An irrigation well pumping groundwater into an irrigation canal. In 1902 President Theodore Roosevelt signed the National Reclamation Act allowing funds being made available for the development of the American West. In 1903 the Salt River Valley Water User's Association was formed and tasked with the harnessing of the Verde and Salt Rivers. These two rivers drain a combined are of about 13, 000 square miles and had a tendency to flood during spring runoff and often almost dried up during the summer months. The first dam constructed along the Salt River was the Theodore Roosevelt Dam, completed in 1911. This was followed by another 4 dams along the Salt River and three dams along the Verde River. This allowed the Association, now generally known as Salt River Project (SRP) to regulate the runoff of these two rivers by capturing and storing excess spring runoff, and releasing water on a need basis during summer. Below the confluence of the Verde and Salt River they constructed the Granite Reef Diversion Dam that allows them to divert water into two major canals, one on each side of the river. These two canals were further split into more canals, laterals and smaller channels allowing them to put water to any piece of land in the system. The total length of the canal system is 1265 miles. They realized that as water is diverted out of the delivery system that the flow diminishes and that downstream users would have less water available. So they built a network of large irrigation wells, some of them capable of pumping 500 gpm (gallons per minute) or more to supplement the surface water in the canal system. This system provides co-mingled water to municipalities, as well as agricultural and urban irrigators. The well shown is one of those wells, pumping groundwater into the Arlington Canal, roughly about 60 miles downstream from the Granite Reef Diversion Dam. This picture was taken on 13 August 2017, Sig...