British Columbia to regain control of Columbia River in new agreement

British Columbia will regain greater control over one of the continent’s most important waterways, but will forfeit more than US$1-billion in hydroelectricity revenues to U.S. power users in a new agreement to modernize the countries’ joint management of the Columbia River.

The U.S. has agreed, in exchange, to pay British Columbia tens of millions of dollars a year for the province’s role in holding back flood waters that could otherwise devastate cities like Portland.

In total, B.C. expects a decrease of less than C$10-million a year compared with the arrangement that has been maintained under the Columbia River Treaty, a key document that was ratified 60 years ago. 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 after years of B.C. residents watching their reservoirs dry up while U.S. boaters enjoy high waters.

The 20-year agreement in principle, announced by the two governments on Thursday, was struck after 19 rounds of negotiations that spanned six years. It creates an Indigenous advisory body for issues related to the river and formally dedicates some of its waters to help salmon survive at times of the year when Columbia flows grow 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.

A finalized treaty could take another year or two to ratify, adding an element of political uncertainty, with the U.S. electing a president in November. Still, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the agreement “demonstrates what has long been the case: that our two countries work so closely together for the benefit of our people.” He made the remarks in Washington, where leaders from the U.S., Canada and other countries have gathered this week for a NATO summit.

Mr. Blinken was joined by Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, who said the deal will support bringing salmon back to the Columbia River. The U.S. has, to date, allocated far more funding to that work than Canada.

The first Columbia River Treaty, signed in 1961 by Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, marked a pivotal moment for co-operation between the two countries over the 2,000-kilometre waterway, which today generates 40 per cent of U.S. hydroelectricity and provides irrigating water for US$8-billion in agricultural goods.

At the same time, waters dammed on the Columbia flooded important Indigenous sites. The disappearance of salmon from its upper reaches was a change so profound that Canadian authorities at one point trucked in Spam to Indigenous communities to compensate for the disappearance of salmon as food.

The new agreement is “a definite good step in the right direction,” said Keith Crow, chief of the Lower Similkameen Indian Band. But much uncertainty remains, including how the agreement will affect funding to B.C. Indigenous groups.

The original Columbia treaty entitled B.C. to a portion of the hydroelectric revenue from U.S. dams, an amount that has exceeded C$400-million a year. Last year, the province agreed to provide 15 per cent of that money to the Ktunaxa, Secwépemc and Syilx Okanagan Nations on a temporary basis. Those revenues are expected to decline in line with the reduced B.C. entitlement under the new agreement.

In the U.S., utility companies had chafed at the existing Canadian entitlement, which they believe forced them into higher electricity prices. “We’ve been overpaying for decades now,” said Zabyn Towner, chief executive officer of Northwest Requirements Utilities, a trade association that represents utility providers in seven states.

The reduction in those payments, which comes into effect next month, “looks like a positive piece,” he said, with benefits that will accrue to electricity users across the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

According to senior U.S. officials, the old agreement would have obligated electricity payments to B.C. of US$2.78-billion over the next 20 years. The new deal reduces that to US$1.5-billion.

However, much of that decrease is expected to be offset by payments to B.C. for the benefits its dams provide to the U.S., including in managing floods. In total, B.C. expects the new agreement to be worth US$127-million less over 20 years.

“Yes, we did take less in funding. But we got more in actual benefits, which is critically important,” said Katrine Conroy, the B.C. Finance Minister, who is responsible for Columbia River matters.

The province sought more control over water, she said, in part to address the anger of residents over low summer levels in the Arrow Lakes in the B.C. southeast. That anger has been compounded by knowledge that the U.S. has kept some of its own reservoirs full, providing much better opportunities for boaters and other users.

Canada previously agreed to allocate 15.5 million acre feet in its reservoirs for hydroelectricity. The new agreement drops that to 11.5 million acre feet through 2039. An acre foot is 1.2 million litres of water.

For the U.S., the reduction in control will create new complexities in managing water flows for irrigation, hydroelectricity, flooding and recreation.

“This could affect system benefits in some water years,” said Michael Connor, assistant secretary of civil works for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.