ABSTRACT
The Columbia River system drains a watershed of about a quarter of a million square miles and has a mean annual discharge of close to 250,000 cubic feet per second. The Columbia River Basin consists of all of Montana lying west of the Continental Divide, the bulk of Idaho, eastern Washington and Oregon, relatively small portions of northern Nevada, Utah, and western Wyoming in the United States, and southeastern British Columbia. In the United States the Columbia continues its course for approximately 100 river miles to its confluence with the Spokane River, a lesser tributary of the Columbia. Over the years since the mid-nineteen thirties, the United States has built and planned multiple-purpose projects on its reach of the Columbia. The tributary of major concern in a co-operative effort for development of the upper Columbia Basin resources is the Kootenay.
