A River Captured: The Columbia River Treaty and Catastrophic Change

by Eileen Delehanty Pearkes

A River Captured explores the controversial history of the Columbia River Treaty and its impact on the ecosystems, indigenous peoples, contemporary culture, provincial politics and recent history of southeastern British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest.


Long lauded as a model of international cooperation, the Columbia River Treaty governs the storage and management of the waters of the upper Columbia River basin, a region rich in water resources, with a natural geography well suited to hydroelectric megaprojects. The Treaty also caused the displacement of over 2,000 residents of over a dozen communities, flooded and destroyed archaeological sites and up-ended once-healthy fisheries.


The book begins with a review of key historical events that preceded the Treaty, including the Depression-era construction of Grand Coulee Dam in central Washington, a project that resulted in the extirpation of prolific runs of chinook, coho and sockeye into B.C. Prompted by concerns over the 1948 flood, American and Canadian political leaders began to focus their policy energy on governing the flow of the snow-charged Columbia to suit agricultural and industrial interests.


Referring to national and provincial politics, First Nations history, and ecology, the narrative weaves from the present day to the past and back again in an engaging and unflinching examination of how and why Canada decided to sell water storage rights to American interests. The resulting Treaty flooded three major river valleys with four dams, all constructed in a single decade.


At the heart of this survey of the Treaty and its impacts is the lack of consultation with local people. Those outside the region in urban areas or government benefited most. Those living in the region suffered the most losses. Specific stories of affected individuals are laced with accounts of betrayal, broken promises and unfair treatment, all of which serve as a reminder of the significant impact that policy, international agreements and corporate resource extraction can have on the individual’s ability to live a grounded life, in a particular place.


Another little-known aspect of the Treaty’s history is the 1956 “extinction” of the Arrow Lakes Indians, or Sinixt, whose transboundary traditional territory once stretched from Washington State to the mountains above Revelstoke, B.C. Several thousand Sinixt today living south of the border have no rights or status in Canada, despite their inherent aboriginal rights to land that was given over by the Treaty to hydroelectric production and agricultural flood control.


With one of the Treaty’s provisions set to expire in 2024, and with any changes to the treaty requiring a 10-year notice period, the question of whether or not to renew, renegotiate or terminate this water agreement is now being actively discussed by governments and policy makers. A River Captured surveys important history that can influence debate on who owns water, how water should be valued and whether or not rivers can be managed for non-human values such as fisheries, as well as the familiar call for more affordable electricity.

Genres: Canada, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

Published November 15, 2016

Reviews

[ZeeMi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up for research, and immediately was entranced by the storytelling, even as the book charts the shocking facts of how the Columbia River Treaty came to be, and how the damming of the continent's fourth-largest river system irrevocably transformed communities and ecosystems. While a relatively slim volume, Eileen Delehanty Pearkes's work has clearly been a mammoth undertaking. The result is an accessible and often moving piece of scholarship that deserves to be widely read.

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid piece of research and reminiscence, telling the story of the colonization of the Columbia River system, first by white settlers who converted lands into farms, then by politicians and engineers who converted wild rivers into reservoirs. The ecological damage of the latter is given pride of place in this account, but the indigenous inhabitants of these lands and watersheds and their experience is more or less lumped together with that of ranchers, farmers, and orchardists, all of whom suffered alike from the mega-dam projects that began with Grand Coulee in the United States in the 1930s but continued in Canada in the 1950s and 1960s. A more systematic approach might have compared the ways in which indigenous inhabitants dwelled in the land compared to that of the later white settlers and then compared again lastly to the current mode of being in the land of the Kootenays, as that region is the main focus of the book. The author reminds us of the need, to alter one of Aldo Leopold's phrases, to "think like a river", and I think the book would have benefitted from more explicit examples of how that has been done successfully in the past. That said, it is a good introduction to the intricacies of the Columbia River Treaty, and it forms a good companion piece to other books like Jim Lichatowich's remarkable 1999 book Salmon Without Rivers and Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass, books that remind and show us how unquestioned assumptions and hubris can lead to catastrophic consequences, but also how humility, attentiveness, and gratitude can start to lead us back.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been reading this book off and on for the last 18 months. I purchased the book in Canada while on vacation. I know nothing of the history of the Columbia River. This book was everything I thought I would be. Man has yet to learn how to balance nature and progress. While this book did have stories, it would have been a stronger story with a narrative that connected the events.

[Chris Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an avid fisherman and someone new to the kootenay area in BC, this book was a wealth of information and learning. Although I learned a lot from the book it left me with emotions of anger and sadness to learn about the many negative and long lasting impacts of the dams.

[Jack Rilkoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good read about the area that I was born and raised in and the history of the treaty that affects it still.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very beautifully written. I really enjoyed how the author interspersed stories from her interviews and travels with the story of the Columbia River Treaty.

[Delia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will probably finish this book later today. It is a very interesting book to be reading just days away from a provincial election. The current BC Liberals are direct descendents of the former Social Credit party and WAC Bennett who rammed through the High Arrow Dam, the Mica Dam and the Duncan Dam, displacing residents and bullying those who refused. Who ignored the environmental effects of the dams, disregarding the vast acres of fertile farmland that was flooded. Who essentially lied to the residents about infrastructure that would be built in an attempt to lessen the impact. Eileen Delehanty Pearkes weaves a gentle narrative through the stats, the costs, the whys and wherefores of the Columbia River Treaty and the inevitable damming. I feel enlightened and angry. I look at what is happening at Site C and I am furious. Christy Clark is conducting a step by step destruction of our province for no other reason than to pay off her personal investors and to create a personal legacy. "...an academic name John V Krutilla ...identified that by 1963, High Arrow had no longer been required to forestall an imminent power shortage."(206) The same is true for Site C. It is unnecessary, and destructive. She must be stopped.