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Your Program Committee' had a cOntingent reason for asking me to come up here and talk to yOu:today, The Committee knew I would be anxious to share with you, 'through close personal exper- ience, the amazing results of "Rec1amation"in the valley ,of the Salt River--our project area, The Salt River Project is readying a cele- bration of 50 years of operation--a1most,60 years from beginning of organization, but 50 years since the Theodo;re Roosevelt Dam and Power Plant went into operation. Boiling the story down, it is typical of re- clamation. Power pays the bill for water which created and maintains the fabulous economy of Phoenix and the Salt River Valley. .. What of this project? , In the next ten years the costs of construction and operation and maintenance of the water department' of ,our project will be about 121 million dollars, Power revenues will pay all but 20 million dollars of these costs, thus enabling us to continue an accelerated program of developing, storing and delivering water to the fastest-growing economy in the country, and to do this at water costs. the user can afford to pay. And remember, Ladies and Gentlemen, it's no cinch to make adequate and reasonably-priced water available toa desert! " One more thing we need to .know as 'we are setting the stage for this discussion--Maricopa County, wherein the Salt River Project repre- sents 4 per cent of the county land area and over 80 per cent of the county's assessed land value, paid federal taxes during the 25-year period from 1934 to 1958 in the amount of one billion and 46 million dollars. This amount, compared .to the originaJ 10 million dollar cost of Roosevelt Dam and appurtenant works, repr'esents a 10,000 per cent return on the original government investmep.t. I would say this is good evidence that reclamation projects do pay their own way and that we should do nothing to hamper the necessary partnership of water and power resource development. , , . No taxpayer in Hoboken, New Jersey, Detroit, Michigan" Sarasota, Florida, or in any other place pays for the <;>perations of the -Salt River Project. The origina110an from the United:States Government has long since been repaid and the people who direcny benefit from the project's products--water and power--pay for these~eriefits. Under the "Reclamation" principle, the people who want and need the project are in effect the people who borrow the money from the Govern- ment. The project is built and the money is repaid by these very same people, including interest too on power feat\lres, You geta benefit--you pay for it. :1 , - 2 -