 You can see it. You can hear it. You can feel it. Nature's awesome power, momentarily tapped by mankind in an equally awesome facility of concrete and steel that astonishes the senses. Here, in the third power plant of Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River in Washington State, the massive force of falling water drives the world's largest hydroelectric turbine, producing power for thousands of people throughout the wet. Whether at home, at work, or at play, we have only to flip a switch and that power runs a factory or prints a newspaper. I've been an operator here at Grand Coulee Dam for more than 20 years. It's an amazing place. When the third powerhouse was completed in 1983, it more than tripled the output of our facility. The third powerhouse alone can generate enough power to operate the cities of Seattle and Portland. Adding the third power plant made the best possible use of an existing hydropower cycle. Hydropower is clean power too. There's no pollution. And of course our fuel, water, is used over and over again as part of the hydrological cycle. The energy is stored in Lake Roosevelt behind the dam. Grand Coulee Dam was built by the Bureau of Reclamation from the early 1930s through the early 1940s. Today its enormous generating capacity, 6.5 million kilowatts, and state-of-the-art equipment make it one of the most efficient power generating facilities in the world. This is one of the reasons that customers of reclamation power enjoy some of the lowest electric rates in the country. Grand Coulee Dam provides the Bonneville Power Administration with over one-fifth of the Federal Columbia River Power System generation. The 20 billion kilowatt hours provided annually by the Grand Coulee Dam is among the lowest cost power produced for the Bonneville Power Administration. But power is not the only benefit from this great structure. Grand Coulee Dam is the key feature of the Bureau of Reclamation's Columbia Basin Project. Water is pumped from Lake Roosevelt to Banks Lake and then is distributed to over half a million acres of highly productive agricultural land. Grand Coulee Dam is also operated to help control flooding and regulate river flow. And as anybody who lives in this part of the country knows, it offers great recreational opportunity. Grand Coulee Dam is the largest of the Bureau of Reclamation's 50 hydro plants that are located throughout the 17 western states. These plants are part of Reclamation's operations and maintenance program of operating, preventive maintenance and operational modification. This program has produced significant increases in generating capacities and efficiency. What we do here at Grand Coulee Dam is very important to a lot of people in the west, even throughout the country. Whether it's performing general maintenance, repairing equipment, or replacing worn out parts, we always try to do the best possible job we can. We plan and schedule our work to keep outages to a minimum and to keep productivity high. If the machine is can complete the machining of the wicket gates by day 72, we can keep on schedule. We plan to work two shifts during this period and we expect to finish the wicket gates about a week early. We'll need the three days to get set up for machining the seal rings. We think quite a lot of our facilities and the way in which we operate and maintain them. Hydropower accounts for about 12% of this country's supply of electricity. And here in the west, Reclamation plays a big part in providing that electricity. Our plants produce over 50 billion kilowatt hours each year. That's enough to take care of the needs of well over 15 million people. Without a doubt, the way we handle our jobs is important to a lot of people. With machine tools like this, we rebuild the critical parts of our generators and turbines. This extends the life of them and gets a maximum return on the dollar that we spend. This modern equipment assists us to achieve the precision and uniformity in the upkeep of our equipment here. I am proud to be part of this. Reclamation places a high priority on efficiency and reliability. New and innovative maintenance methods are continually being developed to ensure that low cost, reliable power will always be available. Using special alloys and new welding techniques to reduce the effects of cavitation. By making small changes in the contour of these blades, it will shape to minimize cavitation. This gives improved efficiency with less downtime. Here at Grand Coulee Dam, we have the hydropower show place of the world. Each year we are hosting more than one half million visitors from all over the world. We're quite proud of that fact. It shows our pride in America. Come visit us and see for yourself.