Bringing a 60 year old treaty into the 21st century

The Solutions We Need

A “modernized” Columbia River Treaty, under negotiation since 2018, must align with modern values of Indigenous sovereignty, economic and environmental partnership and civic engagement, and the modern reality of climate change.

To do this, the Treaty must be updated to:

• Make ecosystem health co-equal to existing treaty purposes of power production and flood control, so river flows and reservoir operations support fish and clean water
• Reform treaty governance and implementation to include expert representation for ecosystems, like biologists working alongside engineers
• Develop a new agreement for coordinating flood control across the border, so there is a balanced system for all
• Ensure the modernized treaty respects the rights of tribes and Indigenous nations and honors their unique expertise
• Create ongoing mechanisms for public education and citizen involvement, starting right now with renewed engagement between federal agencies and the Northwest public.

How we got here

Indigenous people have stewarded the Columbia River, which draws water from a river basin larger than France, and depended on its salmon since time immemorial. When explorers Lewis & Clark and David Thompson first stepped into the watershed in the early 1800s, as many as 16 million salmon returned each year to natal streams flowing in forests, deserts, and mountains.

Since then dams have transformed one of the earth’s richest salmon rivers into the earth’s largest integrated hydropower system. The resulting economic benefits have come with wrenching costs to both Indigenous and settler communities, fish and wildlife, and the river itself.

Part of this transformation came in the early 1950’s when Canada and the U.S. began negotiating the Columbia River Treaty to coordinate river development across the border. They excluded Indigenous people, and people of the basin generally, from the process. The resulting treaty, ratified in 1964, has only two purposes: maximizing hydropower generation and engineered flood control.

While treaty operations primarily concern three large upstream Canadian storage dams (plus Libby Dam in Montana), it has consequences everywhere. Only 15% of the watershed is located in Canada, but more than a third of the Columbia’s total flow originates there.

Canada is also the basin’s largest and most climate resilient source of cold water, which is critical for ensuring water quality for migrating salmon and other ecologically and culturally important aquatic species.

There are over sixty large dams in the Columbia River Basin, which together form a system operated for a mixture of priorities.

The Problems We Face

Since May 2018, the U.S. and Canada have been meeting to negotiate a “modernized” Columbia River Treaty. In July 2024, the two countries announced an “Agreement-In-Principle” (AIP).

Unfortunately, the AIP excludes the addition of Ecosystem Function as a third primary purpose of the modernized Treaty, as was called for in the 2013 U.S. Regional Recommendation and by Columbia Basin tribes and many stakeholders. Without formal recognition of Ecosystem Function as a new primary purpose, the health of the river and its fish populations will continue to remain a secondary issue in Treaty implementation. This concern is heightened because the water flow component of the AIP will not meet the needs of Columbia River salmon.

However, there are four actions that the Biden Administration must act on as the “new” Treaty is finalized over the months ahead:

1. Support and help secure Congressional appropriations in FY2026 necessary for the ACOE to undertake the Flood Risk Policy Review called for in the 2013 Regional Recommendation. The Northwest urgently needs to understand options for managing flood risk while also identifying opportunities to provide fish flows and improve habitat. This study must consider changes to existing flood control rule curves and “green” infrastructure projects that can abate flood waters, reconnect the river to historic floodplains and reduce our reliance on Canada. It could also identify weaknesses in existing traditional flood infrastructure. Given that traditional flood control capacity in Canada seems poised to decrease under the AIP, now is the time to proceed with this long-delayed assessment. 

2. Call on the Biden Administration to improve Treaty governance by adding expert representation for ecosystems to the Treaty’s governing bodies. The current membership of the Treaty’s governing bodies (U.S. Entity, Canadian Entity, Permanent Engineering Board, and committees) is currently unable to serve as an effective “voice for the river.” President Biden should amend Section 101 of Executive Order 11177 to appoint, for example, the Environmental Protection Agency and/or NOAA Fisheries to serve on the U.S. Entity alongside Bonneville Power Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Similarly, the U.S. should work with Canada to update Article XV of the current Treaty to add members with ecosystem expertise to the Permanent Engineering Board and supporting committees. 

3. Call on the State Department to include language to the modernized Treaty that ensures a strong and effective voice for the Joint Ecosystem and Indigenous and Tribal Cultural Values Body (JEB). The AIP creates the JEB to help inform how Treaty operations can better support ecosystem needs and Tribal and Indigenous cultural values. Unfortunately, the AIP does not reflect any language that would require the bodies that currently govern the Treaty (U.S. Entity, Canadian Entity, Permanent Engineering Board, and committees) to implement the JEB’s recommendations. It is essential that the JEB’s input on Treaty implementation be prescriptive rather than merely advisory to fulfill U.S. commitments on Indigenous inclusion and ecosystem health, and avoid repeating past mistakes and perpetuating injustice.

4. Call on the State Department to include formal, regular meaningful public engagement mechanisms in the modernized Treaty. Many international watershed governance systems, both in North America and around the world, include tools to support ongoing public education, input and a sense of ownership. Incorporating real public engagement opportunities and expanded transparency into the Columbia River Treaty will enhance long-term success and outcomes, and public support and investment.

We need help encouraging politicians and federal officials to seize this once-in-a-generation window of opportunity to craft a treaty that will help, not hurt, the Northwest.

TAKE ACTION NOW

Grand Coulee (WA) is the only American dam on the mainstem Columbia with major storage capacity and so is largely dependent on upstream operations in Canada. Other storage dams whose operations could shift under a new treaty include John Day (OR/WA), Libby (MT), Hungry Horse (MT), Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ (MT), Dworshak (ID), Brownlee (ID), and Alberni Falls (ID).