Achieving Columbia River Treaty 2.0: Challenges of A 21st Century Update to An International Dam and Power Generation Treaty

By Keith Edmund White

Source:  CRT Digital Library, http://crtlibrary.cbt.org/items/show/125

Editor-in-Chief

A local Washington State paper, talks Columbia River Treaty (CRT) renewal, detailing the ecological pressures that accompany updating a 20^th century power generation-flood control treaty to reflect 21^st century concerns.  But are renewal talks over CRT, a treaty that whose expiration clock starts running in 2014, more likely to stumble over financial terms?  

Then again, will this impressive water-management/power generation treaty, which stretches from British Columbia to Montana, be able to adapt to ecological concerns or the demands of Native peoples on both sides of the border?  

Keith White discusses the CRT's impressive 50-year evolution.

The Columbia River Treaty:  'Kaiser City' Floods, 50 Years Canada-U.S. Flood and Power Cooperation Starts

In May 1948, a ten-foot high deluge inundated the city of Vanport, then the second-largest city in Oregon locate between Portland and Vancouver.  The Vanport Flood not only washed a city (striking “Kaiser City” from the U.S. cultural lexicon), but ushered in a impressive treaty where the United States swapped power generation in return for Canada providing regional flood control.  (Page jump after the photo)

Source:  CRT 2014/2024 Review-Recent  U.S. Entity Study Results available in full below.