4201

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 4201
• Author: Anonymous.
• Title: Controversy in the Mid '60's
• USFW Year: n.d.
• USFW - Doc Type: Unsolved Questions.
• Copyright Material: YES

water is the amount required to cover
an acre of land to a depth of one foot.
Southwestern water experts say that
around ISO million acre-feet of water
from the Columbia River Hows unused
into the Pacific Ocean each year.
Until recently, people in the North-
west didn't appear to be upset at the
suggestion that some of their water be
sent to slake the thirst of the dry States..
Now, Northwest attitude is changing.
Soundings taken throughout the Co-
lumbia River Basin in recent days by
staff members of "U. S~ News & World
Report" found the region's leaders talk-
ing in tough tenDS about blocking moves
of the Southwest to tap the Columbia
River.
In the Northwest, you find a region
that has had its first real taste of boom
and growth, and it is hungry for more..
Population growing. In the decade
1955 to 1965, the fastest-growing North-
western State was Washington, \vith a
population increase of 14.8 per cent. Or-
egon's growth in the same period was
14.5 per cent, Idaho's 12 per cent, and .
Montana's 11 per cent. All four States
lagged behind the U. S. average growth
of 17.4 per cent in the 10-year period:
Projections for the decade of 1965 to
1975 show both Washington and Idaho
gaining 13.2 per cent in population.
That is slightly more than the 12.5 per
cent forecast as the U. S. average.
Growth in Oregon is projected at 10 per
cent and that in Montana at 10.5 per
cent over this decade.
But leaders in the N0l1hwest are con-
vinced that the region can outstrip these
growth projections if, as one official says,
"we get hardnosed and keep our water
at home." .
Says James E. Murphy, a Montana at-
torney who is recognized as one of the
top water experts in the Columbia Basin:
"The growth of the Pacific Northwest
has just begun. But our development
could be stopped in its tracks if we lose
our water. Our water needs "viII increase.
far beyond our supply. And this will
happen in a future far less distant than
most of us realize."
The new attitude. The Northwest
is a land of individualists, people close
to nature who have strong ties to the
region. Says a banker in Seattle: ''This
city is full of men who have turned their
backs on opportunities elsewhere."
Now, in the view of Northwestern
leaders, it is time for people in othe:.
parts of the country to turn to the Pacific

GRAND COULEE DAM is the grandaddy of Northwestern water and power
development. The Columbia has greatest hydropower potential of U. S. rivers.

Northwest to find opportunity. Says
Oregon's Governor i\fark Hatfield: "I
have often told Pat Brown. [Governor
Edmund G. Brown of California] to send
me a grocery list and we would grow
the crops to send to him, instead of send-
ing him the water."
"Source 01 prosperity." In Washing-
ton State, Governor Evans gives this
answer when he is asked about sending
Columbia River water to the Southwest:
"'Vater is the source of our prosperity,
just as oil and gas are the source of pros-
perity in the Southwest, but we don't
see any offers to exchange that.".
From the Governor of Idaho, Robert
E. Smylie, comes this comment: ""Ve
didn't break loose from the control of
Wall Street just to become a dependency
of southern California."
Idaho's population is concentrated in
the southern part of the State. This is a
semi-arid region where water is the life-
blood of the economv. Idahoans are
aroused by suggestion; that the Snake
River, which arcs across southern Idaho
before it joins the Columbia, be diverted
for use in the Southwest.
"Here in the West, we learned a long
time ago that when a fellow is thirsty
he is going to get water, even if he has
to shoot you," says George Crookham,
chairman of the Idaho Water Resources
Board. "But the people of the Southwest
have plenty of water to drink. They
want our water to sustain their agricul-
ture. \Ve think it makes more sense to
use the water to grow the crops here and
then sell them in the Southwest instead
of giving our water away so they can
grow crops down there."
Growth in Montana. The most re-
mote reach of the Columbia Basin in the
U. S. is that part which lies up against
the continental divide in Montana. Here,
11 northwestern l\lontana counties are
stirring with growth. This area is dch in
water, timber and minerals.
Montana Governor Tim Babcock savs
Hatly: ''I'm against diversion of Colu~-
bia Basin water. It sounds great to say so
much water is pouring into the ocean.

-3;..J -

But we're a new State. We need time to
develop our water resources without
fighting arbitrary demands from adjoin.
ing areas."
The surging development of the
Northwest, you are told again and again.
is made possible by the basic resourCt'
of water and the electric power that wa.
tel' can generate.
The Columbia River and its tributar.
ies hold the greatest hydroelectric poten.
tial of any U. S. river basin. Plans now
under way \vill bring development of
99 per cent of this potential by 1990,
Staircase 0' dams. Alreadv in pIac~
is ~ :taircase of dams on the main stem
of the Columbia. All told, there are more
than 50 maior darn!; now in place or
planned for the Columbia and its tribu.
taries. Twenty-one big danls have been
built with federal money that is beinlr
repaid as the dams produce revenue
from sales of water and power.
Power from the federal dams is mar- .
keted by BPA-the Bonneville Power
Administration-a federal agency with
headquarters in Portland. The BP A grid
covers an area of 290,000 square mile~.
Eight more dams, financed from tlU'
U, S. Treasurv, are under constructioll.
Two of the 'largest-Dworshak on tilt'
North Fork of the Clearwater River ill
Idaho, and Libby on the Kootenai Rhel
in Montana-were begun this sumn1l'f
Granddaddy of all Northwestern wat."
and power development is Grand COllI.",
Dam on the Columbia in \Vashingtlllt
State. Construction is soon to start all ,i
third powerhouse to be tied into tlli,
dam. When it is completed, in the em'lI
19iOs, Grand Coulee's hydroelectric (';1-
pacity will be raised from 2 million k !
5.6 million kilowatts to make it the \;:n: I
est hy?roelectric power ~am in ~men(",~ I
Unlike manv U. S. nver basms. II., !
Columbia holds a sizable number of h\.
dropower dams built by private utiliti."
Of 19 major nonfcderal dams, 12 .1'
owned by private power companies. T!
remainder were built by local pulJi!.
utilities, mainly the public-utility di'
tricts that blanket a good part of Wa~h.