WHEREAS, the 1964 Columbia River Treaty caused Libby Dam to be built to create the 90-mile international water storage reservoir in Lincoln County;
WHEREAS, Columbia River Treaty is being renegotiated, or modernized;
WHEREAS, 5.8 million-acre feet are held back by Libby Dam in an average year to provide flood protection and power generation downstream;
WHEREAS, other economic benefits result including navigation, irrigation, recreation, and the ability to build in the old flood plain etc.;
WHEREAS, the 1964 Treaty (Section 2 of Article 13) gives Canada the right to divert 1.5 million-acre feet of water from the Kootenai River into the Columbia River upstream of Lake Koocanusa, and that amount is more than 25 percent of the annual flow;
WHEREAS, British Columbia is compensated, for three Treaty Dams permanently flooding three valleys, with half the value of the electricity generated as the stored water flows through generating turbines at dam after dam on the lower Columbia River in the United States, amounting to recent amounts of up to $300 million per year;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that Section 2 of Article 13, Kootenai River diversion clause, be deleted from the modernized Columbia River Treaty;
AND We also resolve that Montana should be compensated through Columbia River Treaty for the same reasons British Columbia, Canada, is compensated and in the same fashion with an equal share of power value created by stored water as it passes through Libby Dam and downstream generators.
