SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A bipartisan group of 21 Northwest lawmakers called on President Joe Biden to prioritize a long-running effort to renegotiate a 60-year-old treaty that governs how the United States and Canada share the waters of the Columbia River Basin. The lawmakers from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana urged the president to update the Columbia River Treaty. The Spokesman-Review reports efforts to revise the treaty began in 2013 amid concerns over salmon runs, flood risk and electricity the U.S. sends to Canada. The treaty came together after a 1948 flood washed away what once was Oregon’s second-biggest city, Vanport. It provided for the construction of one dam in Montana and three in British Columbia that doubled the amount of reservoir storage in the basin.
Northwest lawmakers seek progress on Columbia River Treaty
