Laserfiche WebLink
<br />COLORADO- RIVER DEVELOPMENT <br /> <br />by <br /> <br />Floyd E. Dominy <br />United States Commissioner of Reclamation <br /> <br />It is doubly pleasing to meet with the Colorado River Water <br />Users' Association on the occasion of your 17th annual meeting. <br /> <br />In th~ first place, your meeting here! at Las Vegas coincides <br />most appropriately with the silver anniversary year for Hoover Dam, <br />one of the world's great engineering achievements and the key feature <br />of one of the Bureau of Reclamation's outstandingly successful multi- <br />purpose projects. In fact, it could be labelled the "Father" of the <br />multi.purpose project concepL <br /> <br />Secondly, it isa personal pleasure to address your organiza- <br />tion for the first time in my l5-year career,in the Bureau of Reclama- ' <br />tion. , When I doffed a Navy uniform to enter the Bureau's Washington <br />office inApril 1946, I was baptized to the Reclamation faith by helping <br />to process the Regional Director's 1946 comprehensive report on the <br />Colorado River, I have been close to the pr,ob1ems of this basin for a <br />long time. <br /> <br />The key to this tremendous--and that is the precise modifier-- <br />river development was the construction of Hoover Dam in the mid-1930's. <br />Lake Mead--storing water for all downstream water users in this country <br />and Mexico--began backing up behind Hoover Dam 25 years ago last <br />February 1, when the diversion tunnels were plugged. The last concrete <br />was placed inHoover Dam 25 years ago last May 29, and the dam was <br />dedicated 25 years ago last September 30, Hence, the Nation has com- <br />memorated Hoover bam's Silver Anniversary throughout the past year. <br /> <br />J <br /> <br />Another 25th anniversary for this historic multipurpose project <br />will occur in October of next year. That date marks the Silver Jubilee <br />of power production at the first Hoover generator--unit N-Z. It is notable <br />that weare only now installing the last of Hoover's planned turbines and <br />generators. N-8, a 95, OOO-kilowatt generator, now being installed, will <br />raise the Hoover Powerp1ant to its full capacity of over 1-1/3 million <br />kilowatts, <br /> <br />During its first 25 years, Hoover Dam has captured and stored <br />more than 300 million acre-feet of Colorado River flood waters. Its hydro- <br /> <br />- 16 - <br /> <br />I <br />I <br />I <br /> <br />, <br />