Saint Francis Dam Disaster National Memorial Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. KNIGHT. I thank the Speaker for letting us talk about such an important issue.

Mr. Speaker, this issue has been bantered about in my district for many years, and we are finally getting recourse whereby we are going to have a memorial for the second largest disaster in California's history.

It is interesting that this happened about 20 miles from my house, and many people will drive by and not know that the Saint Francis Dam is there. Yet the Saint Francis Dam was there in 1928, and it killed approximately 437 people, becoming the second largest disaster in California's history. Entire families were wiped out in the early hours of March 12, 1928, as nearly 12 billion gallons of water flowed down the San Francisquito Canyon, located in my district, all the way to the Pacific Ocean, which is 54 miles away.

The dam was a project by the great William Mulholland, who was best known for creating the L.A. aqueduct system. However, this project of his ended in disaster, and it is one of the biggest civil engineering disasters in our Nation.

Subsequently, the failure of the Saint Francis Dam changed the methods that were used to create new dams and to set new safety standards across the Nation, including the construction of the Hoover Dam. The dam site has remained unprotected and hidden for 88 years and needs to be protected. As well, there needs to be a memorial established for the victims and their families.

My bill, H.R. 5244, seeks to memorialize these people who perished at the site of the Saint Francis Dam, and it creates a 440-acre national monument to preserve the site for educational purposes and to attract visitors.

The remains of the dam are of local and national historical significance and should be protected for the future of all Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the support of this bill.

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