Columbia River

The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: Wimahl or Wimal; Sahaptin: Nch’i-Wàna or Nchi wana; Sinixt dialect swah'netk'qhu) is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river forms in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. It flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state of Oregon before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. The river is 1,243 mi long, and its largest tributary is the Snake River. Its drainage basin is roughly the size of France and extends into seven states of the United States and one Canadian province. The fourth-largest river in the United States by flow, the Columbia has the greatest flow of any river into the eastern Pacific and the 36th greatest discharge of any river in the world.

The Columbia and its tributaries have been central to the region's culture and economy for thousands of years. They have been used for transportation since ancient times, linking the region's many cultural groups. The river system hosts many species of anadromous fish, which migrate between freshwater habitats and the saline waters of the Pacific Ocean. These fish—especially the salmon species—provided the core subsistence for native peoples.

The first documented European discovery of the Columbia River occurred when Bruno de Heceta sighted the river's mouth in 1775. On May 11, 1792, a private American ship, Columbia Rediviva, under Captain Robert Gray from Boston became the first non-indigenous vessel to enter the river. Later in 1792, William Robert Broughton of the British Royal Navy commanding HMS Chatham as part of the Vancouver Expedition, navigated past the Oregon Coast Range and 100 miles upriver to what is now Vancouver, Washington. In the following decades, fur-trading companies used the Columbia as a key transportation route. Overland explorers entered the Willamette Valley through the scenic, but treacherous Columbia River Gorge, and pioneers began to settle the valley in increasing numbers. Steamships along the river linked communities and facilitated trade; the arrival of railroads in the late 19th century, many running along the river, supplemented these links.

Since the late 19th century, public and private sectors have extensively developed the river.

To aid ship and barge navigation, locks have been built along the lower Columbia and its tributaries, and dredging has opened, maintained, and enlarged shipping channels. Since the early 20th century, dams have been built across the river for power generation, navigation, irrigation, and flood control. The 14 hydroelectric dams on the Columbia's main stem and many more on its tributaries produce more than 44 percent of total U.S. hydroelectric generation. Production of nuclear power has taken place at two sites along the river. Plutonium for nuclear weapons was produced for decades at the Hanford Site, which is now the most contaminated nuclear site in the United States. These developments have greatly altered river environments in the watershed, mainly through industrial pollution and barriers to fish migration.

In 1902, the United States Bureau of Reclamation was established to aid in the economic development of arid western states. One of its major undertakings was building Grand Coulee Dam to provide irrigation for the 600 thousand acres of the Columbia Basin Project in central Washington. With the onset of World War II, the focus of dam construction shifted to production of hydroelectricity. Irrigation efforts resumed after the war.

River development occurred within the structure of the 1909 International Boundary Waters Treaty between the United States and Canada. The United States Congress passed the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1925, which directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Power Commission to explore the development of the nation's rivers. This prompted agencies to conduct the first formal financial analysis of hydroelectric development; the reports produced by various agencies were presented in House Document 308. Those reports, and subsequent related reports, are referred to as 308 Reports.

The 308 Reports generated 176 publications across the United States. Of those 176 documents, thirteen of them were generated in the Pacific Northwest. In 1932, one of the thirteen reports was released on the Columbia River, titled The Columbia River and Minor Tributaries. The report was backed by many engineers and state politicians who believed that the creation of Dams along the Columbia River would be a strong candidate for generation of hydroelectric power. The report led to Congressional action, where dams at Bonneville and Grand Coulee were authorized in 1933.

The report itself emphasized the economic values of dam creation. Additionally, the reports emphasized the importance of dams for river navigation. Furthermore, the reports emphasized the importance of hydropower, storage of water for irrigation techniques, and flood control. To ensure that the dams did not affect biodiversity, many engineers and state politicians regarded the importance of salmon within the region. Thus, dams were to be built at a low height that would permit salmon to pass over.

In the late 1920s, political forces in the Northwestern United States generally favored the private development of hydroelectric dams along the Columbia. But the overwhelming victories of gubernatorial candidate George W. Joseph in the 1930 Republican primary, and later his law partner Julius Meier, were understood to demonstrate strong public support for public ownership of dams. In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill that enabled the construction of the Bonneville and Grand Coulee dams as public works projects. The legislation was attributed to the efforts of Oregon Senator Charles McNary, Washington Senator Clarence Dill, and Oregon Congressman Charles Martin, among others.

In 1948, floods swept through the Columbia watershed, destroying Vanport, then the second largest city in Oregon, and impacting cities as far north as Trail, BC. The flooding prompted the U.S. Congress to pass the Flood Control Act of 1950, authorizing the federal development of additional dams and other flood control mechanisms. By that time local communities had become wary of federal hydroelectric projects, and sought local control of new developments; a public utility district in Grant County, Washington, ultimately began construction of the dam at Priest Rapids.

In the 1960s, the United States and Canada signed the Columbia River Treaty, which focused on flood control and the maximization of downstream power generation. Canada agreed to build dams and provide reservoir storage, and the United States agreed to deliver to Canada one-half of the increase in United States downstream power benefits as estimated five years in advance.[128] Canada's obligation was met by building three dams (two on the Columbia, and one on the Duncan River), the last of which was completed in 1973.

Today the main stem of the Columbia River has fourteen dams, of which three are in Canada and eleven in the United States. Four mainstem dams and four lower Snake River dams contain navigation locks to allow ship and barge passage from the ocean as far as Lewiston, Idaho. The river system as a whole has more than 400 dams for hydroelectricity and irrigation. The dams address a variety of demands, including flood control, navigation, stream flow regulation, storage, and delivery of stored waters, reclamation of public lands and Indian reservations and territories, and the generation of hydroelectric power.

This river may have been shaped by God, or glaciers, or the remnants of the inland sea, or gravity, or a combination of all, but the Army Corps of Engineers controls it now. The Columbia rises and falls, not by the dictates of tide or rainfall, but by a computer-activated, legally arbitrated, federally allocated schedule that changes only when significant litigation is concluded, or a United States Senator nears election time. In that sense, it is reliable.

Timothy Egan, in The Good Rain.

The larger U.S. dams are owned and operated by the federal government (some by the Army Corps of Engineers and some by the Bureau of Reclamation), while the smaller dams are operated by public utility districts and private power companies. The federally operated system is known as the Federal Columbia River Power System, which includes 31 dams on the Columbia and its tributaries. The system has altered the seasonal flow of the river to meet higher electricity demands during the winter. At the beginning of the 20th century, roughly 75 percent of the Columbia's flow occurred in the summer, between April and September. By 1980, the summer proportion had been lowered to about 50 percent, essentially eliminating the seasonal pattern.

Upon its creation in 1942, the Grand Coulee Dam required land inundation for construction. This flooding included parts of the Colville Reservation and Spokane Reservation. Reservation flooding has resulted in the displacement of 2,250 indigenous peoples located on said reservations.

The installation of dams dramatically altered the landscape and ecosystem of the river. At one time, the Columbia was one of the top salmon-producing river systems in the world. Previously active fishing sites, such as Celilo Falls in the eastern Columbia River Gorge, have exhibited a sharp decline in fishing along the Columbia in the last century, and salmon populations have been dramatically reduced. Fish ladders have been installed at some dam sites to help the fish journey to spawning waters. Fish ladders have been seen as highly effective when configurations to fishway exits are properly configured, as reconstructing the Bradford Island fish ladder allowed Sockeye salmon to stray away from spillway zones, reducing fallback (the rate at which fish are found moving away from a dam post-migration) and mortality birthrates. However, improper construction of fish ladders can result in salmon populations exerting significantly more energy when breeding, which results in higher levels of fallback. Chief Joseph Dam has no fish ladders and completely blocks fish migration to the upper half of the Columbia River system.

In 2019, both the Yakama and Lummi Northwest Nations proposed to remove the Bonneville, John Day, and The Dalles dams due to their belief removal would strengthen salmon population. The former Chairman of the Lummi Nation, Jay Julius, stated in 2019 that the fate of salmon without dam removal for the Lummi Nation is a “horrifying reality”. JoDe Goudy, a former Chairman of the Yakama Nation, coincides with beliefs of the Lummi Nation, stating “The Columbia River Dams were built on this false legal foundation, and decimated the Yakama Nation’s fisheries, traditional foods, and cultural sites.”. Both Nations have worked with nonprofit advocacy organizations to further removal agendas.

Throughout 2021, the nonprofit organization Earthjustice represented 10 conservation and fishing organizations in negotiations with President Joe Biden over removal of dam operations on the Snake River. These negotiations culminated in a lawsuit, with Earthjustice requesting to completely halt operations due to their belief of Snake River Dam effects on salmon and steelhead fish runs. On December 15, 2021, the two parties agreed to settle the dispute and focus on a plan to mitigate fish extinction.

Proposed in December 2023, President Joe Biden agreed to a $1 billion mandate, which will attempt to reintroduce Columbia River salmon blockaded by dams. The mandate asked for the Bonneville Power Administration to supply US$300 million over a ten-year span starting in 2024, which includes habitat restoration and upgrades in fish hatcheries. Furthermore, the Biden administration has publicly stated it will examine the possibility of doubling fish and wildlife spending to meet tribal needs. As a benchmark for financial utilization, US$1 billion in backlogged projects have been identified in the Columbia River Basin. The mandate did not call for the removal of four dams on the Snake River.

Hydroelectricity

The Columbia's heavy flow and large elevation drop over a short distance, 2.16 feet per mile, give it tremendous capacity for hydroelectricity generation. In comparison, the Mississippi drops less than 0.65 feet per mile. The Columbia alone possesses one-third of the United States's hydroelectric potential. In 2012, the river and its tributaries accounted for 29 GW of hydroelectric generating capacity, contributing 44 percent of the total hydroelectric generation in the nation.

The largest of the 150 hydroelectric projects, the Grand Coulee Dam and Chief Joseph Dam are also the largest in the United States. As of 2017, Grand Coulee is the fifth largest hydroelectric plant in the world.

Inexpensive hydropower supported the location of a large aluminum industry in the region because its reduction from bauxite requires large amounts of electricity. Until 2000, the Northwestern United States produced up to 17 percent of the world's aluminum and 40 percent of the aluminum produced in the United States. The commoditization of power in the early 21st century, coupled with a drought that reduced the generation capacity of the river, damaged the industry and by 2001, Columbia River aluminum producers had idled 80 percent of its production capacity. By 2003, the entire United States produced only 15 percent of the world's aluminum and many smelters along the Columbia had gone dormant or out of business.

Power remains relatively inexpensive along the Columbia, and since the mid-2000 several global enterprises have moved server farm operations into the area to avail themselves of cheap power. Downriver of Grand Coulee, each dam's reservoir is closely regulated by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and various Washington public utility districts to ensure flow, flood control, and power generation objectives are met. Increasingly, hydro-power operations are required to meet standards under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and other agreements to manage operations to minimize impacts on salmon and other fish, and some conservation and fishing groups support removing four dams on the lower Snake River, the largest tributary of the Columbia.

In 1941, the BPA hired Oklahoma folksinger Woody Guthrie to write songs for a documentary film promoting the benefits of hydropower. In the month he spent traveling the region Guthrie wrote 26 songs, which have become an important part of the cultural history of the region.