An agreement in principle has been reached on key elements to modernize the 60-year-old Columbia River Treaty, reflecting changing climate and other needs of communities economically dependent on the river and its tributaries.
A White House statement issued July 11 noted the importance of the Columbia River to the nation’s economy, generating 40% of the nation’s hydropower, irrigating $8 billion in agriculture products and moving 42 million tons of commercial cargo annually.
The United States and Canada have jointly managed the waterways for 60 years. In May, 2018 the two nations began negotiating to modernize the treaty over the next 20 years.
White House officials said that modernizing the treaty would elevate the voices of U.S. tribes and Canada’s indigenous nations, with a goal of rebalancing energy coordination between the two countries.
This would allow the U.S. to keep more clean hydropower energy at home while giving Canada more opportunities to import from and export to U.S. markets, they said. The U.S. would also benefit from pre-planned water storage at Canadian Treaty dams to help control flooding and protect vulnerable communities.
The tentative deal prompted kudos from Neil Maunu, executive director of the Portland, Oregon-based Pacific Northwest Waterways Association (PNWA). Maunu said there would be many days ahead to ensure the details of a modernized treaty and operations plan meet the requirements of their industry.
“We are excited that safe river navigation, transportation, flood control, and hydropower will remain an efficient and reliable centerpiece to our region and its economy,” he said.
PNWA has challenged the Biden administration’s June 18 announcement creating the Columbia River Task Force and the release of a report acknowledging the harm that federal dams have continued to inflict on Native America tribes in the region.
White House officials said at the time that the task force advances a historic agreement to work in partnership with tribes and states from the Pacific Northwest to restore wild salmon populations in the Columbia River Basin and develop a long-term strategy to meet clean energy, transportation and other regional needs.
The Columbia River’s drainage basin is roughly the size of Texas and includes areas of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming and British Columbia. The treaty’s hydropower operations and management of flood risk provide substantial benefits to millions of people on both sides of the border and have also yielded environmental benefits in the Columbia River Basin, White House officials said.