Search

This historical research report is designed to support mitigation for the relocation of Gates 7-13.4-41 and 7-13.4-42 (See Image 1) and Lateral 7-13.4 on the north side of Dobbins Road west of 55th Avenue, Laveen, Maricopa County. This report describes the findings of research into the historic use of the lateral and surrounding area in the south half of Section 5, Township 1 South, Range 2 East. The United States is relocating the lateral and turnout structures in a land exchange because of urban development. This is a memorandum.

The establishment of the Salt River Federal Reclamation Project in 1903 led to the construction of a modern irrigation system to serve the productive farmlands of the Salt River Valley. However, lands outside of the project boundaries, which generally had no legal claim to surface water, had to rely on alternative sources of water. The Roosevelt Water Conservation District was one of the earliest successful efforts to increase the available water supply. By applying simple but innovative technology, along with a broad economic strategy, and cultivating a mutually beneficial partnership with the Salt River Valley Water Users’ Association (Association), landowners were able to appropriate enough water to irrigate the 41,500-acre from three primary sources - groundwater pumping, excess flood waters of the Salt and Verde rivers, and water conserved by lining SRP canals with concrete. Individually, each of these water resources would have been too expensive or unreliable; by planning to selectively exploit the most cost-effective resources as they were available, the District was able to develop a viable water supply. The Roosevelt Water Conservation District’s irrigation system includes the Main Canal, the Eastern Canal Extension, and a series of pumping plants and other structures. The Main Pumping Plant conveys water delivered via SRP’s distribution system to the District’s Main Canal at a rate of 350 second feet. Wells equipped with small pumping units, originally planned as a supplemental source of water, have provided most of the irrigation water for the District. The existing irrigation system has remained relatively unchanged since its original construction, which was completed in 1928. This report provides a history of the Roosevelt Water Conservation District and its irrigation works, from its conceptual development and construction to its evolving design and function in an increasingly urbanized environment.

The U.S. Reclamation Service constructed the South Canal to carry water to the farmers on the south side of the Salt River as part of the Salt River Federal Reclamation Project. Built between 1907 and 1909, the original canal measured only two miles and diverted water from the newly erected Granite Reef Dam. The South Canal eventually became the only irrigation structure to divert water directly from the Salt River and deliver it to the south side shareholders of the Salt River Valley Water Users' Association (the Association). Controversy surrounded membership in the Association for many of the landowner's south of the Salt River. A majority of the farmers held early water rights and did not see any advantages to joining the Salt River Project (SRP) when the project first opened. The canals that supplied water to these people had their own headings or diversion points in the Salt River. Although some farmers built new irrigation ditches and laterals so they could join the Association in the early 1910s, it was not until the 1920s that almost all of the unsigned lands within the exterior boundaries of the Salt River Reservoir District became members of the Project. The original South Canal was enlarged and extended to accommodate all the water users on the south side of the Salt River, encompassing portions of the Eastern and Consolidated canals. Because the early founders of the Salt River Project saw the potential of hydropower, the Association contracted with the federal government in 1910 to build three power plants on the Salt River Project canals. Eventually three hydropower plants would be built on the South Canal. They provided needed power to an expanding Salt River Valley for commercial and domestic use. This report will detail the history of the South Canal, from its minor beginnings to becoming the primary irrigation structure carrying water to the shareholders on the southern portion of the Salt River Project.