Salt River Project history

The Arizona Dam, just below the confluence of the Salt and Verde rivers, diverted water to the north side canals, but was prone to damage by floods and in 1905, a major flood swept down the Salt River.

In 1906 (before the dam was completed) electricity began to be produced from a hydroelectric generator within the dam.

1911 Former President Theodore Roosevelt arrives in Arizona to dedicate Theodore Roosevelt Dam on March 18, 1911.

In 1924 the Horse Mesa Dam was built between the two existing dams.

In 1936, the Arizona Legislature allowed for the creation of governmental districts that could finance large-scale agricultural projects with tax-free bonds.

In 1937, in order to provide electric power to thousands of customers, the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District was formed as a political subdivision of the state of Arizona.

1939 SRP receives approval to dam the Verde River through the construction of Bartlett Dam.

1946 SRP and Phelps Dodge negotiate the building of Horseshoe Dam, the second dam on the Verde River and the sixth storage dam in the water transmission and distribution system.

One step was the development of underground water sources, which SRP began in 1948.

Similarly, spillway gates built in 1949 resulted in a water credit arrangement with the city of Phoenix, which paid for the gates.

In 1952 SRP entered into an agreement with the city of Phoenix to supply the city with its domestic water needs.

In 1961 it signed an agreement with the Colorado-Ute Electric Association to buy power from a generating station to be built in Hayden, Colorado.

Power from this source began in 1965.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the 1968 Colorado River Basin Project Act, which authorizes the construction of the Central Arizona Project (CAP). CAP is another major water construction and management project in Arizona and SRP lobbied heavily for its passage.

The first formal environmental study is completed in 1969 for Navajo Generating Station.

SRP also had an employee exchange program that was rated the top program in 1983 by the United States Agency for International Development.

Besides its cooperation with other utilities in the United States, SRP, through its Office of International Affairs (established in 1984), held seminars and workshops for water officials from foreign countries.

1986 Roosevelt Dam's height is increased by 77 feet and new spillways added.

1989 A weed control pilot program is launched and includes a unique solution - the introduction of over 1,700 white amur into portions of the Tempe and Crosscut canals.

AZ-19", (SRP 1991). SRP Research Archives staff have written HAER (Historic American Engineering Record) reports on all the major canals of the Salt River Project.

1994 SRP begins banking water at the Granite Reef Underground Storage Project (GRUSP) to help ensure a reliable and adequate supply of water for the growing Phoenix metropolitan area.

Along with other organizations, SRP sponsored the Arizona Family Holiday Food Drive in 1995 and helped collect more than twice the goal it had established for the drive.

Total Assets: $5.6 billion (1996)

Expecting that 90 percent of the valley would become urbanized by the year 2000, SRP sought new ways to manage water storage.

SRP Research Archives staff is in the process of completing a centennial history of the Salt River Project, to be published in the fall of 2002 by Arthur H. Clark Company.

2005 SRP acquires C.C. Cragin (formerly Blue Ridge) reservoir from Phelps Dodge Corporation as part of the Gila River Indian Water Rights Settlement approved by the Arizona Water Settlement Act.

2006 SRP's Board of Directors approve a management proposal that directs SRP's future use of renewable energy resources and energy conservation measures.

Among them are a diversified resource mix of wind, geothermal, large hydro (added in 2007) and low-impact hydro and landfill gas.

The book begins well before Arizona was a state with the Valley’s prehistoric canal system and carries through 2011 with the growth of SRP and the Valley.

2012 Two more renewable energy sources, geothermal and solar, come online and SRP strikes a deal with the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) that will allow GRIC to store, and therefore use, more of its Central Arizona Project (CAP) water allocation.