WHAT IS THE COLUMBIA RIVER TREATY?Columbia River Treaty • October 1st, 2010
The Columbia River Treaty (CRT) is an international agreement between Canada and the United States for the joint development, regulation and management of the Columbia River in order to coordinate flood control and optimize hydroelectric energy
FACT SHEETColumbia River Treaty • September 1st, 2021
A MODERN TREATY FOR THE COLUMBIA RIVERColumbia River Treaty • March 28th, 2017
The Columbia River supports tens of millions of people in seven states and British Columbia through power generation, water supply, fishing, flood control, transportation, and other ecosystem services. Yet the river faces a number of environmental problems that negatively impact those same people. Salmon populations have collapsed, taking with them the commercial fisheries and depressing coastal communities. Salmon conservation efforts cost hundreds of millions of dollars each year. In Canada, reservoirs flood hundreds of square miles of land, causing mudflats and dust storms and transforming beautiful valleys into muddy wastelands. And everywhere on the river and its tributaries, human development has polluted water, destroyed habitat, and degraded ecosystems. Both the United States and Canada have domestic programs to slow or reverse these environmental problems, but the Columbia River Treaty is a large obstacle to these efforts. By the terms of the treaty, 15.5 million acre feet of
We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to redefineColumbia River Treaty • December 1st, 2020
In May 2018, the U.S. and Canada began negotiations to modernize the 1964 Columbia River Treaty. The capstone of the dam building era, the CRT is an international agreement that governs water flows throughout the Basin. It has just two purposes: hydropower production and flood-risk management, with no consideration for ecosystems. It was designed without input from sovereign Indigenous nations. The general public was also excluded. An artifact of institutional racism and narrow thinking, the modernized treaty must do better.
ContractColumbia River Treaty • May 13th, 2008
The 1964 Columbia River Treaty (Treaty) is an international agreement between Canada and the United States of America for the cooperative development and
trans-boundary water management agreement between the United States and Canada signed in 1961 and ratified in 1964.Columbia River Treaty • May 15th, 2012
❚ The Columbia River is approximately 2000 kilometres long and is the largest North American river emptying into the Pacific Ocean.
COLUMBIA RIVER TREATYColumbia River Treaty • February 6th, 2023
The Columbia River Treaty was ratified by the United States and Canada in 1964 to govern Columbia River flows for flood control and power generation. Both nations are now evaluating potential changes to this long-standing agreement.
Treaty HighlightsColumbia River Treaty • January 2nd, 2019
WA-18Columbia River Treaty • October 14th, 2019
In 1961, the United States and Canada signed the Columbia River Treaty to provide flood control on the Columbia River and increase hydroelectricity production from better coordination of water flows.
COLUMBIA RIVER TREATYColumbia River Treaty • April 22nd, 2021
The Columbia River Treaty was ratified by the United States and Canada in 1964 to govern Columbia River flows for flood control and power generation. Both nations are now evaluating potential changes to this long-standing agreement.
PREFACEColumbia River Treaty • May 5th, 2020
In 1961, Canada and the United States ratified the Columbia River Treaty (CRT), an agreement designed to share water resources, including costs and benefits, between the two countries. The treaty entered into force in 1964, and mandated the construction and joint management of three dams in Canada. These dams increased reservoir storage and as a result, hydropower generation and flood control benefits throughout the basin. The agreement also entitled Canada to half of the downstream power benefit gained through joint management. From a governance perspective, the CRT has largely been regarded as a successful example of an international water agreement between upstream and downstream countries.
