Columbia River Treaty

The Columbia River Treaty is an agreement between Canada and the United States on the development and operation of dams in the upper Columbia River basin for power and flood control benefits in both countries. Four dams were constructed under this treaty: three in Canada (Duncan Dam, Mica Dam, Keenleyside Dam) and one in the United States (Libby Dam). The treaty provided for both the construction of these dams as well as the regulation of the power produced in the Columbia River generating complex. The long-term impacts of the treaty have been mixed: while the dams provided economic benefits through hydroelectric generation and flood control, there are longstanding concerns regarding social costs to the local aboriginal communities, and the environmental effects associated with the construction of large dams.

Read more about Columbia River Treaty:  Background, Treaty Provisions, Impacts

Famous quotes containing the words columbia, river and/or treaty:

    Although there is no universal agreement as to a definition of life, its biological manifestations are generally considered to be organization, metabolism, growth, irritability, adaptation, and reproduction.
    —The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, the first sentence of the article on “life” (based on wording in the First Edition, 1935)

    There are knives that glitter like altars
    In a dark church
    Where they bring the cripple and the imbecile
    To be healed.

    There’s a woden block where bones are broken,
    Scraped clean—a river dried to its bed
    Charles Simic (b. 1938)

    He was then in his fifty-fourth year, when even in the case of poets reason and passion begin to discuss a peace treaty and usually conclude it not very long afterwards.
    —G.C. (Georg Christoph)