The Story of SRP: Water, Power, and Community
Creators: name: Roessel, Katelyn
Publisher: name: Salt River Project Research Archives
Year: 2017
Subjects: subject: Salt River Valley
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/geographic-keyword/2784/salt-river-valley
subject: Hohokam
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/culture-keyword/21/hohokam
subject: Yaqui
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/culture-keyword/6855/yaqui
subject: Historic
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/culture-keyword/25/historic
subject: O'odham
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/culture-keyword/8010/oodham
subject: Canal or Canal Feature
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-type/275/canal-or-canal-feature
subject: Reservoir
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-type/277/reservoir
subject: Water Control Feature
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/site-type/279/water-control-feature
subject: Arizona Public Service Company
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/147439/arizona-public-service-company
subject: Roosevelt Dam
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/134131/roosevelt-dam
subject: Water Rights
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/31282/water-rights
subject: Granite Reef Diversion Dam
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/147506/granite-reef-diversion-dam
subject: Granite Reef Underground Storage Project
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169207/granite-reef-underground-storage-project
subject: Old Crosscut Canal
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/147576/old-crosscut-canal
subject: Native American Water Rights Settlements
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169205/native-american-water-rights-settlements
subject: Salt River Valley Water Users' Association
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/151286/salt-river-valley-water-users-association
subject: Colorado River Storage Project
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169206/colorado-river-storage-project
subject: Kyrene Generating Station
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/147772/kyrene-generating-station
subject: Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/150652/palo-verde-nuclear-generating-station
subject: Groundwater
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/86014/groundwater
subject: Prunepickers
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169215/prunepickers
subject: Modern SRP Canals
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169216/modern-srp-canals
subject: Promise of Reclamation
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169214/promise-of-reclamation
subject: Zanjero
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/147971/zanjero
subject: Salt River Watershed
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169219/salt-river-watershed
subject: 1917 Contract
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169220/1917-contract
subject: United States Reclamation Service
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/147073/united-states-reclamation-service
subject: Navajo Generating Station
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/156801/navajo-generating-station
subject: Huhugam Irrigation Canals
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169217/huhugam-irrigation-canals
subject: Verde River Watershed
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169218/verde-river-watershed
subject: Crosscut Diesel Plant
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169223/crosscut-diesel-plant
subject: Arizona Falls Power Plant
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/168712/arizona-falls-power-plant
subject: Kent Decree
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/168776/kent-decree
subject: International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169224/international-brotherhood-of-electrical-workers
subject: Reclamation Project
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169221/reclamation-project
subject: Agricultural Credit Finance Corporation
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169222/agricultural-credit-finance-corporation
subject: Tempe Town Lake
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169227/tempe-town-lake
subject: Central Arizona Project
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/28426/central-arizona-project
subject: Indian Water Rights
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169228/indian-water-rights
subject: Hayden Generating Station
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169225/hayden-generating-station
subject: Craig Generating Station
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169226/craig-generating-station
subject: Early Settlements
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/55311/early-settlements
subject: Santan Generating Station
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169229/santan-generating-station
subject: Arizona Canal
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/147603/arizona-canal
subject: Stewart Mountain Dam
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/151377/stewart-mountain-dam
subject: Mormon Flat Dam
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/168727/mormon-flat-dam
subject: Horse Mesa Dam
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/168728/horse-mesa-dam
subject: New Crosscut Canal
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169176/new-crosscut-canal
subject: Bartlett Dam
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/168725/bartlett-dam
subject: Horseshoe Dam
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/168726/horseshoe-dam
subject: Coronado Generating Station
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/147483/coronado-generating-station
subject: Grand Canal
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/147548/grand-canal
subject: White Amur
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169187/white-amur
subject: Crosscut Hydroelectric Plant
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169185/crosscut-hydroelectric-plant
subject: Orme Dam
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/147493/orme-dam
subject: Apache Trail
valueUri: https://core.tdar.org/browse/other-keyword/169195/apache-trail

description: This is, in the end, the story of those who call the Valley of the Sun home. From its earliest conception, SRP was created by—and for—the communities it serves. Over time, SRP’s water and power services have helped ensure the successful achievement of its original purpose: the economic development of the Valley and the region. When the Association was formed in 1903, the population of Maricopa County was barely twenty thousand. On his visit to the Valley just eight years later for the dedication of the massive storage dam that bore his name, President Theodore Roosevelt assessed what he saw as the bright prospects of a burgeoning community. To a crowd gathered on the steps of Old Main at Arizona State University, Roosevelt declared: “I believe as your irrigation projects are established, we will see 75 to 100 thousand people here. . . . You have the great material chance ahead.” In the 106 years since his speech, the water and power provided by SRP have helped the Valley harness Roosevelt’s “great material chance” to a degree even the president might not have imagined—today, the Phoenix metropolitan area boasts over four million residents, placing it among the largest in the United States. Just as it has throughout its first century, SRP continues to build upon the achievements of the past in pursuit of a better future. In 1917 the federal government transferred operation of the first project completed under the National Reclamation Act, the Salt River Project (SRP), to a group of local water users in Arizona, the Salt River Valley Water Users’ Association (Association). The transfer marked an important milestone in the early days of the nation’s efforts to develop water infrastructure in the West. It also carried with it an understanding that would become a hallmark of future projects: that the success of reclamation projects required not only federal investment, but also a strong base of local support. As the first project operated by a local entity, SRP became the model of what reclamation could accomplish in developing Western lands. The fact that SRP’s 1917 contract with the federal government is still in effect today testifies to the endurance of an approach that continues to be the foundation for managing water and power in the Valley. The collective spirit that guided the Association’s early development was not a certainty at its formation. When the Association was formed in 1903 as a mechanism for residents to put forward their lands as collateral for the federal funds to construct Roosevelt Dam, the idea of a common organization to unify the competing interests of Valley water users was viewed with skepticism by many who saw it as an unwarranted intrusion into private endeavors. The experience of local water interests up to that time was marked by litigation and division more than cooperative and shared purpose. In light of this background, the Association’s formation and ultimate success in unifying disparate interests is even more significant. Valley residents ultimately realized the federal support to build the necessary water infrastructure for growth could only come through local collaboration and a pooling of interests that justified such a large investment. This book tells the story of the enduring partnership of those common interests, spanning federal, state, and local governments and a range of private interests, which through its continuity withstood the uncertainties of weather, economic cycles, and political movements and transformed a fledgling territorial corporation into a regional water and power provider. In the process, Arizona and SRP grew together into a state of several million residents and an organization that today supplies nearly 800,000 acre-feet of water annually and delivers power to more than a million customers.