[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 22 (Thursday, February 6, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E149]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   BEST WISHES TO SALT RIVER PROJECT

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. JIM KOLBE

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 5, 2003

  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate a venerable 
Arizona institution that celebrates this month its 100th anniversary as 
the nation's oldest multi-purpose reclamation project. I speak of the 
Salt River Project, an organization with nearly 800,000 electric 
customers and responsibilities for supplying water to some 1.5 million 
people in the Phoenix metro area.
  While my own Congressional District 8 spans areas outside of SRP's 
service territory, one cannot live long in Arizona without learning 
something of the history of this unique public power and water utility. 
Founded on February 7, 1903, SRP marked the formalization of hopes for 
transforming a fierce desert into a productive agricultural area.
  Eight months earlier, the Reclamation Act of 1902 had been signed 
into law by President Theodore Roosevelt. Critics maintained the act 
would be a boondoggle, saddling the federal government with useless 
burdens. But Roosevelt and his supporters were optimists and had faith 
in the American spirit of determination.
  The fruits of their convictions were borne out.
  A federal reclamation loan was approved to help SRP and central 
Arizona's landowners build a great water storage system to supplement 
the area's small and unreliable system of ditches and canals. By 1911, 
using horses, hawsers and hand-tools, workers had completed Roosevelt 
Dam--then the largest masonry dam in the world.
  With new and dependable sources of water, farms flourished. Local 
towns and cities grew. More dams were built. And, by the 1930s, SRP 
with state enabling legislation entered into the power business to 
ensure repayment of its federal loan obligations.
  Today, SRP ranks among the largest public power providers in the 
nation and an authority on water management. And, at the core of the 
company's culture is the same durable spirit of community partnership 
and involvement that was there a century ago.
  Mr. Speaker, I offer best wishes to the Salt River Project as it 
moves ahead in its second hundred years of service--a century certain 
to bring many new benefits and progress.

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