WATER MANAGEMENT ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER 



David Kent 

 Columbia River Basin Commission, Portland, Oregon 



We have heard comments about 

 needing long term studies of estua- 

 ries twenty-five years from now. 

 How do we deal with Federal water 

 resource projects when we lack 

 adequate information from which to 

 base decisions. Jim addressed 

 these issues more from a national 

 perspective. I would like to speak 

 about the regional problems on the 

 Columbia River. 



The Columbia River with its 

 estuary and its tributaries is the 

 dominant Pacific Northwest water re- 

 sources system. Originating at 

 Columbia Lake in the Canadian Rock- 

 ies, the Columbia flows about 1200 

 miles to the Pacific Ocean. Dis- 

 charges on an annual average are 

 about a quarter of a million cubic 

 feet per second of water at its 

 mouth. The drainage area is about 

 260,000 square miles or about five 

 times the drainage area of the Chesa- 

 peake system. This 260,000 square 

 miles includes about 85 percent of 

 the total area of the Pacific North- 

 west. The Columbia system, includ- 

 ing its largest tributary the Snake 

 River, flows through seven states as 

 well as Canada. The Columbia River 

 estuary, which for administrative 

 purposes is defined as the last 46 

 miles of the river, is the ninth 

 largest in the United States. Here 

 fresh and salt waters mix in a rich 

 and fragile environment. The re- 

 gion's water problems stem largely 

 from the competing uses to which 

 the river is put. Residents of the 

 Pacific Northwest count on the river 

 to supply sufficient hydroelectric 



power and support ever-increasing 

 agricultural production with irri- 

 gation development. We count on it 

 to provide transportation for com- 

 merce while maintaining fishery re- 

 sources and to provide recreation 

 opportunities for everyone. What 

 we are asking is that the Columbia 

 be all things to all people all the 

 time. Unfortunately, what we are 

 asking is not possible all of the 

 time. To help understand the puzzle 

 of these competing uses, I am going 

 to briefly describe just three of 

 the major areas for concern. Pre- 

 sently, the Columbia River with its 

 storage system is used to generate 

 about 80 percent of the electrical 

 energy for the northwest. To supply 

 this energy, the river's water must 

 pass through turbines in one or more 

 of the 60 mainstream or tributary 

 generating plants. These turbines 

 threaten the survival of juvenile 

 fish moving downstream, while the 

 dams present an obstacle to adult 

 fish migrating upstream. 



As the human population of the 

 region increases, so too will the 

 demand for energy. Because most of 

 the best hydroelectric sites al- 

 ready have been dammed, it will be 

 necessary to build more thermal or 

 nuclear-generating plants which di- 

 vert water for cooling purposes and 

 much of this water then is lost. 

 Approximately eight million acres of 

 land in the Pacific Northwest are 

 now being irrigated by water divert- 

 ed from the Columbia River system. 

 This accounts for more than 90 per- 

 cent of the region's total water 



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