Salt River Project
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The Salt River Project or SRP is a collective name used to refer to two separate entities: the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District, a political subdivision of the state of Arizona, or the Salt River Valley Water Users' Association, a private company that serves as an electrical utility and water provider for the Phoenix metropolitan area. The name "Rio Salado Project" (Salt River Project) is also used to refer to the improvement projects along the Salt River.
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[edit] Salt River reservoirs
SRP owns and operates four reservoirs along the Salt River east of Phoenix. While the main function of these reservoirs is to serve as water storage for the rapidly growing municipal area, they also serve as important recreational centers. The lakes are regularly stocked with fish, and are supplied with boat ramps for both angling and other watersports.
[edit] Theodore Roosevelt Lake
Roosevelt Dam and the reservoir it forms are considered perhaps the crowning achievements of the Salt River Project. With the initial funds raised by the association in 1903, an ambitious project was begun several miles east of Phoenix in the Tonto Valley, at the confluence of the Tonto Creek and the Salt River. When it was completed in 1911, Roosevelt Dam was the tallest masonry dam in the world at 280 feet (85 m). It was dedicated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, for whom the dam and the reservoir are named.
In 1996, a massive expansion project aimed at increasing the capacity of the lake was finished. The dam was resurfaced with concrete and raised an additional 77 feet (23 m), which had the effect of increasing the lake's capacity by over 20%, and providing much needed flood control space on the Salt River. Shortly after completion, however, the area entered into a prolonged period of drought, and it would be some time before the new capacity was used, with the lake finally reaching historic levels of 90% capacity in early 2005.
With an at-capacity surface area of nearly 21,500 acres (87 km²), Roosevelt is the largest lake that is wholly inside the state of Arizona. It can store 1,653,043 acre feet (2.03900 km³) of water at capacity.
[edit] Apache Lake
Apache Lake was formed by the construction of the Horse Mesa Dam, finished in 1927. Several miles downstream from Roosevelt, the dam stands 300 feet (90 m) high. The lake itself is considerably smaller than Roosevelt at only 2,600 acres (11 km²) of surface area at full capacity, and can store 254,138 acre feet (313,475,000 m³) of water.
Like the rest of the Salt River lakes downstream from Roosevelt, Apache Lake is long and narrow, filling the bottom of the canyon it resides in. It does have a hydroelectric generating station.
[edit] Canyon Lake
Canyon Lake, the third lake on the Salt River, is created by the Mormon Flat Dam. The dam was completed in 1925, being the second of the dams to be completed. The dam is named for a nearby geographical feature, a flat campground where Mormon pioneers from Utah would often stop on their journey to the Phoenix area. Downstream from Apache Lake, it is considerably smaller with only 950 acres (3.8 km²) of surface area when full, holding 57,852 acre feet (71,359,000 m³). Like the other Salt River dams, it is equipped with hydroelectric generators.
[edit] Saguaro Lake
Saguaro Lake is formed by the Stewart Mountain Reservoir, downstream from Canyon Lake. Completed in 1930, it was the last of the reservoirs to be built on the Salt River. It is somewhat larger than Canyon but smaller than the others, having a surface area of 1,280 acres (5.18 km²) when full, holding 69,765 acre feet (86,054,000 m³). The dam is equipped with hydroelectric generators.
[edit] Verde River reservoirs and other dams
After completion of the four dams on the Salt River, SRP turned to the smaller Verde River for further expansion of the project. Like the reservoirs on the Salt, the Verde reservoirs are used for recreational purposes as well as water storage and flood control.
[edit] Lake Bartlett
The first of the lakes on the Verde River was created with the construction of the Bartlett Dam, finishing in 1939. At 305 feet (93 m) tall, the multiple-arch dam is lacking in hydroelectric generating capabilities, unlike the dams on the Salt River. With 2,700 acres (11 km²) of surface area at capacity, it is larger than all the Salt River reservoirs save Roosevelt. When full the lake can hold 178,186 acre-feet (219,789,000 m³) of water, or some 58 billion US gallons.
[edit] Horseshoe Lake
Horseshoe Dam was finished in 1946 upstream from Lake Bartlett, but unlike the other dams built to this point, the construction was done by the Phelps Dodge Corporation as part of a water exchange agreement. In 1949 the city of Phoenix funded the construction of spillway gates for the dam in exchange for water rights for city users. Like Bartlett, this dam does not have hydroelectric generating capabilities. At 2,800 acres (11 km²) in surface area when full it is slightly larger, but has a smaller total capacity, holding only 131,427 acre feet (162,113,000 m³) at maximum.
[edit] Blue Ridge Reservoir
Phelps Dodge Inc, a large mining company in Arizona, constructed the Blue Ridge Dam in 1965 to help meet its water needs. A water exchange agreement penned three years earlier promised the facilities to SRP, and in 2005 SRP took possession of the dam and water production facilities. Located on the Mogollon Rim, Blue Ridge is not on the Salt or Verde Rivers but is a part of the general watershed covered in the SRP area. The small lake has a storage capacity of only 15,000 acre feet (19,000,000 m³) of water.
[edit] Granite Reef Dam
The Granite Reef Diversion Dam constructed near the confluence of the Salt and Verde Rivers does not actually hold back a reservoir, but is used to divert water from those rivers into the system of canals feeding into the Phoenix area. It was actually the first of the dams constructed, finished in 1906 to replace the Arizona Dam, which had been washed away by floods the previous year.
[edit] Canal System
SRP operates several important canals that run in a network through much of the southern half of the Phoenix metro area, helping distribute water from the Salt River system. Major canals operated by SRP are:
- Arizona Canal, 38.62 miles (62.15 km) long
- Grand Canal, 22.43 miles (36.10 km)long
- Consolidated Canal, 18.95 miles (30.50 km) long
- Eastern Canal, 14.73 miles (23.71 km) long
- Western Canal, 13.61 miles (21.90 km) long
- South Canal, 9.91 miles (15.95 km) long
- Tempe Canal, 9.76 miles (15.71 km) long
- New Crosscut Canal, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) long
SRP also operates a number of flood control canals throughout the Phoenix area.
[edit] Power generation
Besides the power generated at several of the dams along the Salt River, SRP owns or operates, in part, several power generating stations throughout the state:
- Agua Fria Generating Station
- Coronado Generating Station
- Craig Generating Station
- Desert Basin Generating Station
- Four Corners Power Plant
- Hayden Generating Station
- Kyrene Generating Station
- Mohave Generating Station
- Navajo Generating Station
- Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station
- Santan Generating Station
- Arizona Falls
