The U.S. Department of State is hoping to have an agreement in principle by June with Canada in its negotiations over the Columbia River Treaty, which would leave time to write a new treaty before September 2024—when flood risk management provisions in the current treaty expire.
"Resolving the remaining sticking points by June is ambitious, but the United States believes it is achievable. We have made significant progress," Jill Smail, the State Department's chief U.S. negotiator for the Columbia River Treaty, said during a public listening session April 19.
The listening session was the first opportunity in more than three years for U.S. stakeholders to discuss concerns or provide input on treaty negotiations. Attending it were federal representatives from Bonneville Power Administration, NOAA Fisheries, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, along with other representatives from the State Department.
Smail recognized the Native American tribes and many stakeholders that have shared views and provided technical support, and noted that in all sessions and meetings, the U.S. negotiating team is guided by the 2013 U.S. Entity Regional Recommendations.
"Our goals remain to maintain a predictable and adequate level of flood risk management space in Canadian reservoirs; to rebalance the Canadian entitlement, which is the power benefit the United States sends to Canada; and to improve our coordination on ecosystem issues, including support for salmon migration in the [Columbia Basin]," she said.
Smail said that without an updated agreement, the United States will lose space in Canadian reservoirs that includes 20 million acre-feet of the 40 million acre-feet the Corps relies on to help prevent flooding.
That water also provides both countries with greater predictability to manage for the environment and for economic purposes, she said. While the existing treaty enables the United States to minimize flooding through "real-time calls" on Canadian reservoirs, that could come with unplanned operational disruptions that would impact both countries.
Smail said the original equations for the Canadian entitlement favored Canada, and the imbalance has become greater over time. "To be sustainable over the long term, we are looking at how the power benefits achieved through coordination can be equitably shared going forward," she said.
She also talked about strengthening flows for migrating salmon through a long-term agreement instead of renegotiating operations each year. Since the 1990s, she noted, the treaty operations have provided between 1 million and 1.5 million acre-feet of water each year for salmon migration. "We aim to bring greater certainty to these flows for salmon, and to create opportunities in the future for additional flows to benefit the ecosystem," she said. Negotiators are also working with the Upper Columbia United Tribes to explore opportunities for reintroducing salmon into blocked areas of the main-stem Columbia River.
Smail's remarks preceded comments made by more than two dozen people that had signed up to speak at the session.
Many of the speakers representing environmental groups asked the negotiating team to include ecosystem function as a co-equal purpose of the treaty, along with flood risk management and hydropower generation. Some also sought to add a member to the U.S. Entity to represent the ecosystem.
Those speaking on behalf of electric utilities noted the important role of hydropower in incorporating new intermittent resources like solar and wind as the region transitions to a clean electric grid. They also stressed that many low-income customers who get much of their power from BPA are already paying more than they can afford for energy, and said a rebalancing of the Canadian entitlement would help relieve that economic burden.
Miles Johnson, legal director for Columbia Riverkeeper, said water quality—including the amount, timing and temperature of the water coming out of Canada—is an important aspect to include in the treaty.
"As I think most people are aware, the Columbia River now becomes too hot for salmon and steelhead in some parts of most summers," Johnson said. "It's causing real problems for our returning adult fish, and including ecosystem function and accommodations for water quality in the framework of the treaty would really go a long ways towards potentially solving some of those problems."
John DeVoe, senior fundraiser and advisor of WaterWatch of Oregon, said in addition to including ecosystem function as a third co-equal purpose of the treaty, the U.S. Entity and the treaty's permanent engineering board should include someone representing the ecosystem.
"There must be a voice for the health of the river without other missions or interests," he said. As a related matter, he said the treaty should include a dry-year strategy between the two nations to augment streamflows for migratory fish. "There must be an international strategy to avoid massive salmonid die-offs like those that occurred in 2015," he said. He also suggested that the two countries should share modeling data on climate change, streamflow and temperature matters.
Nancy Hirsh, executive director of the NW Energy Coalition, stressed that a modernized treaty must account for the significant impacts of climate change and the decarbonization that is coming with it.
"What we need from the hydropower system is different now and will continue to change in the coming decades," she said. "We agree that the power entitlement with Canada needs to be rebalanced to reflect the changes in water flow, how they impact fish and wildlife obligations, and the value of the hydro system in a changing electricity system that has more diversity of renewable energy and storage resources that provide similar services of the hydro system."
Hirsh said climate change is also seriously impacting the basin's ecosystem and its salmon, and urged negotiators—as others had—to put ecosystem function on an equal footing with power and flood control. "These impacts highlight the need for a modernized treaty to specifically include adaptive ecosystem-based management as a priority with hydropower and flood management operations," she said.
George Caan, executive director of the Washington Public Utility Districts Association, focused on the impact of the treaty on low-income residents of the Northwest. He said a recent report by the Washington State Department of Commerce found that 25 percent of low-income customers in Washington are paying more than 6 percent of their income on energy, which is defined as an energy burden.
"Part of these costs are linked to the Canadian entitlement," Caan said, and asked the negotiating team to consider the impacts on low-income consumers during negotiations. The team, he said, should come to a resolution that not only rebalances the entitlement, but also provides a benefit to low income residents.
Ryan Holterhoff, senior policy analyst for government affairs at Grant County Public Utility District, said keeping more of the energy generated by hydropower in the United States should be an important goal of the rebalancing effort.
"Today, our region is growing at a rate that those who constructed our dams couldn't have foreseen, and as such, our utility is experiencing an unprecedented number of new service requests," he said.
That growth is putting pressures on resource adequacy, but hydropower's capacity and flexibility can help incorporate more renewables into the system. "The more capacity we can keep in the U.S., the more that capacity can be used to integrate with other intermittent renewables such as solar and wind, which overall will increase the penetration of renewable energy throughout the West," he said.
Scott Simms, CEO and executive director of the Public Power Council and chair of the Columbia River Treaty Power Group, thanked the negotiators for acknowledging the imbalance of power benefits favoring Canada, and noted that the challenges of meeting power demands are compounded by extreme weather events and new regulations.
"It would be immensely helpful if regional power interests could be brought into the discussions on power-related aspects of the treaty before the agreement solidifies," he told negotiators.
Simms said the power group does not support adding a new member to the U.S. Entity, noting that numerous federal agencies are already involved. "We say, keep it simple."
He also noted that BPA and its ratepayers, and other Columbia Basin utilities such as the mid-Columbia public utility districts, already fund the largest fish protection program in the world, investing in hatchery, habitat and hydro improvements. "These occur against a backdrop of continued harvest, predation, climate change and other factors," he said, adding that ecosystem aspects of the treaty must be covered by U.S. taxpayers.
