Canada And U.S. To Open Renegotiations Of Columbia River Treaty
Listen
Next week, the United States and Canada will begin the official process of renegotiating the Columbia River Treaty, which expires in 2024. The 1964 agreement governs the upper reaches of the 1,200-mile Columbia River.
The U.S. State Department is leading the renegotiation. In a statement, the department outlined key objectives that include flood control, hydropower and ecosystem management.
The announcement won praise from both Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Washington, and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon.
DeFazio said the treaty is “of vital importance to the Pacific Northwest.”
In addition to the State Department, the negotiating team includes representatives from the Bonneville Power Administration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of the Interior and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
But there’s still no tribal representative. In an email, a spokesperson said the State Department will consult with Northwest tribes as negotiations proceed, but the department has “no plans to change the composition of the team.”
On Wednesday, Michael Marchand, chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville, expressed his disappointment in the process. He said the State Department has excluded the 15 Tribal Nations that live along the Columbia River.
“These are the people with the longest and deepest connections to the Columbia River, the people who have respected and depended upon the river and its salmon and other natural and cultural resources for thousands of years,” Marchand said in a statement.
Marchand also pointed out that the Solicitor’s Opinions from the U.S. Interior Department confirm that the 1.5 million-acre Colville Reservation includes a portion of the Columbia River from near Kettle Falls down river to its confluence with the Okanogan River. Two of the largest dams on the Columbia River are located on the reservation.
Copyright 2018 Northwest News Network
Related Stories:
Trial Begins In 1987 Case Of Victoria, BC Couple Killed In Northwestern Washington
On Friday, jurors heard about the mysterious final days of a young Canadian couple killed in 1987 — as well as the novel method authorities used to finally make an arrest three decades later. Continue Reading Trial Begins In 1987 Case Of Victoria, BC Couple Killed In Northwestern Washington
‘Genocide’ Has Been Committed Against Indigenous Women And Girls, Canadian Panel Says
A years-long government inquiry says human rights abuses “perpetrated historically and maintained today by the Canadian state” has led to violence against Indigenous women and girls that amounts to genocide. Continue Reading ‘Genocide’ Has Been Committed Against Indigenous Women And Girls, Canadian Panel Says
Canadian Court Again Rules For Washington Man In Tribal Hunting Rights Case
British Columbia’s Court of Appeal has sided with a Washington man in a decade-long tribal sovereignty case. On Thursday the Court dismissed a second appeal of the sovereign tribal hunting rights case of Rick Desautel, effectively reinstating a tribe the Canadian government declared ‘extinct’ more than six decades ago.
Continue Reading Canadian Court Again Rules For Washington Man In Tribal Hunting Rights Case
