A Crucial River Treaty Is Tangled in Trump's Feud With Canada
Caught up in the tariff spat between the United States and Canada is a little-known treaty that shapes the lives of millions of Americans and Canadians.
The 60-year-old treaty governs the water rushing down the Columbia River, which snakes from British Columbia through Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon, and provides the single largest source of hydropower in the United States. But parts of the treaty expired around the U.S. presidential election.
Negotiators were still weeks away from completing the details of an updated version of the treaty when President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s term ended. Then a decade of talks crashed into President Trump's hostility toward Canada. He called Canada the '51st state,' slapped tariffs on Canadian exports and fixated on tapping its water as a 'very big faucet.'
In a contentious call in February with Canada's prime minister at the time, Justin Trudeau, Mr. Trump included the treaty among the ways he said Canada had taken advantage of the United States. The implication was clear: The treaty could become a bargaining chip in a broader negotiation to remake the relationship between the two counties.
Cross-Border Water
The Columbia River Basin has dozens of dams that produce electricity, providing the single largest source of hydropower in the United States. Four additional dams were built as a result of a 60-year-old treaty to provide flood control downstream in America.
BRITISH
COLUMBIA
Mica Dam
Duncan Dam
CANADA
Keenleyside Dam
UNITED
STATES
Libby Dam
Seattle
Columbia R.
Wash.
Mont.
Portland
IDAHO
Ore.
Wyo.
Columbia River Basin
100 MILES
Mica Dam
200 MILES
BRITISH COLUMBIA
CANADA
Duncan Dam
Keenleyside Dam
UNITED
STATES
Seattle
Libby Dam
Columbia R.
Mont.
Wash.
Portland
IDAHO
Ore.
Wyo.
Columbia River Basin
By The New York Times
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mr. Trump turned down the heat during their meeting at the White House last week. But the Trump administration has made even treaties with benefits for both sides feel like a negotiation on the edge of a knife. Mr. Trump's erratic trade policies have thrown uncertainty into the future of the Pacific Northwest, creating new worries around everything from electricity to flood control.
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