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Water issues are at the core of Columbia Basin Trust's existence. CBT has a mandate to work in the area of water as identified in the Binding Agreement with the Province of BC Columbia Basin Management Plan and direction from Columbia Basin communities and residents. Columbia Basin Trust was created in recognition of the impacts associated with the management of water in this region.
Basin residents have identified a broad range of concerns regarding the importance of water and CBT wants to ensure their values and views are incorporated into major decision-making processes around water in the Basin. CBT is working in partnership with a variety of community groups, local governments, First Nations, and provincial and federal organizations to increase Basin residents' understanding of water issues in the Columbia Basin, and to work cooperatively towards a common agreement for the future management of our shared water resources.
CBT has identified three goals that provide direction to the Water Initiatives Program:
Goal 1: Improving the overall understanding and awareness of water related issues
Goal 2: Helping build effective partnerships
Goal 3: Facilitating participation in major decisions related to water in the Columbia Basin
To achieve these goals the Water Initiatives Programs works on five focus areas. Within the five focus areas CBT is working on several projects and initiatives. Explore each of the five areas to learn more.
An active and diverse network of organizations working together to improve and protect water values in the Basin. Water quality and quantity in the Columbia Basin is managed to meet a range of social, cultural, economic and environmental values and has the support of the public. Columbia Basin Trust is a leader in representing Basin residents' interests and values in water initiatives in the Basin.
1. Be inclusive in structure and action:
Use consultative approaches, pursue cooperative ventures and collaboration, and encourage communities in the Basin to work together in partnerships with other agencies and organizations.
2. Advocate and support the use of the best information possible:
Value technical information and ensure it is used in conjunction with local community knowledge. This is anticipated to be a combination of technical and experiential information.
3. Be prepared to take a leadership role in Basin water initiatives in the Columbia Basin Trust region:
The Columbia Basin Trust is prepared to facilitate, coordinate, convene, or be a catalyst in water initiatives in the Basin in seeking resolutions to disputes.
4. Support consensus planning while recognizing this may not always be possible:
Where it is possible, try to reach consensus among interested parties. However recognize that situations may occur where positive action may need to be taken in the absence of consensus.
5. Support adaptive management:
Take action and move ahead while monitoring the effects using a process that allows for change if the actions do not produce the intended results.
6. Support multiple goals and values:
Take into account the social, cultural, economic, and environmental values of residents in the Columbia Basin.
7. Support an ecosystem approach to water initiatives:
Recognize that water is a fundamental requirement for all life and that it supports the proper functioning of ecosystems. Recognize the interrelationships of the Columbia River and its tributaries, as well as aquatic ecosystems and associated terrestrial ecosystems.
8. Promote intergenerational principles:
Support processes and outcomes that ensure future generations have similar opportunities and benefits from the water in the Columbia Basin.
9. Focus on the Basin as a whole with an emphasis on the Columbia Basin Trust region:
Use an approach to water issues that looks at the Columbia Basin as a whole, while focusing on the Columbia Basin Trust's region and its residents. By doing so, involvement in international, national, provincial, regional, and sub-regional forums will be required.
Goal 1
Work with Basin residents to build an understanding of and capacity to deal with water related issues in the Basin.
Goal 2
Support the development of a network of organizations working on water initiatives in the Basin.
Goal 3
Strengthen the participation and influence of Basin residents in water related processes in the Basin.
In order to build a common understanding of water, we must learn where we use it, how we use it, and how these uses compete and interact with each other.
Water is a basic necessity of life on Earth, not only for people but for plants and animals as well. The mountains, streams, rivers, and lakes of the Columbia Basin all combine to provide the region with the source of this life-blood: The Columbia River system. Water is the foundation of the cultural, economic, and environmental well-being of the Columbia River Basin region. There are two main uses of water in the Columbia River and its tributaries: Consumptive and Non-Consumptive.
CONSUMPTIVE USES
As water users, we must learn to understand what the main uses of water are, where we use water, and how these uses compete and interact with each other. Most consumptive uses take an amount of water from the system, consume some of it, and return less to the source than was originally taken out.
- Domestic: Drinking water, water for bathing, laundry, toilet flushing, car washing, lawn and garden irrigation, and individual water licenses.
- Agricultural: Irrigation of farm-land, water for livestock, water for cleaning milking parlours and farm buildings, and water to mix with pesticides.
- Industrial: Major water licenses for industrial purposes.
- Recreational: Ice rinks, snow-making on ski hills, and irrigation of golf courses and parks.
NON-CONSUMPTIVE USES
The most obvious non-consumptive uses occur in the natural setting, where the body of water is situated. Water is not removed from the source: non-consumptive uses take place at the source.
- Reservoirs: Water is held in reservoirs for storage, and for flood control.
- Power Generation: Hydroelectric systems for power generation.
- Recreation and Tourism: Boating, fishing, and swimming.
- Fish and Wildlife: Aquatic ecosystems, including fish, birds, insects and flora.
- Transportation: Barges, tug boats, ferries.
The Columbia River Basin
- Hydro-electric stations in the Columbia Basin region produce approximately 6,000 mega watts of power annually.
- The formation of the Columbia Basin was complete 40 to 60 million years ago - about the same time dinosaurs disappeared from the planet.
- The Columbia River begins its journey at Columbia Lake near Canal Flats and travels approximately 2,000 kilometres before it meets the Pacific Ocean at Astoria, Oregon.
- The Columbia Basin is the fourth largest river basin in North America, exceeded only by the Mississippi, Mackenzie, and St. Lawrence river basins.
- The annual average discharge is 160 million acre-feet of water or enough water to meet the needs of 320 million families. One acre foot of water is about 1,480,040 litres.
- Humans have lived along the river system for more than 10,000 years. The Columbia Basin water system is the foundation of the Creation Story of First Nations people.
- The Columbia River Wetlands, located at the headwaters, is the largest (180 km long) contiguous area of wetland and only "untouched" free-flowing section of the Columbia River in Canada.
- The Columbia River is the most hydro-electrically developed river system in the world.
- There are more than 400 dams, including hundreds of major and modest structures, on the mainstem and tributaries, that block the river flow and tap a large portion of the Columbia's generating capacity; more than 21 million kilowatts or enough power for 14 million customers.
- The Columbia River in Canada provides about 50 per cent of the total hydroelectric power produced in British Columbia.
- The entire Columbia River Basin is 671,000 square kilometres, or about the same size as the Province of Alberta. Fifteen per cent of the Columbia River Basin - or 101,000 square kilometres - lies in Canada.
- The region involving the Columbia Basin Trust is 88,000 square kilometres - an area twice the size of Vancouver Island - and supports several small and mid-sized communities with a total population of approximately 170,000 people.
The Columbia River Treaty
- There is no "official expiry date" for the Columbia River Treaty. DOWNLOAD PDF (0.3MB)
- The power provisions of the Columbia River Treaty may be terminated after 60 years, or in 2024, provided notice is given by 2014.
- Canada provides flood control as long as the dams are in place, regardless of the existence of the Columbia River Treaty.
- More than 2,300 people were forced from their homes because of the Columbia River Treaty.
- First Nations lost much of their valuable hunting and gathering areas, plus numerous archaeological and burial sites were submerged or destroyed.
- Some of the most productive and fertile forest and agriculture valley bottom land in the Basin was flooded. This limits growth and development and employment opportunities for recreation and tourism.
WATER FACTS
- The Columbia Basin region provides 50% of the power produced in BC.
- Key wildlife habitat and species have been lost, and populations have been impacted by increased pressures on existing low elevation areas.
- The reservoirs created behind the Dams in the Canadian portion of the Columbia Basin can fluctuate as much as 170 vertical feet over the course of a year.
- The majority of surface water runoff in the Columbia Basin is the result of snow melting in the mountains from spring to mid summer.
- 60 percent of the runoff in the Basin occurs in May, June and July.
- 75 to 85 percent of water resources in western North America comes from snow that accumulates in the winter and early spring, and melts as runoff in spring and summer.
WATER VOLUMES TABLES
Waterbody Total Volumes |
||
Waterbody |
Total Volume (m3) |
Source |
Kootenay Lake |
42,632,000,000 |
BC Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management - Lake Surveys Query |
Arrow Reservoir |
38,600,000,000 |
Living Landscapes - Royal BC Museum |
Kinbasket Reservoir |
24,700,000,000 |
BC Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management - Lake Surveys Query |
Slocan Lake |
11,900,000,000 |
BC Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management - Lake Surveys Query |
Koocanusa Reservoir |
7,170,000,000 |
MSN Encarta - The Largest Reservoirs by Volume in the United States |
Revelstoke Reservoir |
5,301,900,000 |
BC Hydro |
Trout Lake |
3,681,694,000 |
BC Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management - Lake Surveys Query |
Duncan Reservoir |
1,730,000,000 |
BC Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management - Lake Surveys Query |
Whatshan Reservoir |
815,498,776 |
BC Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management - Lake Surveys Query |
Columbia Lake |
74,008,920 |
BC Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management - Lake Surveys Query |
Windermere Lake |
55,215,588 |
BC Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management - Lake Surveys Query |
Whiteswan Lake |
49,000,000 |
BC Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management - Lake Surveys Query |
| Waterbody Volumes for Comparison | ||
Williston Reservoir (largest inland waterbody in BC) |
70,300,000,000 |
International Lake Environment Committee - World Lakes Database |
Okanagan Lake |
24,644,000,000 |
International Lake Environment Committee - World Lakes Database |
The Water Cycle is the constant circulation of water from the sea, through the atmosphere, to the land, and back to the sea. The process consists of water entering the atmosphere through either evaporation or transpiration and returning to the Earth's surface through condensation and precipitation. Water vapour in the atmosphere condenses to form clouds. Condensed water released from clouds falls to the Earth's surface as precipitation in the form of rain, ice or snow. The precipitation infiltrates the soil or flows to the oceans as runoff. Surface water (lakes, streams, oceans, etc.), evaporates, returning moisture to the atmosphere, while plants return water to the atmosphere by transpiration. This cycle is constant; there are water molecules in every stage of the water cycle at any given moment on earth.
CLIMATE
Climate is a combination of meteorological elements, such as temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation that characterize the average and extreme conditions of the atmosphere over a long period of time at any one place or region of the earth's surface.
CONDENSATION
Condensation is the process by which water vapour is cooled to form clouds. As water vapour rises, it cools and eventually condenses, usually on tiny particles of dust in the air. When it condenses it becomes a liquid again, or turns directly into a solid (ice, hail, sleet, or snow). These water particles then collect and form clouds.
DAM
A dam is a structure of earth, rock, concrete, or other materials designed to retain water, creating a reservoir.
EVAPORATION
Evaporation occurs when radiant energy from the sun heats water in lakes, wetlands, rivers, glaciers, and oceans, causing the water molecules to become so active that some of them rise into the atmosphere as vapour.
EVAPOTRANSPIRATION
Evapotranspiration is the combined process of water evaporating from the surface of the earth and transpiration by plants.
GLACIER AND ICEFIELD
Glacier: A body of ice formed by the compaction and re-crystallization of snow that has definite lateral limits and exhibits motion in a definite direction.
Icefield: Extensive and irregular areas of permanent snow and ice; an area such as an ice cap or snowfield.
GROUND WATER
Ground water is the fresh water found beneath the earth's surface, usually in aquifers. The word groundwater applies only to water that saturates the ground, filling all the available spaces.
INFILTRATION
Infiltration occurs when precipitation that reaches the Earth's surface seeps into the ground. The amount of water that seeps into the ground varies depending on the slope of the land, vegetation, soil and rock, and whether the soil is already saturated with water. The more openings in the surface (cracks, pores, joints), the more infiltration occurs. Water that doesn't infiltrate the ground flows on the surface as runoff.
OCEAN
The entire body of salt water that covers more than 70 percent of the earth's surface.
PRECIPITATION
Precipitation is water that is released from clouds as rain, ice, or snow. Precipitation begins after water vapour, which has condensed in the atmosphere, becomes too heavy to remain in atmospheric air currents, and falls. Under some circumstances precipitation actually evaporates before it reaches the Earth's surface. More often, though, precipitation reaches the Earth, adding to the surface water in streams and lakes, or infiltrating the soil to become groundwater
RUNOFF
Runoff occurs when precipitation reaches the surface of the Earth but does not infiltrate the soil. Runoff is the surface water flowing off of glaciers and snow capped mountains. It is the water in wetlands, lakes and reservoirs, and flowing through streams and rivers. Surface water always travels towards the lowest point possible, and eventually reaches the oceans.
SNOWPACK
Snowpack is the quantity of accumulated snow in an area. For hydrological purposes, it is measured as snow-water equivalent, which is the water content of a snowpack, at a point expressed as the depth of water that would result from melting the snow, measured in millimeters.
STREAMFLOW
Streamflow is the volume of water flowing past a point on a river in a unit of time most commonly measured in cubic meters per second . "Streamflow" is often used interchangeably with "discharge".
SURFACE WATER
Surface water is all of the water that is naturally open to the atmosphere, such as rivers, lakes, reservoirs, streams, impoundments, seas, estuaries.
Lake: An inland body of standing water, usually fresh water, larger than a pool or pond; a body of water filling a depression in the earth's surface.
Reservoir: A pond, lake, or basin (natural or artificial) that stores, regulates, or controls water.
TRANSPIRATION
Transpiration occurs when water vapour is emitted from plant leaves back into the atmosphere. Every day an actively growing plant transpires five to ten times as much water as it can hold at once.
WATER TABLE
The water table is the level at which water stands in a shallow well.
CBT’s work in the area of water is varied and complex and in order to undertake the activities identified in the strategy, CBT understands that it needs to draw upon the skills and knowledge of a variety of people and organizations in a collaborative and mutually beneficial manner.
CBT’s Water Initiatives Advisory Panel is made up of ten highly respected and internationally renowned individuals who provide advice, complete on-the-ground work in the Basin and help guide CBT’s actions.
- Nigel Bankes
- Chad Day
- Tim Newton
- Richard Kyle Paisley
- Hans Schreier
- Adéle M. Hurley
- Ken Hall
- Kenneth G. Peterson
- Marvin S. Wodinsky
- Josh Smienk
Bankes is a Professor at the University of Calgary in the Faculty of Law and has been teaching there since 1984. Prior to teaching in Calgary he was a research associate at the Canadian Institute of Resources Law. He holds a B.A., an M.A. (Cantab.), LL.M., (U.B.C.) and is a member of the Alberta Bar.
He has taught international law (at Simon Fraser University), natural resources law, energy law, property law, aboriginal law, administrative law, communications law (in the Faculty of General Studies at the University of Calgary), advanced oil and gas law, international environmental law and a seminar on northern legal issues.
Bankes maintains an active research agenda in Oil and Gas Law, International Resources Law, Public Resources Law and Aboriginal Law.
Bankes is currently supervising LL.M. students working on:
• ecological integrity;
• domestic implementation of international environmental agreements;
• compensation for infringements of aboriginal title; and
• liability regimes in international law.
Bankes is also a member of the Sahtu Arbitration Panel under the Sahtu Land Claim Agreement.
Educated in geology and geography at the University of Western Ontario, Day received his doctoral degree in integral water and land management at the University of Chicago. He has been a faculty member at the universities of Western Ontario and Waterloo and currently is an emeritus professor in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University. Day has conducted research on the effectiveness and efficiency of river basin and watershed planning and management. He taught graduate courses in water planning and management and environmental and social impact assessment since 1980.
Day’s fields of interest include integrated land and water management, collaborative planning, public involvement, institutional arrangements for sustainable land and water management, water quality and impact assessment.
With engineering and economics degrees earned at Cape Town and then Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship, Newton contributed a wide range of operating and planning expertise to BC Hydro during his thirty-three years there. Primary areas of experience include computer science, international operations, planning, energy management, and marketing. This included 30 years of experience working on the Columbia River Treaty.
Newton is now officially retired, but still provides consulting services to a select number of clients, and in April 2002 was appointed to the Board of the newly formed Western Electricity Coordinating Council, and in April 2005 Tim was appointed as Chair.
In October 2003 Newton was appointed as one of four members to the international Permanent Engineering Board established under the Columbia River Treaty between Canada and the United States.
Paisley is a practicing lawyer, the Director of the Andrew R. Thompson Natural Resources Law Programme at the Faculty of Law, and a member of the Westwater Research Center at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
His current research, teaching, legal practice and publishing interests are in the area of national and international natural resources law and policy, including national and international water law and policy, international environmental law, negotiation and environmental conflict resolution.
He is currently an advisor on these subjects to, among others, the Mekong River Commission Secretariat (MRCS) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia; the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS) in Kathmandu, Nepal; the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in Rome, Italy; El Colegio de Mexico, in Mexico City, Mexico; the Brace Water Resources Management Institute at McGill University, in Montreal, Quebec; the British Columbia Salmon Farmers Association and the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT).
His academic background includes graduate degrees from the London School of Economics (LL.M.) in London, England, the Pepperdine University School of Law (J.D.) in Malibu, California and the Institute for Marine Studies at the University of Washington (M.Sc.) in Seattle, Washington. He also holds a B.Sc. degree from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
Schreier is a Professor at the Institute for Resources and Environment at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on watershed management, land-water interactions, and soil and water pollution, as well as on interdisciplinary evaluations of mountain processes. He has dedicated much of his research time to water and resource issues in the Himalayas and Andes and has developed a number of multi-media CD-ROM presentations to create awareness of mountain processes. He also developed four distance education graduate courses on watershed management that are delivered online. Participants from some of the most remote mountain systems of the world can participate in this educational program. He believes that looking to the mountains may give us an early indication of whats in store for the entire planet.
In 1996 he was honoured by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Ottawa for significant contribution to the world of science in the developing world. In 1999 he received the Manaaki Whenua Fellowship from Landcare Research, New Zealand and spent a sabbatical year with IDRC to train young researches in watershed management in 15 different countries in Asia and South America. In 2004 he received The United Nations International Year of Fresh Water, Science in Action Award for his outstanding work in making watershed management knowledge and innovative, cost-effective applications possible in Canada and in Developing Countries. Between 2004-2008 he was co-program leader for the Canadian Water Network, National Centre of Excellence Program, and in 2008 he received the King Albert International Mountain Award, for scientific accomplishment of lasing values to the world’s mountains.
In 1980, during the early days of the Reagan Administration, Hurley co-founded the Canadian Coalition on Acid Rain. She moved to Washington, DC, established an office, and registered as a Foreign Agent on behalf of the Canadian Coalition on Acid Rain. The Acid Rain Coalition quickly became the largest single issue citizen’s coalition in Canada. For the next eight years she worked on a successful campaign aimed at bringing about amendments to the US Clean Air Act, and on regulations to reduce pollutants from large Canadian emitters.
Upon her return to Canada she established her own company which continues to specialize in North American air and water issues.
In the early 1990s she was appointed to the Board of Directors of Ontario Hydro, where she served as the first Chair of the Environment Committee of what was then the largest utility in North America. In 1995 she was appointed by the Prime Minister’s Office to serve as Canadian Co-Chair of the International Joint Commission which oversees Canada/US boundary water issues according to the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909.
She has served as a member of the Canadian Federal Government’s International Trade Advisory Committee-Task Force On Environment and Trade Policy.
Currently Hurley is a member of the Board of Directors of the Ontario Power Authority (OPA).
Hall is an environmental chemist with 30 years experience in conducting research on water quality, environmental contaminants, wastewater treatment, and environmental impact investigations. As the assistant director of the Westwater Research Centre (1972-1990) at UBC, he coordinated field monitoring studies for an interdisciplinary program that involved land use, wastewater discharges, water quality, and biological studies on the Lower Fraser River, B.C. He coordinated a three-year program to investigate the impacts of log handling and storage activities on a lake ecosystem in central B.C. He has conducted limnological studies on eutrophic, meromictic, and coastal oligotrophic lakes and is presently involved in in-lake restoration studies using aeration and fertilization techniques. Recent research has been investigating the contaminants associated with non-point pollution from urban storm water runoff and its impacts on the aquatic ecosystem.
He has served on two committees as part of the Metro Vancouver (MV) liquid waste management program (LWMP). The Brunette Watershed task group was responsible for developing a management plan for an urban watershed which can be used as a template to manage urban watersheds in the region. He is also on the environmental assessments task group which coordinates and evaluates the monitoring program for all of the MV waste discharges and their impacts on the receiving environment. He is on a Reference Panel to advise MV on the next phase of their LWMP. He was a member of the Environmental Programs Advisory Committee at UBC and serves as an advisor on the stormwater management program for the university.
He is a member of the Environmental Programs Advisory Committee at UBC and serve as a consultant on the storm water management program for the university.
Peterson’s career spans a wide range of assignments in the electric industry. He is a resource economist by training and started in the electric utility business with BC Hydro in forecasting, planning and rates. He has also consulted internationally in these and related fields. The last 10 years of his professional career were spent as CEO of Powerex, the marketing and trading subsidiary of BC Hydro. During his tenure Powerex became one of the most successful power trading enterprises in the west. Peterson also devoted a great deal of effort to the objective of rationalizing institutional arrangements in the West from the formation of the WRTA to its merger with WSCC to form WECC.
Since his retirement he continues to be vitally interested in the development of the electric industry with competitive markets co-existing with regulated approaches to customer service and reliability. His current role as a member of the Board of Trustees of the North American Reliability Corporation gives him the opportunity to apply his experience to the reliability challenges facing the industry.
Former Acting Consul General, Canadian Consulate General, Seattle, Wodinsky was also Manager of the Consulate General’s Political, Economic Relations and Public Affairs Program. This program monitors and interprets local and regional US political and economic events and trends of interest to Canada. It ensures that Canadian interests are represented on such diverse issues as energy, forestry and softwood lumber, borders, environment and fisheries. It promotes the study of Canada at educational institutions and provides information on general economic, financial and fiscal policies in Canada. Finally, the program promotes Canadian cultural activities and assists Canadian artists and performers to showcase their talents in the region.
Wodinsky has also been involved in the following foreign assignments:
• Counsellor and Consul - Political, Economic and Public Affairs Program Manager, Canadian Embassy, Kiev
• Counsellor and Consul - Political, Economic, Public Affairs and Development Cooperation Program Manager, Canadian Embassy, Moscow
• Counsellor and Political, Economic, Public Affairs and Development Assistance Program Manager, Canadian High Commissions in New Zealand, Fiji, Western Samoa and Tonga
• First Secretary and Consul - Economic Affairs, Canadian Embassy, Seoul
Smienk is a founding Director of Columbia Basin Trust and served as Chair from 1995 to 2006. He is Director of Area E of the Regional District of Central Kootenay, a position he has held for seven consecutive terms.
Smienk has a long history of personal business investments in the region through Tri-Gen Holdings Ltd. and has lived for over 30 years at Redfish Creek, near Balfour.
He was also appointed to the BC Task Force on Electric Market Reform and was Co-Chair of the Columbia River Basin Trans-boundary Ecosystem Management Forum.
He has devoted extensive time to the public sector and community organizations within the Columbia Basin. He is a 25-year member of the Vintage Car Club of Canada and a member of the Horseless Carriage Club of America.
In the past 25 plus years of public service Smienk has also held the positions of: President of the Association of Kootenay Boundary Municipalities, Director of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities, Director of the Nelson University Centre, Chair of the Regional Parks Board, and Chair of the Central Kootenay Regional Hospital Board.
and environmental well-being and to achieve greater self-sufficiency for present and future generations.