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:
“The young women, what can they not learn, what can they not achieve, with Columbia University annex thrown open to them? In this great outlook for women’s broader intellectual development I see the great sunburst of the future.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself—for it is from the soil, both from its depth and from its surface, that a river has its beginning.”
—Laura Gilpin (1891–1979)
“There is between sleep and us something like a pact, a treaty with no secret clauses, and according to this convention it is agreed that, far from being a dangerous, bewitching force, sleep will become domesticated and serve as an instrument of our power to act. We surrender to sleep, but in the way that the master entrusts himself to the slave who serves him.”
—Maurice Blanchot (b. 1907)