GRAND COULEE, Wash. – Today, the Bureau of Reclamation and local partners celebrated the culmination of Reclamation’s 120th anniversary year events and Reclamation’s service to the American people. The event, hosted at Columbia Basin Project/Grand Coulee Dam, also recognized the 81st anniversary of Lake Roosevelt’s first fill in June 1942.
“It is an honor to celebrate with our partners as we wrap up Reclamation’s 120th anniversary year at Grand Coulee Dam, Reclamation’s largest multipurpose project’s main feature,” said Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton. “Partnerships like the ones demonstrated today will continue to benefit the American public throughout the next 120 years.”
Through the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Reclamation is investing $8.3 billion over five years for water infrastructure projects, including water purification and reuse, water storage and conveyance, as well as desalination and dam safety. The Inflation Reduction Act is providing an additional $4.6 billion to address historic drought in the West.
As the nation’s largest wholesale water supplier, Reclamation is an important part of many communities in the West by delivering 10 trillion gallons of water to more than 31 million people each year. Reclamation owns 491 dams and operates 338 reservoirs across 17 western states. The Columbia Basin Project is critically important to the northwest communities that it supports. This project provides irrigation water to about 680,000 acres of land.
Approximately 50 percent of Reclamation’s dams were built between 1900 and 1950, and approximately 90 percent of the dams were built before adoption of currently used, state-of-the-art design and construction practices. Today’s celebration holds historical significance to showcase how the bureau has kept Reclamation at the forefront of modern engineering for the past 120 years.
The Grand Coulee Dam and the Left Powerhouse were constructed between 1933 and 1941. The dam comprises three major hydroelectric power generating plants and a pump generating plant. The facilities provide power generation, irrigation, flood control, stream flow regulation for fish migration, navigation, and recreation. The economic values of the Columbia Basin Project include irrigated crops valued at $1.2 billion annually, hydropower production of approximately $500 million annually, and the prevention of more than $206 million in flood damages since 1950.
“Reclamation values the continued, successful partnerships with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Spokane Tribe of Indians, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration, and local irrigators in operation of the Grand Coulee, as well as the protection and management of critical cultural and natural resources,” said Jennifer Carrington, Reclamation’s Columbia–Pacific Northwest regional director. “We are proud to celebrate Reclamation’s 120th Anniversary and the years of service to the Pacific Northwest.”
# # #