New Report shows Columbia River Basin worth $198 billion annually

CHELAN VALLEY - According to a report released by Earth Economics on Thursday, July 6, the Columbia River Basin is worth $198 billion every year in food, water, flood risk reduction, recreation, habitat, aesthetic and other benefits.

That’s billion, with a ‘B’.

The 154-page report looked at 258,000 square miles from the headwaters in British Columbia, Wyoming and Nevada through Idaho, Washington, Oregon and up coastal fisheries to Southeast Alaska. The report was supported by several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and fifteen Columbia Basin Tribes including the Confederated Tribe of the Colville Reservation.

Part of the report also looked at modernizing dam management by increasing water flows during the late summer and early fall to and during low runoff years to  as a way to increase the capital value by “improving immigration, habitat and water quality for residents and anadromous fish.”

Although the report talked about a 10% increase in ecosystem-based function, “it is a hypothetical example of how benefits could increase if widespread ecosystem improvements were to occur under the modernized scenario,” Communications Specialist for Earth Economics Jessica Hanson said. “Ecosystem-based function improvements such as restoring natural floodplain function and improving native riparian vegetation would likely support increased biodiversity, sustain more stable ecosystems and increase wild salmon runs throughout the basin.”

The report comes as members of the Columbia River Treaty begin to renegotiate the deal, which is due for an update in 2024.

On June 21, seven members of Congress from the Northwest, (including Washington Congressmen Dan Newhouse, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Dave Reichert and Jaime Herrera Beutler) asking President Trump to renegotiate the Columbia River Treaty with Canada.

The original treaty, signed in 1964, was calculated on a 60-year lifespan, but Canada has been stagnant in coming to the negotiation table, so the letter was a way to coax Trump into initiating negotiations with Canada.

According to Earth Economics, the current treaty has only two primary goals: flood-risk management and hydropower generation. The NGOs tribes and other regional stakeholders are asking that ecosystem-based function be included in the new treaty because it “acknowledges what nature provides and peoples’ obligation to protect and nurture it.”

“Updating the Columbia River Treaty to include ecosystem-based function and improving dam management would benefit everyone who lives in this sacred place. It would benefit our economy, our wildlife and our culture,” D.R Michel, Executive Director of the Upper Columbia United Tribes stated in a press release on July 6.

The full list of participating tribes includes: Coeur d’Alene Tribe, Kalispel Tribe of Indians, Spokane Tribe of Indians, Kootenai Tribe of Idaho, The Confederated Tribe of the Colville Reservation, Nez Perce Tribe, The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, Burns Paiute Tribe, Ft. McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribes, Shoshone Paiute Tribe of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, Cowlitz Indian Tribe, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation.