P-()VvEil UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT of the INTERIOR ...* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *news release For Release to PM's April 7, 1966 REMARKS BY FLOYD E. DOMINY, COMMISSIONER OF RECLAMATION DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, AT THE SALT RIVER PROJECT LUNCHEON , PHOENIX, ARIZONA, APRIL 7, 1966 COMMEMORATING THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST RECLAMATION HYDROELECTRIC POWER The Kilowatts That Came To Stay I am glad to be here and take part in this 60th anniversary of the first ·Reclamation hydroelectric power. This observance points up the importance of a major revenue source which helps Reclamation repay nearly 90 percent of the capital costs of one of the world 's most successful multipurpose resource development programs. A second reason I am pleased to be here is because this celebration in Phoenix is a brain child of Salt River Project General Manager Rod McMullin ' s and mine. Last July t his "Sage of the Salt" and I got together and decided we should not let this 60th anniversary slip by without proper recognition. I remember Rod writing to me these words: "You may be interested in this note from one of our early log books: ''March 1906 - Temporary plant in cave start ed . " And Rod, never missing an opportunity to toss a barb, added: "So it looks like the USBR started in the power business in a cave and has been fighting to get out ever s ince !" Just how do you mean that, Rod? Well, we did get out of the cave with our power operations at Theodore Roosevelt Dam when the permanent powerhouse was built and placed in operation. But to this day, the small hydroelectric plant in that cave has rated as Reclamation's first and only underground powerplant. Now, however, we're con­ structing an underground plant at Morrow Point Dam on the Gunnison River in Colorado. So, contrary to Rod's statement, we're not trying to get out of caves with our power generation--we're gett ing ready to go underground again. That little plant at the Theodore Roosevelt damsite was more up-to-date than our predecessors ever dreamed of. And while we might be in a "hole" or two physically, we certainly are not financially. The hydroelectric business during Reclamation's 60 years of power operations has paid off quite well. Just recently our hydroelectric cash regis­ ter rang the $100 million total annual gross income bell. And as we put more plants into operation, the dollars are rolling in at an ever-increasing clip. Now, I don't want to sound mercenary but the fact is that this hydroelec­ .. tric revenue is making possible many multipurpose benefits. Reclamation could not today serve water each year to over 9 million acres of irrigated land-- to over 10 million residents of municipalities--and provide vast recreation, fish and wildlife benefits without financial assistance from the 48 hydroelectric plants on our projects. And furthermore, I do not believe that the Congress would have authorized an investment by the taxpayers of $7-1/2 billion in Reclamation projects without some assurance that nearly nine dollars out of every ten would be repaid to the Federal Treasury--much of it with interest. And it is significant that roughly two- thirds of these repayment dollars come from the sale of hydroelectric energy. But I don't need to tell you people here in central Arizona about the value of using power revenues to create multipurpose Reclamation benefits. You've had a power and water team going in this valley for many years and this teamwork has made your Salt River Project a whopping success by any yardstick. And now we look into the future where we hope to see this partnership of power and water working again on the potential Lower Colorado River Basin development which includes your own long-awaited Central Arizona Project. Hydroelectric energy from the proposed project not only will pump your water, but it also will help you repay the construction costs. At the same time, system power will provide valuable peaking energy for the Pacific Southwest's predominantly steam generation systems. The Lower Colorado River Basin Development Fund, to be established under legislation now before the Congress, will assist all of the Lower Basin States in meeting their multipurpose water requirements. But this is resource development, future, Today we are meeting to honor resource development, past and present. And I am indeed honored to join with you in commemorating the event that ~appened 60 years ago last week in a Salt River Canyon cave 79 miles east of Phoenix. The Nation paid little attention to this event at that time. Outside of Arizona, the incident didn't even make the newspapers. But today, that event of six eventful decades ago is big news and we properly recognize it for the far- flung beneficial effect it has had upon Arizona and the entire West. Our story is one of the temporary kilowatts that came to stay - to 1t1Jltiply and team with water to build Arizona into the great State that we know and love--a delightful place to visit-- and to live. 2 The kilowatts that were born in that cave 60 years ago helped chart Reclamation's multipurpose course throughout the West. And thus was estab­ lished a Reclamation policy that water is more than a single-purpose com­ modity. Here it was demonstrated that the sparkling rain and melted snow, cascading down from the mountains, is working water--capable of doing more • than one job • One of the first to recognize this was Arthur Powell Davis, who studied the Salt River for many years and who served as Director of Reclamation from 1914 to 1923. Davis foresaw the tremendous role that hydropower would play in the development of water resources in the West. A year before the Congress passed the Reclamation Act, Mr. Davis made this statement on the importance of hydroelectric power: "In the construction of a great dam, one of the most important elements is that of power. The best means for providing the necessary power is by the development of water power on the river. The power developed can afterwards be used in the neighboring mines or transmitted to the valley below for pumping purposes . For either purpose it will be a valuable asset. " These published views made Arthur Powell Davis--the man whose name was immortalized at Davis Dam on the Colorado River-­ perhaps the first proponent of Reclamation power. And certainly these views were applied by those who built that first powerplant at Theodore Roosevelt Dam . Here in the Salt River Valley today, one sees many results of working water--developments that testify to the principle that power is water's pay­ ing partner, that Arizona and other Reclamation States grow where water and power flow. You were preceded in this valley by the Hohokam -- "the people who went away." These pre-historic Indians irrigated the lands and cultivated their fields just as you and your fathers have done. But without electricity and modern engineering technology, they were unable to defeat the forces of nature. They could neither drain the ground water -- which always accumulates in irrigation projects -- nor could they cope with high sumner temperatures which made life unbearable. These were the people who went away. Your con­ tinued presence here in this valley is symbolized by the Reclamation program and its "kilowatts that came to stay." The kilowatts came with Louis C. Hill, one of Reclamation's top early­ day engineers, who arrived in Phoenix in October 1903--less than a year after the passage of the Reclamation Act. Engineer Hill had charge of the planning and construction of Theodore Roosevelt Dam, destined to be, when completed, the world's highest dam, and backing up the largest manmade lake of its time. •' But how could Engineer Hill build a huge dam at a wilderness site, many miles from any source of powe~? He needed power to operate his cement mill, ' to hoist the giant blocks of stone to be quarried by the Apache Indians, and to operate the tramway and other construction equipment. Fortunately, Davis had earlier considered this problem and steps had already been taken toward providing the necessary power at the damsite. 3 Surveys had been initiated for a power canal 20 miles upstream to divert part of the Salt River' s flow to a small generating plant installed in a cave at the damsite. Engineer Hill placed into operation a temporary, wood-burning, 150-horsepower, steam-generating plant at the damsite to operate the construc­ ' tion equipment pending completion of the much more powerful hydroelectric plant, • The proposed hydroplant would have eight times the rated horsepower of the temporary steamplant. The contract with John M. O'Rourke and Company for building Theodore Roosevelt Dam read tersely: "The United States reserves the right to con­ struct a powerplant." Engineer Hill saw to it that the United States exercised this right. Digging of the power canal began in April 1904, and equipment and materials for the small hydroelectric plant were ordered. The Reclamation Service's report on the project's construction announced the operation of the plant under the date of March 28, 1906, with this matter-of-fact entry: "First test of temporary hydroelectric powerplant." Engineer Hill noted in his report in October of that same year: ''The power house has been in operation since March and since June has run 24 hours a day, except for a few hours once a week." The Federal Government's entrance into the hydroelectric power field is a fascinating example of how practical engineering problems and their solution at Theodore Roosevelt Dam have had a profound effect upon the laws of the land.