Good afternoon everyone it is really an honor to be with you all and this is where things
happen in New Mexico and Texas. So again it is very much an honor to be you all.
Today I am hear in the absence of Commissioner Estevan López, he wishes he could be here
today and sends his regrets.
As often with the Deputy and the Commissioner we tag team things and divide and conquer
so to speak.
He was on to some other activities and asked me to be here but to give his regards.
So a few things about Elephant Butte Dam.
Standing 301 feet tall, over 1600 feet long Elephant Butte provides irrigation water to thousands
of acres of farmland in southern New Mexico, west Texas and the country of Mexico.
It has a 21 megawatt hydropower facility and as we have heard earlier today provides premier
recreation ground for the area.
If you turn back the clock 100 years building the dam meant much more.
The dam's construction helped support an international treaty, making it one of the first engineering
solutions to resolve an international dispute.
As Construction began more than just a dam had to be built.
First a work camp needed to be established, parts of which are now known as the historic
dam sites.
Then came a 12 mile railroad connecting the Santa Fe railroad line at Engle.
Trains carried supplies to the camp and even brought cars of visitors to see the construction
under progress.
For the dam itself, the concrete was carried over a cable system powered by a 300 horsepower
motor, large rocks were embedded into the masonry.
By the summer of 1914, blocks of masonry about 100 feet long and different heights rose from
the bed of the Rio Grande.
The extraordinary crews who built Elephant Butte worked day and night until the project
was completed.
At the end it contained over 600 thousand cubic-yards of concrete.
Looking at the photo displays around the area today I can't help but recognize the enormous achievement
of the people who built this dam and I wonder if they any inkling of an idea of the tremendous resource
their work would provide to this area 100 years later.
That their dam would continue to meet the purpose over all those years.
Or that annual inspections would verify its continued safe operation year-after-year.
And I can't say enough to all the folks who spent time monitoring the health of all Reclamation's
dams, including Elephant Butte and it is really a testament to the engineering and hard work of folks
to maintain this in good condition and provide safe and reliable storage for all of us.
Today Elephant Butte Dam is equally important in New Mexico, Texas and the country of Mexico.
All of the people rely on the water it stores and provides.
Elephant Butte is a key delivery point between New Mexico and Texas under the Rio Grande
Compact.
It is also the point where Elephant Butte Irrigation District and EP #1 store their
water for irrigation and also for delivery to Mexico.
Power generation, which did come later, as well as recreation, are significant resources
that the dam also provides.
On some weekends in the summer, over 100,000 people use Elephant Butte Reservoir for summer
holiday weekends.
In conclusion as we celebrate today, we have seen the impact the drought has had on Elephant
Butte's water level.
When we were planning the event, we were wondering was this going to be on the downstream or
upstream side of the facility.
I think both sides provide a great perspective but it is good to be on the downstream, not
necessary to look at the impacts of the drought today.
But we should recognize that the reservoir is doing precisely what it was intended to
do.
For almost a decade of extreme drought it has continued to supply water to New
Mexico, Texas and the country of Mexico.
We have had seen highs and lows at Elephant Butte during its 100 year history, from the
record lows of the 1950s to a full and spilling reservoir in the 1980s.
It has met its mission well during these past 100 years and I am confident it will continue to
provide a stable water supply in this area well into the future.