KOOTENAI RIVER DRAINAGE 



Boundaries: Libby Dam to Idaho border 



Drainage size: 11,740 square miles 



Main stem length: 100 miles 



Tributaries: Yaak, Tobacco, Fisher, Wigwam 



Cities/Towns: Libby, Troy 



Access: U.S. Highway 2 



The Kootenai River drainage is a land of contrasts. Here in 

 northwest Montana, the Purcell, Cabinet, and Salish mountains seem 

 to rise even beyond their 7,000 and 8,000 feet above valley floors 

 that are the lowest in the state at only 1,800 to 1,900 feet 

 (Figure 2). Eastbound Pacific storms stumble on these ranges and 

 drop up to 100 inches of rainfall each year, nurturing huge 

 conifer forests in a climate moist by Montana standards. The 

 long, U-shaped canyons of these impressive ranges drain to form 

 the Kootenai River and its major tributary, the Yaak. 



Named for the Kutenai Indian Tribe, the "people of the 

 waters," the river originates in British Columbia's Kootenay 

 National Park and flows through Montana for 100 of its 485 miles 

 before joining the Columbia at Castlegar, British Columbia (Figure 

 2). The Kootenai is the second largest tributary to the Columbia, 

 surpassed only by the Snake River, and has a greater annual 

 discharge than the Flathead or the Yellowstone. The majority of 

 the Kootenai River drainage is managed by the Kootenai National 

 Forest, with timber and mining being the two major land use 

 activities . 



The secluded nature of this river has not been isolated from 

 major controversies, however. The free-flowing course of the 

 Kootenai River was shortened considerably when the Army Corps of 

 Engineers closed the gates on 400-foot Libby Dam in 1973, creating 

 Lake Koocanusa, which extends into Canada for almost half its 90 

 miles. Dramatic flow fluctuations created in the river below the 

 dam caused the Corps to propose a re-regulatory dam 10 miles 

 farther downstream. Although construction started on the "re-reg" 

 dam in 1978, a court injunction temporarily stopped the project 

 and it was finally abandoned because official authorization had 

 not been obtained from Congress. Dreams of damming the remainder 

 of the Kootenai still did not die. The feasibility of a "run-of- 

 the-river" project at Kootenai Falls was pursued in the late 

 1970s. This project was finally put to rest by a unanimous 

 decision of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in 

 1987. Today, the town of Libby has proposed a run-of -the-river 

 hydroelectric facility at the old re-reg site. A preliminary 

 permit was granted by FERC in 1987. 



Of the remaining 47 miles of free-flowing Kootenai River, one 

 place stands out -- one of the last remaining major undeveloped 

 waterfalls in Montana and the Pacific Northwest. Between the 

 towns of Libby and Troy, the placid water drops through China 



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