What did the Columbia Basin Project accomplish?
The irrigation system carried its first water from Grand Coulee Dam to about 66,000 acres in spring of 1952. Irrigation water from the Columbia Basin Project is often used more than once before it returns to the Columbia River near Pasco. Potholes Reservoir collects runoff from the north for farms in the south.
What is the Columbia Basin Reclamation project?
The Columbia Basin Project is a multi-purpose, federally authorized Bureau of Reclamation project located in central-eastern Washington State with diverse and direct benefit to local, state, and national economies.
What are the characteristics of the Columbia Basin?
The area is characterized by steep river canyons, extensive plateaus, and in places, tall and sinuous ridges. The region is overlain with loess blown in by the wind and deposits from cataclysmic glacial floods, underlain by thousands of feet of Columbia River Basalt Group lava flows.
Where is the Columbia Basin?
Description. The Columbia Basin includes the southeastern portion of the Canadian province of British Columbia, most of the U.S. states of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, the western part of Montana, and very small portions of Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming.
How did irrigation change the Columbia River basin?
Another benefit that stems directly from the unique nature of the Columbia Basin is irrigation. In fact, six percent of the Columbia River Basin’s yearly runoff is diverted to irrigate about 7.8 million acres of land. Much of the water that is diverted eventually finds its way back into the river system.
Why is it called Columbia Basin?
Numerous Native American peoples inhabited the Columbia River basin for several thousand years. Spanish explorers sailing up the Pacific coast about 1775 probably were the first Europeans to sight the river’s mouth. The Boston trader Robert Gray sailed up the Columbia in 1792 and named it for his ship.
What is the main industry of the Columbia Basin?
Today, the Columbia Basin Project is the largest water reclamation project in the United States, providing irrigation water to 671,000 acres and generating 6,809 megawatts of hydropower. Agriculture flourishes because of the abundance of water, fertile soils, sunshine and the 280-day growing season.
What created the Columbia Basin?
basalt lava
Seventeen million years ago, scientists believe a giant meteorite struck southeastern Oregon, causing floods of basalt lava. As this lava spilled across the western lowlands, the Columbia Plateau began to form. When the lava cooled and cracked, it formed vertical columns of basalt that are still visible today.
How many dams are in the Columbia River basin?
There are more than 250 reservoirs and around 150 hydroelectric projects in the basin, including 18 mainstem dams on the Columbia and its main tributary, the Snake River.
How deep is the water in the Snake River?
It reaches a maximum depth of 2,436 meters (7,993 feet), making it the deepest gorge on the North American continent. The Snake River Plain is a prominent depression across southern Idaho extending 640 kilometers (400 miles) in an east-west direction.
How deep is the Columbia River?
The Columbia River channel begins at the Columbia River bar and continues five miles upriver at a depth of 55 feet and a width of 2,640 feet. After which, it maintains a depth of 43 feet and a width of 600 feet for 100 miles to the Portland Harbor.
How many dams are on the Columbia River?
There are 14 hydroelectric dams along the Columbia River. The Columbia River is responsible for one-third of the hydro potential in the United States. There are also more than 450 other dams in the Columbia River watershed.
How big is the Columbia Basin?
The Columbia 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 2 or 258,000 sq mi.
What is Columbia Basin Development League?
Columbia Basin Development League: Vicky Scharlau The goals of the Columbia Basin Development League is to protect, and grow, the economic base of the Columbia Basin; provide/promote private/public partnerships to facilitate continuation of the Columbia Basin Project ; protect the existing portion of the Columbia Basin Project; and resolve depletion
What is Columbia Basin?
Columbia Basin may refer to: Columbia Plateau , the geographic region in the Pacific Northwest commonly referred to as the Columbia Basin Columbia Plateau (ecoregion), an ecoregion in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington Columbia River drainage basin, a drainage basin covering parts of U.S.