LETTER: Moving Columbia River water to Nevada is a pipe dream
Recently, I have read online letters to your paper recommending diversion of the Columbia River and/or its tributaries. All of these letters assume that you would have to get the permission of only Oregon to do so. I think the letter writers need to study this issue a little more.
An exceptional number of treaties, agreements, contracts and compacts control use of the Columbia River system and its fisheries, navigation, irrigation use and hydrogeneration. Existing water rights have also over-obligated the system, and those water rights date from the 1850s.
So to delineate an incomplete list of those that would have to agree to such a diversion: the Dominion of Canada, the province of British Columbia, the States of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, about 20 First Nations north of the international border, about 40 tribes south of the international border, innumerable water districts, irrigation districts and peoples utility districts, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bonneville Power Administration, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Coast Guard.
Again, this is not a complete list. I do not believe approval from all parties that must agree to such a diversion will be easily achieved.
