The Salt River Project (SRP) encompasses two separate entities: the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District, an agency of the state of Arizona that serves as an electrical utility for the Phoenix metropolitan area, and the Salt River Valley Water Users' Association, a utility cooperative that serves as the primary water provider for much of central Arizona. It is one of the primary public utility companies in Arizona.
SRP is not related to the Rio Salado Project (Rio Salado is Spanish for Salt River), a series of improvement projects along the Salt River through the Phoenix Metropolitan Area.
Service territory
SRP serves nearly all of the Phoenix metropolitan area. A large portion of its electric service territory is shared with Arizona Public Service.
Governance
Each company of SRP is governed separately.
For the Association, landowners elect a president, a vice president, a 10-member board of governors and 30 council members.
For the District, landowners elect a president, a vice president, a 14-member board of directors and 30 council members.
The officials of each organization are elected on the first Tuesday in April of even-numbered years. The last scheduled Association and District elections were held on April 7, 2020. Both are elected by all landowners in the SRP service area through a "debt-proportionate" system. For instance, a person who owns five acres casts five votes.
History
The Hohokam, the ancestors of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian and Gila River Indian communities, built canals spanning nearly 500 miles. The SRP canal system follows much of the ancient canal network.
Early settlers in Phoenix and nearby areas were forced to rely on the flow of the Salt River to sustain agricultural activities. The river was prone to both floods and droughts and proved to be a less than reliable resource for the settlers. Failed plans to build a dam on the river in 1897, combined with a series of droughts, heightened the need for controlling the river.
With the passage of the National Reclamation Act of 1902, funding for reclamation projects with low-interest government loans paved the way for the creation of the Salt River Valley Water Users' Association the following year. Over of private land belonging to the ranchers and farmers in the association were pledged for collateral and the association was officially incorporated February 7, 1903, becoming the first multipurpose project started under the reclamation act. Following on March 14, 1903, this project was one of the first five reclamation projects approved, under the Act, by the Secretary of the Interior. Construction on the Roosevelt Dam would commence the following year.
Although the construction of dams was the association's most visible and costly project, an integral part of the effort was also the construction and improvement of a system of canals designed to distribute the water from the Salt River among the various members living in the valley.
Hydroelectricity was produced at the dam site during construction, and used for the manufacture of cement and other purposes. In 1906 (before the dam was completed) electricity began to be produced from a hydroelectric generator within the dam. Almost all of the electricity not needed for agriculture, including the majority of that used in Phoenix, was sold to PG&E under an agreement that prohibited the United States Bureau of Reclamation from selling retail electricity within the city.
In 1936, the Arizona Legislature allowed for the creation of governmental districts that could finance large-scale agricultural projects with tax-free bonds. Shortly thereafter, the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District was created, the second half of SRP as it exists today. Over the next several decades, a series of major improvements along the Salt and Verde rivers would raise the number of reservoirs in the district to six, and at the same time SRP was constructing and maintaining a number of other electrical generating stations throughout the state.
As of 2007, SRP owns or operates eleven electrical generating stations, seven hydroelectric plants, and has energy purchasing agreements with four major hydroelectric stations along the Colorado River, making them a major provider of electric service in the Phoenix area. Along with the six reservoirs along the Salt and Verde rivers, SRP operates dams at the Blue Ridge Reservoir as well as the Granite Reef Diversion Dam and a number of canals, making the SRP a major provider of water to the Phoenix area.