[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 28 (Monday, February 28, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S973]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF THE THEODORE ROOSEVELT DAM

   Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, on March 18, 2011, the State of 
Arizona will celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Theodore 
Roosevelt Dam. As that day approaches, I wish to recognize how vital 
this structure has been in unlocking the tremendous economic potential 
of my State.
  In the arid and often unforgiving desert, the Theodore Roosevelt Dam 
is the central component and crowning achievement of one of the 
Nation's first water reclamation projects in the West. In 1903, a group 
of visionary territorial Arizonans banded together to mortgage their 
lands as debt collateral for a Federal loan to build the Roosevelt Dam. 
The dam was completed 8 years later, in 1911, and stood as the world's 
largest masonry dam of its day. Located on the Salt River, it serves as 
both a water storage system and hydroelectric facility that supplies 
electricity, drinking water and irrigation water to the downstream 
communities of metropolitan Phoenix.
  Those original landowners, who in 1903 formed the Salt River Valley 
Water Users Association, had a vision of what could be. Indeed, 
Roosevelt Dam nurtured and ultimately transformed the Salt River Valley 
into what is today. The dam made Phoenix a boom town, and turned the 
surrounding area into one of fastest-growing regions in the Nation. 
People came, and with them a strong and vibrant economy grew to attract 
new businesses fueled by a diverse labor force. Roosevelt Dam literally 
changed people's ideas about living in the desert. It is a legacy that 
continues today with the Salt River Project, a power and water utility 
that continues to provide the infrastructure that feeds the area's 
economy.
  Over the next several decades, the Phoenix area is projected to 
expand by twice the national rate once again demonstrating the vitality 
of the community. No other reclamation project in the history of 
Arizona has stimulated the economic and population boom in the way 
Roosevelt Dam did once it was completed. For that reason, I am proud to 
honor its contributions in my State, for the past 100 years and into 
its next century of service.

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