>> Roland Springer: I would like to invite the commissioner back
up to the podium and he will throw the giant switch
and we will see if we can actually open these spillway
gates as promised.
So I will give a countdown and I'd like you all to help me
and he will throw the switch
and then you should see some gates open there
where the flags are.
You ready, commissioner?
>> Estevan Lopez: I'm ready.
>> Roland Springer: Okay, so five, four, three, two, one.
[ Music ]
If these walls could talk, they would speak of days
where a shout would freeze in midair in subzero temperatures,
where one's hardhat would disappear
in winds reaching 90 miles per hour,
where the scorching triple digit heat seared the brows
of crews working up to 16 hours today to complete a placement
of concrete, and where clouds of insects visited the site
like a biblical pestilence.
The bedrock would testify of the care taken to clean
and strengthen it to ensure the structure would stand
up on a sure foundation for another hundred years.
I want to thank everyone that participated
in constructing this dam and putting it together.
>> Dan Darrington: The dam had been here for 100 years.
We figured it would just continue on.
But after we saw those core samples,
it was evident action needed to be taken.
Because of this structure, the entire area is living,
thriving as a progressive community that expands
from agriculture to additional commerce and industry.
>> Wally Hedrick: We should all be working together
to improve rural opportunity in all of our states,
rural lifestyle, and keep folks
in rural Idaho and the rural West.
This is an award of excellence presented
to the Burley Irrigation District in recognition
of your dedicated service and commitment to excellence
in providing for irrigation water needs of your community,
presented by the United States Department
of Agriculture, Rural Development.
Gentlemen.
[ Applause ]
And an award of excellence presented
to the Minidoka Irrigation District in recognition
of your dedicated service and commitment to excellence
in providing for irrigation water needs of your community,
presented by the United States Department
of Agriculture, Rural Development.
Gentlemen.
[ Applause ]
>> Samantha Marshall: With increasing pressures
on our water resources, the efficient
and sustainable delivery
of water is ever more critical to Southern Idaho.
Water infrastructure improvements such as this
that develop a more efficient
and safer water delivery system are essential to help ensure
that this finite resource is well-managed and continues
to reach those who need it.
Thank you for your hard work and effective partnership
in ensuring the sound delivery of water to the area.
We wish you all the best.
Mike Crapo, United States Senator, Jim Risch,
United States Senator, and Mike Simpson,
United States Representative.
>> Lorri Lee: As I have grown up in Reclamation
over the last 33 years, it's probably been
at least the last 15, 20 years I've heard
about the aging infrastructure out at Minidoka.
I would like to take a minute to thank a whole lot of people.
This is about 15 years of work.
A lot of people, a lot of teams, and I want to start
with the irrigation districts and the irrigators.
You are our partners and have been good partners
to Reclamation for many years and we want
that to continue into the future.
To the contractor, RSCI, their great leadership and the staff
that was out here day in and day out,
and then for reclamation staff, Roland is here, Jerry is here,
but I saw Chris Ketchum .
A lot of credit goes to Chris.
He worked on this in the early days to get us to where we are.
Eduardo Lopez, who is our facility
or our project engineer.
Eduardo, thanks for your great work.
John Tiedeman, who is our activity manager.
He knows who's doing what at what point.
And Susie Kramer.
She did all of the acquisition work,
which was a pretty big deal.
And then for -- and I certainly can't name everybody
because it's a long list -- but all of our construction staff,
the construction control and testing folks.
We brought them in from all over the country.
Our designers, the staff at Heyburn,
making sure that everybody had what they needed out here.
Last, but not least, our maintenance staff.
Those folks that dealt with the weather
and dealt with these stop logs.
And to the public.
Your patience when we restricted activity
so that we could complete these facilities.
And we would hope that everybody will return
and enjoy the wonderful fishing out here.
I see a couple heads nodding.
That's great.
>> Estevan Lopez: It's an honor to be here with you today
to celebrate this, the completion
of this Minidoka Spillway Restoration Project.
As Lorri mentioned, from day one, and even before day one,
as I was preparing for confirmation hearings,
I heard from senators, I heard from our own staff,
the issue of aging infrastructure
and what a big challenge that was going to be for reclamation.
But here we have a beautiful example of how working
with our partners, working with folks like Minidoka and Burley
and Department of Ag, you know, all the players,
where we can come together, put a plan together
to make something work and function the way it should,
we've been able to complete this and make sure
that the 125,000 acres or so that rely
on this water will continue to get that water.
>> Roland Springer: We have prepared a few plaques
commemorating this event.
And the plaques are actually mounted on some of these old,
these stop logs that were used to control the flow
through the old structure.
It says, "Reclamation, managing water in the West.
Minidoka's Dam Spillway Completion Ceremony,
May 27th, 2015."
This plaque is mounted on wood from stop logs used
with the original 1906 spillway.
And so, first of all, I'd like to invite representatives
of Burley Irrigation District
and Minidoka Irrigation District.
[ Music ]
All right.
Okay, Salverella from RSCI.
[ Applause ]
And then also we have a plaque for each of our speakers
and I also have one for the commissioner.
Thank you so much.
[ Applause ]
[ Music ]