Columbia River Treaty 2014/2024 Review: Phase 1 Technical Studies

Since 1964, the Columbia River Treaty has provided significant benefits to the United States and Canada through coordinated river management by the two countries. It remains the standard against which other international water coordination agreements around the world are compared. When the Treaty was negotiated, its goals were to provide significant flood control and power generation benefits to both countries. However, the Treaty contains two provisions that may significantly change these benefits as early as the year 2024. First, in 2024 the 60 years of purchased flood control space in Canadian Treaty projects expires. Instead of a coordinated and managed plan to regulate both Canadian and U.S. projects for flood control, the Treaty calls for a shift to a Canadian operation under which the United States can call upon Canada for flood control assistance. The United States can request this “called upon” assistance as needed but only to the extent necessary to meet forecast flood control needs in the United States that cannot adequately be met by U.S. projects. When called upon is requested, the United States will then have to pay Canada for its operational costs and any economic losses resulting from the called upon flood control operation. Second, while the Treaty has no specified end date, it does allow either Canada or the United States the option to terminate most of the provisions of the Treaty on or after Sept. 16, 2024, with a minimum of 10 years advance written notice. Thus, the year 2024 is the first year a notice of termination would take effect assuming written notice of termination is given by the Canadian or U.S. governments by 2014. Unless the Treaty is terminated or the federal governments elect to modify the Treaty, its provisions continue indefinitely, except for the changes in flood control discussed above. Given the significance of both of these provisions, it is important that the parties to the Treaty understand the implications for post-2024 Treaty planning and Columbia River operations. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bonneville Power Administration, the agencies that implement the Treaty in the United States on behalf of the U.S. Entity (see Treaty Governance sidebar), are conducting a multi-year effort to understand these implications. This effort is called the 2014/2024 Columbia River Treaty Review.

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