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Officials Celebrate Elephant Butte Centennial

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. (AP) — Standing at the foot of one of New Mexico's most important pieces of water infrastructure, Gov. Susana Martinez and a crowd of state and federal officials marked the 100th birthday of Elephant Butte Dam. The construction of the dam and the ability to store water in the reservoir has allowed for a century of irrigation in southern New Mexico, West Texas and Mexico. The towering concrete structure provides flood control for the lower Rio Grande and irrigation water to 178,000 acres of farmland. It also created the state's largest lake. Wednesday's celebration was followed by guided tours of the dam. Congress authorized construction of Elephant Butte Dam in February 1905. The Bureau of Reclamation oversaw construction over a five-year period. When completed in 1916, it was the second-largest dam in the world, surpassed only by the Aswan Dam in Egypt.