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32-657: The Potholes Reservoir is part of the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project . It is formed by the O'Sullivan Dam and located in central Washington , in the United States. The reservoir is fed by water from Moses Lake , part of the Crab Creek basin. The area features several lakes (typically 30-70 yards wide and 10–30 feet deep). These lakes, known as "potholes" were created through both natural and man made processes. The potholes were initially carved out during

64-480: A Spokane group wanted a 134 miles (216 km) gravity flow canal from Lake Pend Oreille while a Wenatchee group (further south) wanted a large dam on the Columbia River, which would pump water up to fill the nearby Grand Coulee , a formerly-dry canyon-like coulee . After thirteen years of debate, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the dam project with National Industrial Recovery Act money. (It

96-645: A relatively small group of farmers in the American West in places where it would never be economically viable under other circumstances. Columbia River Drainage Basin The Columbia River drainage basin is the drainage basin of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest region of North America . It covers 668,000 km or 258,000 sq mi. In common usage, the term often refers to

128-637: A smaller area , generally the portion of the drainage basin that lies within eastern Washington . Usage of the term "Columbia Basin" in British Columbia generally refers only to the immediate basins of the Columbia and Kootenay Rivers and excludes that of the Okanagan , Kettle and Similkameen Rivers . The Columbia Basin includes the southeastern portion of the Canadian province of British Columbia , most of

160-581: Is lifted 280 feet (85 m) from Lake Roosevelt to feed the massive network. The total amount of the Columbia flow that is diverted into the CBP at Grand Coulee varies a little from year to year, and is currently about 3.0 million acre-feet. This is about 3.8 percent of the Columbia's average flow as measured at the Grand Coulee dam. This amount is larger than the combined annual flows of the nearby Yakima, Wenatchee, and Okanogan rivers. There were plans to double

192-474: Is now Montana . Erosion allowed glacial Lake Columbia to begin to drain into what became Grand Coulee, which was fully created when glacial Lake Missoula along with glacial Lake Columbia catastrophically emptied. This flood event was one of several known as the Missoula Floods . Unique erosion features, called channeled scablands , are attributed to these amazing floods. When it was built, Grand Coulee Dam

224-429: Is that post-construction modifications would likely have to be significant. Tour guides at the Grand Coulee dam site, for example, indicate that a "fish ladder might have to be 5 miles (8.0 km) long to get the fish up the 550 feet (170 m) needed, and many fish would die before reaching the upper end" thus no fish ladders were built. Advocates of remedial measures point out that such steps would still be better than

256-751: The Columbia Basin Project to include other irrigation districts such as the Yakima and Walla Walla valleys. The area includes valuable farmland that has excellent soil profile and underlying silty loess. At its center is the Pasco Basin , an area roughly double the size of, and fully containing, the Hanford Site . When Lewis and Clark explored the region in the early 19th century, huge numbers of fish ( salmon ) returned to spawn every year. "The multitudes of this fish are almost inconceivable," Clark wrote in

288-512: The Miocene epoch. These flood basalts are exposed in some places, while in others they are covered with thick layers of loess. During the last ice age glaciers shaped the landscape of the Columbia River Plateau . Ice blocked the Columbia River near the north end of Grand Coulee, creating glacial lakes Columbia and Spokane. Ice age glaciers also created Glacial Lake Missoula , in what

320-526: The U.S. states of Idaho , Oregon , and Washington , the western part of Montana , and very small portions of Nevada , Utah , and Wyoming . The south and southeastern drainage divide borders the interior drainage of the northern Great Basin . To the northeast the region borders the basins of the Saskatchewan River ( Hudson Bay ) and the Mackenzie River ( Beaufort Sea ), and to the northwest

352-414: The 1960s. The estimated total cost for completing the project had more than doubled between 1940 and 1964, it had become clear that the government's financial investment would not be recovered, and that the benefits of the project were unevenly distributed and increasingly going to larger businesses and corporations. These issues and others dampened enthusiasm for the project, although the exact motives behind

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384-464: The Bureau of Reclamation, it is not possible to compare the total cost paid by the Bureau to the payments received. Nevertheless, the farm payments account for only a small fraction of the total cost to the government, resulting in the project's agricultural corporations receiving a large water subsidy from the government. Critics describe the CBP as a classical example of federal money being used to subsidize

416-848: The Columbia rises in Columbia Lake on the west slope of the Rocky Mountain Range in Canada. Its largest tributary, the Snake , travels 1,038 miles (1,670 km) from its source in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming before joining the Columbia. Residents of the area surrounding the confluence of the Columbia and Snake rivers—a region centering on the Tri-Cities, Washington metropolitan area—use

448-532: The Pleistocene by flood waters originating from Glacial Lake Missoula . Subsequent damming of the area by the Columbia Basin Project raised the water table high enough to allow these topographical depressions to become lakes. On the shore of the reservoir is Potholes State Park , a 640-acre (2.6 km) member of the Washington State Park System . It has 6,000 feet (1,800 m) of shoreline on

480-518: The area of irrigated land, according to tour guides at the dam, over the next several decades. However, the Bureau of Reclamation website states that no further development is anticipated, with 671,000 acres (2,720 km ) irrigated out of the original 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km ) planned. Interest in completing the Columbia Basin Project's 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km ) has grown in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. One reason for

512-536: The autumn of 1805. At that time, the Columbia and its tributaries provided 12,935 miles (20,817 km) of pristine river habitat. In the early 20th century, the government and private interests began constructing dams on the tributaries of the Columbia River to provide water for irrigation or flood control. The federal dams on the Columbia and Snake Rivers devastated salmon runs, inundated Columbia River Basin Tribes villages and burial grounds, and deprived tribal members of

544-919: The basin of the Fraser River . The Columbia Basin extends from the Rocky Mountains in the east through the Cascade Range to the Columbia River's outflow at the Pacific Ocean in the west. The Columbia River pours more water into the Pacific Ocean than any other river in North or South America. In its 1,270 miles (2,040 km) course to the Pacific Ocean, the Columbia flows through four mountain ranges—the Rockies , Selkirks , Cascades , and coastal mountains—and drains 258,000 square miles (668,000 km ). The mainstem of

576-469: The costs escalated, resulting in the original plan, in which the people receiving irrigation water would pay back the costs of the project over time, being repeatedly revised and becoming a permanent water subsidy. In addition, the original vision of a social engineering project intended to help farmers settle on small landholdings failed. Farm plots, at first restricted in size, became larger and soon became corporate agribusiness operations. The original plan

608-493: The decision to stop construction with the project about half finished are not known. The Columbia Basin in Central Washington is fertile due to its loess soils, but large portions are a near desert , receiving less than ten inches (254 mm) of rain per year. The area is characterized by huge deposits of flood basalt , thousands of feet thick in places, laid down over a period of approximately 11 million years, during

640-448: The inevitable seepage and runoff. In some cases the results are beneficial. For example, numerous new lakes provide recreation opportunities and habitat for fish and game. In other cases agricultural chemicals in the runoff cause pollution. The irrigation water provided by this project greatly benefits the agricultural production of the area. North Central Washington is one of the largest and most productive tree fruit producing areas on

672-590: The planet. Without Coulee Dam and the greater Columbia Basin Project, much of North Central Washington State would be too arid for cultivation. According to the federal Bureau of Reclamation the yearly value of the Columbia Basin Project is $ 630 million in irrigated crops, $ 950 million in power production, $ 20 million in flood damage prevention, and $ 50 million in recreation. The project itself involves costs that are difficult to determine. The farms that receive irrigation water must pay for it, but due to insufficient data from

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704-548: The reduction in native fish stocks above the dams. The majority of fish in the Columbia basin are migratory fish like salmon, sturgeon and steelhead. These migratory fish are often harmed or unable to pass through the narrow passages and turbines at dams. In addition to the physical barriers the dams pose, the slowing speed and altered course of the river raises temperatures, alters oxygen content, and changes river bed conditions. These altered conditions can stress and potentially kill both migratory and local non-migratory organisms in

736-512: The renewed interest is the substantial depletion of the Odessa aquifer . Agricultural operations within the CBP's boundaries but outside the developed portion have for decades used groundwater pumped from the Odessa aquifer to irrigate crops. Hydroelectricity was not the primary goal of the project, but during World War II the demand for electricity in the region boomed. The Hanford nuclear reservation

768-472: The reservoir. There are many types of fish inside of the reservoir, including: Columbia Basin Project The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was created in 1902 to aid development of dry western states. Central Washington's Columbia Plateau was a prime candidate—a desert with fertile loess soil and the Columbia River passing through. Competing groups lobbied for different irrigation projects;

800-401: The river. The decimation of these migratory fish stocks above Grand Coulee Dam would not allow the former fishing lifestyle of Native Americans of the area, who once depended on the salmon for a way of life. The environmental impacts of the Columbia Basin Project have made it a contentious and often politicized issue. A common argument for not implementing environmental safeguards at dam sites

832-407: The status quo, which has led to marked die-offs and the likely extinction of several types of salmon. There are a number of issues regarding the runoff of irrigation water. The project region receives about 6 to 10 inches (250 mm) of annual rainfall, while the application of irrigation water amounts to an equivalent 40 to 50 inches (1,300 mm). The original plans did not sufficiently address

864-576: The term "Columbia Basin" to refer to their own, much smaller region. This usage is roughly synonymous with the Columbia Plateau or roughly equivalent to the relatively unforested area bounded by the Cascades , Blue , Wallowa , and Rocky mountain ranges and the Okanagan Highland . This sense of the term Columbia Basin has expanded from its early focus on the land irrigated by Grand Coulee Dam and

896-526: Was built just south of the project and aluminum smelting plants flocked to the Columbia Basin. A new power house was built at the Grand Coulee Dam, starting in the late sixties, that tripled the generating capacity. Part of the dam had to be blown up and re-built to make way for the new generators. Electricity is now transmitted to Canada and as far south as San Diego . One environmental impact has been

928-585: Was later specifically authorized by the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1935, and then reauthorized by the Columbia Basin Project Act of 1943 which put it under the Reclamation Project Act of 1939.) Construction of Grand Coulee Dam began in 1933 and was completed in 1942. Its main purpose of pumping water for irrigation was postponed during World War II in favor of electrical power generation that

960-554: Was that a federal agency similar to the Tennessee Valley Authority would manage the entire system. Instead, conflicts between the Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of Agriculture thwarted the goal of both agencies of settling the project area with small family farms; larger corporate farms arose instead. The determination to finish the project's plan to irrigate the full 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km ) waned during

992-536: Was the largest dam in the world, but it was only part of the irrigation project. Additional dams were built at the north and south ends of Grand Coulee, the dry canyon south of Grand Coulee Dam, allowing the coulee to be filled with water pumped up from the Columbia River. The resulting reservoir, called Banks Lake , is about 30 miles (48 km) long. Banks Lake serves as the CBP's initial storage reservoir. Additional canals, siphons , and reservoirs were built south of Bank Lake, reaching over 100 miles (160 km). Water

Potholes Reservoir - Misplaced Pages Continue

1024-478: Was used for the war effort. Additional hydroelectric generating capacity was added into the 1970s. The Columbia River reservoir behind the dam was named Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lake in honor of the president. The irrigation holding reservoir in Grand Coulee was named Banks Lake . After World War II the project suffered a number of setbacks. Irrigation water began to arrive between 1948 and 1952, but

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