And on up the river is Grand Coulee Dam The mightiest thing ever built by a man To run the great factories and water the land So roll on, Columbia, roll on
-- Woody Guthrie
The slabs of granite that surround the observation structure at Crown Point are polished and scratched by rocks and pebbles that were embedded in the base of massive ice sheets that passed over this place in the Pleistocene. Just as the ice plugged the Columbia River's flow then, the world's largest concrete structure stops it now with.....Grand Coulee Dam.
We arrived at the point on a sunny July morning to find it devoid of any other visitors, and quiet, save for the faint buzz of the 33 turbines at the dam and a bit of static from the high-voltage lines distributing its bounty. The peacefulness of the scene belies the gargantuan efforts that led to its construction and the foreseen and unforeseen effects its placement here has created.
A proposal to do just this was voiced in the office of Ephrata lawyer Billy Clapp in the spring of 1917. In the depths of World War I, farmers in the area were looking for a means to increase their production to meet wartime demand. Having just heard an explanation of the glacial history of the area at Crown Point, Clapp suggested that the river be re-dammed at that place to divert irrigation water into the great depression of Grand Coulee for distribution to area farms. He found an eager ally in newspaper publisher Rufus Woods from Wenatchee, and they lobbied tirelessly for its creation, winning support for engineering studies.
Meanwhile, the postwar boom of the 1920's crashed dramatically into the Great Depression, as a bubble of unsustainable debt broke. Reactionary tariffs (the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930) that drastically reduced farm exports contributed to the domino effect of bank failures, tightened credit, reduced consumer spending, and unemployment levels that hit 25% by 1933.
The election of Franklin D Roosevelt in 1932 marked the beginning of the recovery, as his announced policies increased expectations and the adopted programs created relief for struggling families. In his acceptance of the Democratic Party nomination, Roosevelt said:
Throughout the nation men and women, forgotten in the political philosophy of the Government, look to us here for guidance and for more equitable opportunity to share in the distribution of national wealth... I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people. This is more than a political campaign. It is a call to arms.
Surrounded by a cabinet of experienced progressive idealists, Roosevelt implemented a slate of New Deal policies. Central to the formulation of the New Deal was Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, the first woman to hold a cabinet-level position. Perkins came to the office with an agenda born from her life experience helping people in poverty-- a 40-hour work week; a minimum wage; unemployment compensation; worker’s compensation; abolition of child labor; direct federal aid to the states for unemployment relief; Social Security; a revitalized federal employment service; and universal health insurance. As Secretary of Labor, she played a central role in administering the public works programs of the New Deal. At the heart of the programs was the two-fold desire of Perkins and FDR to "relieve unemployment and to develop great regions of our country ... for the benefit of future Americans."
After a visit to Grand Coulee in 1934, Roosevelt endorsed the idea of combining the power generation and irrigation aspects of the Grand Coulee proposal outlined by Billy Clapp and others decades earlier. Late in 1935, the first concrete was poured to begin construction. Employing up to 5,500 workers at its peak, the first generator went into operation early in 1941. Slowed by the advent of World War II, the irrigation components were not finished until 1953 and now supply irrigation to 670,000 acres of farmland.
At 7,079 MW maximum generating capacity, Grand Coulee Dam is still the largest single electricity generating plant in the United States. At a total construction cost of $5 billion (in 2016 dollars), its power generation and irrigation revenues will pay off the cost of construction by 2044.
A project this monumental has many effects. Electricity generated by Grand Coulee Dam was instrumental in the locating and production of aluminum smelters in the Pacific Northwest that produced 1/3 of the aluminum used to manufacture aircraft during WW II; plutonium used to build the first nuclear bombs was produced at Hanford with Grand Coulee power; today the world's largest server farms, backing up cloud computing, are located in nearby Quincy. Electricity rates in Washington are among the lowest in the nation, less than half the cost in the New England states. Washington's per-capita CO2 emissions are among the lowest in the country due to the predominance of hydroelectric generation.
But there is more at stake here than the economic considerations of the present day.
In June 1940 a macabre celebration occurred a few miles upstream from the nearly finished dam. As many as 10,000 Native Americans from throughout Washington and beyond gathered at Kettle Falls, 100 miles upstream from Grand Coulee Dam. They gathered to witness the end of a culture. For thousands of years, inland tribes had gathered at the roaring cascades to catch salmon as they ascended the river toward spawning grounds. The fish caught and preserved during the annual runs contributed up to 80% of the calories consumed by the people throughout the year.
The gathering was called the "Ceremony of Tears."
The waters of the Columbia River ponding behind the dam were about to rise above the falls, silencing them forever. The salmon were already gone, blockaded by tons of concrete through which no passage had been provided. To compensate for the permanent loss of salmon on 1,100 miles of the Columbia River, three hatcheries were built on downstream tributaries in Leavenworth, Entiat and Winthrop to increase production in those places.
To add insult to injury, Senator Clarence Dill, D-WA, said these words that day:
“The Indians have fished here for thousands of years,” he said. “They love this spot above all others on their reservation because it is a source of both food and of beauty. We should see to it that the electricity which the great dam at Grand Coulee produces shall be delivered to all the people without profit, so that the Indians of future generations, as well as the white men, will find the change made here a great benefit to the people.”
The people of the Spokane Tribe and the Colville Confederated Tribes did not ultimately find the loss to be a benefit. In addition to the loss of food and culture at Kettle Falls, more than 1,500 graves were inundated by the reservoir and 21,000 acres of tribal land were flooded, uprooting many families. In 1994, the US Government made a reparation payment of $53 million plus ongoing annual payments to the Colville tribes; reparations to the Spokane Tribe are still pending. In 2000, Grand Coulee was one of ten dam projects worldwide that was intensively studied by the UN World Commission on Dams. It was cited by Kader Asmal, Chair of the Commission, as an example of how difficult it is to "heal the deep and self-inflicted wounds torn open wherever and whenever far too few determine for far too many how best to develop or use water and energy resources."
Perhaps a hopeful step toward reconciliation will occur as US and Canadian negotiators seek to renew the Columbia River Treaty between the two countries, due to expire in 2024. Tribal and First Nation stakeholders have released a statement of Common Values urging that future management of the river be grounded in a holistic understanding of ecosystem function alongside planning for hydroelectric power and flood control. Canadian negotiators have included First Nations representatives on their negotiating team; Washington tribes are hoping for equal consideration on the US side.
Today's energy experts have proposed a "green new deal," a latter-day package of policies designed to replicate the depression-era jump start of economic activity. The Green New Deal will feature projects to end fossil fuel use for power generation by 2035 and for transportation by 2040, in time to alleviate intensifying effects of greenhouse gas emissions. Such a plan would feature government-led investment and policies to facilitate private financing for renewable energy production and resource efficiency, incentives for dispersed generation such as rooftop solar panels and the power-grid infrastructure to facilitate it, and an end to public lands fossil fuel leasing, extraction and subsidies. A tax or fee on fossil fuel profits and consumption would be invested in renewable energy and a "Global Marshall Plan" to fund the worldwide transition to a humanity free of fossil fuels. Central and unique to the Green New Deal proposal is an emphasis on inclusive input from tribes, workers and communities most affected by the transition, so that the consequences felt at Grand Coulee Dam might be avoided or mitigated.
--David
Ceremony of Tears photo courtesy Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, Spokane