. Demrick, both victims of drowning. At the Roosevelt graveyard, one stone poignantly remembers a man whose life was `one of the unforeseen costs of the Roosevelt Dam.` An amalgam of ethnic cultures, from Anglo-Saxon to Apache to Afro-American, broke rock, built roads and drove teams across the Salt Valley, but were for the most part segregated by position and living quarters.(21) While the original plan for the dam was solely for storage and control, the Reclamation Service in 1904 began construction of a 20-mile-long power canal. The high cost of using oil as a source of fuel during construction in that remote location was one of many reasons the Reclamation Service designed Salt River as the first multi-purpose reclamation project. The promise of hydroelectricity meant reduced construction costs for Reclamation, that farmers could pump groundwater to irrigate their crops, power for running mining equipment, and electricity for the towns clustered around the project. In 1906, the Reclamation Service installed a temporary 900 kilowatt (kw) hydroelectric generator to supply the power for the construction of the dam. A permanent 900 kw unit was installed in 1907. Four more generating units later came on line and eventual capacity totaled 4,500 kw. The first power was delivered from the dam site to Phoenix on September 30, 1909.(22) The power canal presented a challenge to Chester Smith and his crew. The Salt River Project`s power canal used reinforced concrete pipe, instead of the then standard wood or cast-iron pipes. The new `Pinto pressure pipes` carried water at a higher pressure than the older materials. During 1904-05, placement of the Pinto pipes required thirty men continuously laying concrete around steel reinforcement rings. A special designed movable form helped speed up construction, but the concrete was slow to set. In the ledger books, labor was the highest cost of pipe installation. The Pinto Pressure Pipes cracked as the concrete cured and shrank in the summer heat while the steel rings inflexibility forced the shrinking concrete to take the entire load. Smith devised a solution where cracks were cut out, oakum caulking was put in place, then stiff mortar was placed over the joints and grout was run into the crack from the outside. The USRS built 2,600-foot-long segments of Pinto pipes at a cost of nearly $106,000. Another invention designed as a problem solver was a rotating screen placed to keep grass and sticks from lodging in the powerhouse turbine buckets and breaking the turbine. The power canal cost approximately $1.5 million. The Reclamation Service originally estimated $91,000, but nature, high labor costs and overruns all conspired to drive up the bill. Despite problems with construction the design was praised: `The engineers of the Reclamation Service deserve great credit for the way the pipe was built and its cheapness under rather adverse conditions. . . it illustrates what can be done by ingenious engineers who are also practical.`(23) In September 1906, the cornerstone was laid for the Granite Reef Diversion Dam. The construction site was 50 miles to the south of Roosevelt Dam, below the confluence of the Verde and Salt rivers. Two hundred men were involved in construction, including 20 Mexican laborers who lived in a segregated village near the site. Completed in 1908, Granite Reef is 29 feet high, a thousand feet long and diverts water released from the reservoirs into canals north and south of the river for delivery to water users within the project.(24) A combination of floods and the contractor`s inexperience in dealing with a project on the scale of Roosevelt Dam stretched the intended two year job to five years. The relationship between O`Rourke`s management and Reclamation`s engineers was often strained. Smith`s frustration with the construction delays caused him to write `the job is not being conducted with energy or brains.` Unfortunately, the additional time and men O`Rourke`s firm needed to finish the dam cost Association landowners several years irrigation water and extra repayment charges. Although Roosevelt Dam represents the one the last stone masonry gravity dams built before concrete gravity structures dotted the West, it was designed with many modern features for the time. The introduction of reinforced concrete pressure pipes, unique methods of masonry laying, and new kinds of hydraulic sluice gates made Roosevelt an aesthetic and engineering accomplishment.(25) A telegram to Africa informed Theodore Roosevelt that America`s newest technological marvel would carry his name after he completed a safari in 1910. On a sunny March 18, 1911, greeted by an eleven-gun salute, the former President marched down the roadway to the dam`s southern bridge followed by `some hundreds (sic) of his escorts, servants, employees, and workmen, including a phalanx of Apache Indians.` After his speech, at 5:48 p.m., Roosevelt touched a button releasing a mighty roar of water down the canyon dedicating the dam before a gathering of a thousand people. Roosevelt Dam is the world`s highest masonry dam and is 184 feet thick at the base, 16 feet wide at the crest and rises 284 feet. The reservoir, Roosevelt Lake, held a capacity of 1.28 million acre-feet. To accommodate those visiting Arizona`s newest tourist attraction, a 16-foot-wide road for automobiles crossed the top of the dam. Phoenix newspapers reported the United States flag and the blue standard of the Reclamation Service fluttered above the parapets of the dam as Louis C. Hill spoke to the crowd. As the original overseer of the project, Hill advised the crowd to think of the water in the reservoir as money in the bank: `Conserve your water as the careful man does his bank account accumulated by years of self-denial.`(26) Roosevelt, as the last speaker, improvised his remarks. He said the outstanding achievements of his presidential administration was `this reclamation work in the West and the Panama Canal.` He admitted to a touch of flattery over the project`s name: `I do not know if it is of any consequence to a man whether he has a monument. I know it is of mighty little consequence whether he has a statue after he is dead. If there could be any monument which would appeal to any man, surely it is this.`(27) The first major feature of a Reclamation project was completed and immediately was recognized as both an economic and civic achievement. On dedication day, one who was there almost from the beginning, Benjamin A. Fowler, wished `To a great and growing community in an arid region,` the dam would serve as `a guarantee for all time of prosperity and happiness, comfort and peace.` Leading the hyperbole sweepstakes, Kansas newspaper editor, William Allen White visted the dam three months after completion and proclaimed to a Yuma, Arizona newspaper, `The Salt River Valley is about six laps nearer the millennium than any other community in the country.` The years of rugged construction work would fade into memory giving way to a different set of struggles of management and control over the river.(28)
Plan
From 1989 to 1996, the dam was modified by the Bureau of Reclamation. The modification raised the dam 77 feet in elevation, increasing its water conservation storage capacity by 20 percent, adding flood control space to the reservoir, and addressing concerns about its safety as well as the safety downstream dams. In addition to raising the dam's height, the modification included construction of two new spillways, installation of new outlet works, and powerplant modifications. Also, existing recreation facilities at Roosevelt Lake were improved, and new recreational facilities were constructed. Lake Roosevelt (http://www.recreation.gov/detail.cfm?ID=942) is 22.4 miles long, with 128 miles of shoreline and almost 21,500 surface acres. Located on the Salt River 65 miles northeast of Phoenix, Horse Mesa Dam is a concrete thin-arch structure 305 feet high. Constructed by the Salt River Valley Water Users` Association during 1924-1927, the dam contains 162,000 cubic yards of concrete, and forms a 245,138 acre-foot reservoir. The spillway, as modified in 1936 by the Bureau of Reclamation, included a 50,000 cubic foot per second, concrete-lined auxiliary tunnel, 30 feet in diameter and 400 feet long; a regulating gate, gatehouse, and operating mechanism for controlling the tunnel; and a concrete discharge apron below the existing spillway. The piers on the radial-gate spillways were thickened, individual motor-driven gate hoists were installed, and two 15-kilovolt-ampere gasoline-engine driven generators were installed for emergency operation of the hoist motors. Mormon Flat Dam, a 224-foot high concrete thin-arch structure, is on the Salt River 51 miles northeast of Phoenix. Constructed by the Salt River Valley Water Users` Association from 1923-1926, it creates a 57,852 acre-foot reservoir. In 1938, Reclamation completed construction of a new gate structure and a concrete-lined spillway discharge channel, and installed two 50-foot-square stoney regulating gates, hoists, motors, two 25-kilovolt-ampere gasoline-engine driven generators, and a new road to the powerhouse. On the Salt River 41 miles northeast of Phoenix, Stewart Mountain Dam created Saguaro Lake, a 69,765 acre-foot capacity reservoir. The dam is a concrete thin-arch structure, 207 feet high, with gravity abutments. When built by the Salt River Valley Water Users` Association from 1928-1930, the dam included an open, super-elevated channel spillway equipped with radial gates. The spillway was modified by Reclamation in 1936. The work consisted of building a concrete-lined spillway discharge channel, 450 feet long by 265 feet wide, below the existing ogee spillway; reconditioning the hoisting equipment for the radial gates; and installing individual gate operating motors and two 10-kilovolt-ampere gasoline-engine driven generators. From 1988 to 1992, the dam was again modified by Reclamation, to meet concerns about its stability in a probable maximum flood or maximum credible earthquake. To address PMF concerns, a new spillway was constructed on the dam`s right abutment to increase its ability to safely release flood waters. As part of earthquake protection measures, a new concrete overlay was placed over areas on the right and left abutments to improve the dam`s stability. T he existing power penstock and river outlet works were also replaced, the road on the top of the dam was raised and widened, and the existing left spillway and spillway wall was modified. In addition, drainage holes were drilled at selected locations in the dam`s foundation to help relieve hydraulic uplift pressures, and some areas of the foundation were grouted to help reduce seepage. Finally, 84 steel cables were installed through the dam and into its foundation to strengthen it. From 1936-1939, Bartlett Dam was constructed by Reclamation on the Verde River, 48 miles northeast of Phoenix. This multiple-arch dam is 287 feet high, contains 182,000 cubic yards of concrete, and creates a 178,490 acre-foot capacity reservoir. Bartlett Dam was also recently modifyed by Reclamation to address safety concerns. The modification, initiated in March 1994, included construction of a new, unlined auxiliary spillway about 1,500 feet south of the dam's left abutment, along with a concrete control structure and three-segment fuseplug embankment along with training dikes. In addition, the dam was raised 21.5 feet to prevent overtopping, and the walls and bridge of the existing service spillway structure were modified. Modifications were completed in December 1996. Horseshoe Dam, on the Verde River 58 miles northeast of Phoenix, is an earthfill structure 194 feet high, with a reservoir capacity of 139,238 acre-feet. Horseshoe Dam was built from 1944-1946 by the Phelps-Dodge Copper Products Corp. for the Salt River Valley Water Users` Association under a water exchange agreement. Spillway gates were added to the dam in 1949 by the city of Phoenix to increase the domestic water supply. Horseshoe Dam has also been modified by Reclamation to address concerns about its safety in the event of a Probable Maximum Flood or Maximum Credible Earthquake. The modification began in May 1993, and was completed in _____________. Modifications included construction of a fuse plug auxiliary spillway with an erodible embankment and a concrete foundation 2,000 feet west of the existing spillway. In addition, a 148,000 cubic-yard stability berm was constructed at the downstream toe of the dam to help stabilize it in the event of an earthquake, and the dam was raised eight feet to enable the spillway to pass the Probable Maximum Flood. To prevent overtopping of the structure from wave action, an additional 4-foot parapet was built on the dam's crest. Other work included relocation of the dam tender facilities, upgrading the road to the public boat ramp, and study and protection of archaeological artifacts during construction. Granite Reef Diversion Dam is located about 4 miles downstream of the confluence of the Salt and Verde Rivers and about 22 miles east of Phoenix. The dam was constructed between 1906 and 1908 by Reclamation to divert water released from storage to project canals. Pumps are installed on 250 wells to supplement the surface water supply. The total pumping capacity of these wells is 738,595 acre-feet. Several booster pumps have been installed to lift water to canals and laterals through low lifts ranging from 3 to 40 feet. (INFORMATION CURRENT?) A total of 131 miles of irrigation canals, 878 miles of laterals, and 250 miles of drain ditches make up the water distribution system. (INFORMATION CURRENT?) The Salt River Valley Water Users` Association operated and maintained the irrigation and drainage system below Granite Reef Diversion Dam from November 1, 1917, to 1949, and the power features were operated by the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District until 1937. In 1937, the Association transferred all of its rights, title and interest in the Salt River Project to the District. In 1949, the original agreement was amended so the District would assume construction, operation and maintenance responsibilities for both the electric and irrigation systems. The District then delegated to the Association operation and maintenance of the irrigation and water supply system of the project. Water is furnished by the Salt and Verde Rivers, which drain a watershed area of 13,000 square miles. The four storage reservoirs on the Salt River form a continuous chain of lakes almost 60 miles long. An important supplemental supply is obtained from well pumping units. Irrigation flow is regulated by Bartlett Dam on the Verde River and Stewart Mountain Dam on the Salt River. Downstream of the confluence of the Verde and Salt Rivers, water is diverted to two main canals at the Granite Reef Diversion Dam. The Arizona Canal serves the north side of the project; the South Canal serves the south side. From the two main canals, water is diverted to secondary canals, then to laterals through which the water is delivered to farms and cities. Total storage capacity of Salt River reservoirs is more than 2.4 million acre-feet. The combined storage capacity of the two reservoirs on the Verde River is 317,715 acre-feet. Total hydroelectric generating capacity is 232 megawatts, including power from the pumped storage units at Horse Mesa and Mormon Flat Dams. Turbine generating units at these two dams produce power during periods of peak demands. The turbines can be reversed to pump water during off peak periods from the lower reservoir back to the upper reservoir for repeated usage. As part of the same program, which began in 1969, existing units at the two dams were converted from 25 to 60 hertz, and one new 60-hertz unit replaced the former 25-hertz units at Theodore Roosevelt Dam. A hydroelectric unit located on the crosscut canal, which links the project`s two major canals, provides additional hydroelectric capacity. Theodore Roosevelt Dam, the first major structure constructed by the Bureau of Reclamation on the Salt River Project, is located about 76 miles northeast of Phoenix and 30 miles northwest of Globe, Arizona. The dam, completed in 1911, was subsequently modified between 1989 and 1996. The original dam was a cyclopean, rubble-masonry, thick-arch structure that spanned the Salt River to form a reservoir of 1,381,580 acre-feet. It was 280 feet high, 723 feet long at the crest, and contained 355,800 cubic yards of masonry, In 1936, the spillways were modified by lowering crests 6 feet to increase their capacities, and installing individual gate hoists, operating motors, and two 5-kilovolt-ampere gasoline-engine driven generators.
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Title: Area Office ManagerOrganization: Phoenix Area Office
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Title: Public Affairs OfficerOrganization: Commissioner`s Office
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City: Washington, DC 20240
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Phone: 202-513-0305
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Organization: Area Office ManagerAddress: Phoenix Area Office
City: Phoenix, AZ 85306-6200
Phone: 623-773-6200
