Treaty agreement reached Modernized Columbia River Treaty will updated storage coordination, power sharing

After six years and 15 rounds of negotiation, the U.S. and Canada announced in July that they had reached an agreement in principle on modernizing the Columbia River Treaty. In August, the U.S. Department of State provided details on key elements of the modernized treaty during a public information session.

According to Jennifer Savage, director of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Canadian Affairs, modernizing the treaty will:

• Provide preplanned flood risk management beyond Sept. 16 (when the original treaty expired).
• Update the way hydropower and fish flow augmentation are coordinated, which will contribute to more stable and predictable operations on the system.
• Rebalance the Canadian entitlement.
• Provide consideration for tribal input on operations and adaptive management decisions.
• Meet ecosystem needs such as providing flows for salmon migration.

“Modernization is beneficial for the region, how we fuel the economy, support the environment, and gain Canada’s commitment to provide space to store floodwaters to protect U.S. life and property from floods,” Savage said. If a deal hadn’t been reached, U.S. reservoirs potentially would have been operated more conservatively at lower levels for longer periods of time leading to more unpredictability and a larger impact on other resources. Under the terms of the new agreement, in most years, U.S. reservoirs in the Columbia Basin will operate similarly to how they are operated today.

Savage said that in modernizing the treaty, Canada prioritized obtaining more autonomy over the treaty dams in Canada, and the U.S. made power coordination more flexible.

The Columbia River’s drainage basin is roughly the size of Texas and includes parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, and British Columbia. Canada makes up 15% of the basin but provides 35% of the flow on average.

The Columbia River Treaty was originally entered into force in 1964 with two objectives: hydropower and flood risk management. The U.S. paid Canada up front for assured flood space in Canadian treaty dams for 60 years. Through the treaty, the U.S. had the right to call on Canada to help manage flood risk by using 15.5 million acre feet of storage behind Keenleyside (also known as Arrow), Duncan, and Mica dams. In return for those flood benefits, the U.S. is required to deliver a certain amount of power to Canada, called the Canadian Entitlement.

Flood control

In the modernized treaty, Canada will provide the U.S. with 3.6 million acre feet of preplanned flood risk management storage at Arrow Lakes. The U.S. and Canada are working to identify arrangements to implement the preplanned flood risk management for the upcoming flood season (spring of 2025).

Preplanned flood risk management annual payments from the U.S. to Canada will be $37.6 million through 2044, indexed annually using the consumer price index. The U.S. will also provide an additional $16.6 million annually once the agreement is modernized in recognition that the U.S. will receive additional benefits from the preplanned flood risk management. That payment will be made through 2044 and will be indexed annually using the consumer price index.

Peter Dickerson from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers explained that once the agreed upon elements are implemented, U.S. reservoirs will maintain current levels of flexibility in a minimum of 70% of years including the 60% driest years, a roughly seasonal water supply forecast of 90 million acre feet through the April to August time period or less.

Power and the Canadian Entitlement

According to Hub Adams from Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), power operations will continue largely the same with a modernized treaty, however, the Canadian Entitlement will decrease substantially. Beginning Aug. 1, the Canadian Entitlement has been decreased 37%. By 2033, it will decrease by 50%, at which point BPA will be retaining about 600 megawatts of capacity in the Pacific Northwest and about 230 more average megawatts of energy than in recent years. If Canada decides to use more water storage at treaty dams to meet domestic needs, the size of the Canadian Entitlement will drop proportionately.

In addition, BPA will transfer rights — and associated costs — to existing transmission capacity to an entity designated by Canada. Adams said this will not impact other BPA customers.

Ecosystem

In order to elevate the voice and role of Tribes and Indigenous people in treaty operations, both the U.S. and Canada will establish a tribal and indigenous-led body referred to as the Joint Ecosystem and Indigenous and Tribal Cultural Values Body (JEB). JEB will provide recommendation on how treaty operations can better support ecosystem needs as well as tribal and indigenous cultural values. One of the things JEB is expected to do is feasibility studies on how to re-introduce salmon into blocked areas of the upper Columbia.

In addition, Canada will provide 1 million acre feet of water flows in all years and an additional 0.5 million acre feet in dry years to support salmon survival and migration.

Once the amendment text of the treaty is finalized, both countries will go through the process to bring the modernized treaty into force. Until that happens, the U.S. and Canada are working on interim measures for treaty coordination, power transmission, and preplanned flood risk management. Savage said in the interim, operations may be less predictable.

The information session can be viewed at state.gov/columbia-river-treaty/. More information about the modernized Columbia River Treaty is at state.gov/summary-of-the-agreement-in-principle-to-modernize-the-columbia-river-treaty-regime.