Special Message to the Senate Transmitting the Columbia River Basin Treaty With Canada.

To the Senate of the United States:

With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification, I transmit herewith a treaty between the United States of America and Canada concerning the cooperative development of the water resources of the Columbia River Basin, signed at Washington January 17, 1961, together with a report of the Secretary of State.

The treaty is an important step toward achieving optimum development of the water resources of the Columbia River basin as a whole from which the United States and Canada will each receive benefits materially larger than either could obtain independently.

The United States will secure a large block of power at low cost, substantial flood control benefits, and additional incidental benefits for irrigation, navigation, pollution abatement, and other uses resulting from controlled storage. Canada will also receive a large block of power at a low cost, as well as flood control and other benefits resulting from the control of water flow.

The treaty envisages the construction, in the Columbia River basin in Canada within a nine-year period, of reservoirs providing 15.5 million acre-feet of storage. The treaty also clears the way for construction by the United States, at its option, of the Libby project on the Kootenai River in northern Montana, which was authorized by the Congress in the Flood Control Act of 1950. The reservoir area for this project extends forty-two miles into the Canadian province of British Columbia.

The flood control and power benefits resulting from the treaty will be realized at a much earlier date and at a cost materially less than would be the case were they to be provided exclusively through projects in the United States.

The developments brought about under the treaty will be of great significance for their human values as well as for the material gains they will provide.

The flood control objectives of the United States for the lower Columbia River in Oregon and Washington which have been a pressing need for many years will be brought to substantial realization within a span of less than a decade. The Libby project will resolve the critical flood control problem in the Bonners Ferry area in Idaho. Removal of the hazard of periodic floods will pay incalculable dividends in the saving of human life and the avoidance of suffering, as well as through economic improvement in areas heretofore subject to recurring flood damage.

The initial power benefits realizable in the United States from Canadian storage under the treaty are comparable to another Grand Coulee dam, the largest hydroelectric project now in operation in the United States. The Libby clearance presents the opportunity to gain an additional block of power substantially greater than the output of Bonneville dam. The total initial result is a gain to the United States of over 1,686,000 kilowatts of low-cost prime power.

Over the longer term, this large block of storage will make more valuable the existing projects in the Columbia River basin, representing an investment of some $3.5 billion, by accelerating the time at which their full potential can be realized. The large blocks of power that will result will be a tremendous asset in fostering the nation's economic growth and in augmenting our national resources.

Due to the location of the storage, there will be no interference with the cycle for salmon and other anadromous fish which constitute such an important economic and recreational asset for the people of the Pacific Northwest.

To provide flood control and power benefits equivalent to those provided by the Canadian storage as of 1970 entirely from projects in the United States would require an investment in the United States of about $710,000,000 (including the cost of necessary additional transmission facilities) over this decade. To realize the treaty benefits, on the other hand, the costs in the United States over the next 10 years are estimated at not over $150,000,000. Between 1970 and 1985 an additional estimated $268,000,000 of United States expenditures will be required. Most of this added expenditure will go to install additional generating facilities in the United States to take full advantage of the Canadian storage. In all, the total capital outlay in the United States by reason of the treaty (exclusive of the cost of the Libby project) is estimated at about $418,000,000.

I recommend that the Senate give early and favorable consideration to the treaty which should not be considered from the aspect of economic benefit alone but also as a further demonstration of the spirit of cooperation and mutual accommodation which has traditionally characterized relationships between Canada and the United States of America.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER