Water spills over the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, which runs along the Washington and Oregon state line, on June 21, 2022. Top officials in both Canada and the United States are pushing for the need to finalize the Columbia River Treaty to manage water flowing between the two countries before the administration change in America.Jessie Wardarski/The Associated Press
The Columbia River springs from an icefield in B.C.’s Rocky Mountains and winds 1,930 kilometres through the Northwestern United States. No other river on the continent spills more water into the Pacific Ocean, and for 60 years it has been controlled by one of the most important water agreements in North America.
There is some hope – diminishing with every day that ticks toward Jan. 20 – that a new agreement can be secured as one of U.S. President Joe Biden’s last significant acts in office. This summer, the two countries reached an agreement-in-principle on a modern treaty that will replace an outdated and flawed pact. Now more than ever, this treaty needs to be replenished to remind both Canadians and Americans of the benefits of working together in mutual aid.
The town of Vanport, Ore. was protected from the Columbia River by a series of dikes that were a minimum of five metres high. In the spring melt of 1948, the river overtopped the dikes, wiping out the town in a day and leaving 15 dead. The push to tame the river began.
It wasn’t until 1961 that Canada and the U.S. agreed on how to do that. The first Columbia River Treaty, signed by then prime minister John Diefenbaker and President Dwight Eisenhower, extracted much from the Columbia. The treaty provided not just flood control but also power generation and profit-sharing.
B.C. has reaped billions of dollars through the sale of hydroelectricity, while U.S. communities have been able to count on stable water levels and economic development backed by dependable electricity.
There were costs. As part of the deal, B.C. built a series of dams and reservoirs that inundated 110,000 hectares on the Canadian side. Residents lost their homes, farmers and loggers lost their livelihoods and First Nations’ burial sites and artifacts disappeared beneath the waters. The dams were built without fish ladders, destroying what had been the largest and most productive salmon watershed in the world.
Today U.S. utilities say they are paying too much for electricity, and Canadians are tired of watching Americans enjoy reliable water levels while their own reservoirs dry up.
The new agreement offers benefits and tradeoffs on both sides of the border and addresses some of the major shortcomings of the one struck more than 60 years ago.
South of the border, users will see lower electricity costs, but the new terms reduce by 25 per cent the water B.C. must deliver to the U.S. for hydropower – opening the possibility for more water to be kept north of the border.
B.C. will forfeit more than US$1-billion in hydroelectricity revenues to U.S. power users, while the U.S. has agreed to pay the province tens of millions of dollars a year for its role in holding back flood waters that could otherwise devastate cities like Portland.
First Nations and tribes who were ignored in the first round of talks will be at the table under the terms of the 20-year deal, participating through an Indigenous advisory body on issues related to the river.
The biggest winner will be the environment. The deal would formally dedicate some of the Columbia’s waters to help salmon survive at times of the year when the river flow grows sparse and warm. The two countries say they will work together to restore salmon to upper stretches of the Columbia, where dams have blocked movement of the fish for many decades.
“That agreement-in-principle secures the largest fresh water supply and the largest source of hydro power in North America and locks in those benefits for decades to come,” noted the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Canada, David Cohen, during a meeting with The Globe and Mail’s editorial board. He said Mr. Biden hopes to sign the deal, and both sides are at the table “every day” working to conclude the deal before the incoming President Donald Trump takes office.
“It is one of the least talked about but most significant legacies of what has been happening over the last few years between Canada and the United States,” Mr. Cohen said.
No province has more at stake than British Columbia. Premier David Eby says the deal is vital to both countries. If it can’t be done under President Biden’s watch, “then we’ll continue our discussions with the next administration.”
With all the potential challenges of trade disputes ahead between Canada and the U.S., the Columbia River Treaty ought to be a point of amity, no matter who is at the helm.