Flooding the Border: Development, Politics, and Environmental Controversy in the Canadian-U.S
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FLOODING THE BORDER: DEVELOPMENT, POLITICS, AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROVERSY IN THE CANADIAN-U.S. SKAGIT VALLEY by Philip Van Huizen A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (History) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) June 2013 © Philip Van Huizen, 2013 Abstract This dissertation is a case study of the 1926 to 1984 High Ross Dam Controversy, one of the longest cross-border disputes between Canada and the United States. The controversy can be divided into two parts. The first, which lasted until the early 1960s, revolved around Seattle’s attempts to build the High Ross Dam and flood nearly twenty kilometres into British Columbia’s Skagit River Valley. British Columbia favoured Seattle’s plan but competing priorities repeatedly delayed the province’s agreement. The city was forced to build a lower, 540-foot version of the Ross Dam instead, to the immense frustration of Seattle officials. British Columbia eventually agreed to let Seattle raise the Ross Dam by 122.5 feet in 1967. Following the agreement, however, activists from Vancouver and Seattle, joined later by the Upper Skagit, Sauk-Suiattle, and Swinomish Tribal Communities in Washington, organized a massive environmental protest against the plan, causing a second phase of controversy that lasted into the 1980s. Canadian and U.S. diplomats and politicians finally resolved the dispute with the 1984 Skagit River Treaty. British Columbia agreed to sell Seattle power produced in other areas of the province, which, ironically, required raising a different dam on the Pend d’Oreille River in exchange for not raising the Ross Dam. I make two broad arguments about the controversy that differ from how stories of environmental conflict are usually told. First, the two types of politics that defined each era of the six-decade controversy – the politics of development and the politics of the environment – were not antithetical; rather, both were part of a larger tension between modernization and the politics of place. Politicians had to balance large-scale, universalized ideas about both dams and wilderness with sentiment tied to territorial boundaries, and often delayed or deferred making decisions about the controversy as a result. Second, representatives from various levels of government in Canada and the United States eventually solved this tension with a type of liberal environmentalist compromise that hinged on the belief that residents had a right to both cheap energy and pristine nature. ii Preface All of the figures used in this dissertation and parts of chapters 2 and 4 have been published in “‘Panic Park’: Environmental Protest and the Politics of Parks in British Columbia’s Skagit Valley,” BC Studies, 170 (Summer 2011): 67 – 92. All works are reprinted with permission. The oral history interviews conducted by the author were done with permission from the University of British Columbia Behavioural Research Ethics Board, certificate no. H09-01226. iii Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... ii Preface ..................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................iv List of Figures...........................................................................................................................vi List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................vii Acknowledgements..................................................................................................................viii Introduction: "Skagit Valley Forever" ......................................................................................1 Modernization, Liberalism, and the Politics of Development and the Environment ...................... 10 The Politics of Place: Environmental Controversy, the Spatial Turn, and History ........................ 18 Environmental History and Canadian-U.S. Relations ......................................................................... 23 Chapter 1: Dam Delay..............................................................................................................32 Holding the Skagit for Ransom................................................................................................................ 35 The High Ross Dam and World War II.................................................................................................. 43 The Columbia River Treaty and the High Ross Dam .......................................................................... 49 Chapter 2: The Paradox of Multiple Use .................................................................................61 Making the Skagit Valley Modern........................................................................................................... 64 SCL and Recreation in the Skagit ........................................................................................................... 72 Signs of Change: Rivers versus Reservoirs ............................................................................................ 78 Chapter 3: "We'll Let No Vandal Drown You" .......................................................................89 Bridging Divisions in the Vancouver Environmental Movement....................................................... 92 The Limits of Environmental Nationalism in Seattle ........................................................................... 99 Creating an International Environmental Controversy .................................................................... 106 Chapter 4: A "Trail of Red Herrings" ...................................................................................118 “What in the name of sanity is going on?” Environmental Politics in Canada.............................. 120 “Panic” Parks: British Columbia Governments and Environmental Protest................................ 127 Environmental Politics and “the Grind of the U.S. Regulatory Process” ....................................... 133 Final Appeals: Indigenous Rights and Environmental Politics ........................................................ 143 Chapter 5: "A Paper Dam"....................................................................................................152 Asserting Authority: The IJC and the Power of a Bluff .................................................................... 155 A “Forward Looking” Agreement......................................................................................................... 162 iv The Politics of Liberal Environmental Compromise.......................................................................... 170 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................181 Bibliography...........................................................................................................................188 v List of Figures Figure 1: The Skagit Valley and its parks.................................................................................3 Figure 2: David Roop in the Skagit Valley stumps................................................................110 Figure 3: Vera Johnson singing “Skagit Valley Forever” in protest ....................................110 Figure 4: NDP ministers unveiling a sign for Skagit Valley Recreation Area......................131 vi List of Abbreviations Organizations Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company Cominco Federal Power Commission FPC International Joint Commission IJC New Democratic Party NDP North Cascades Conservation Council N3C Run Out Skagit Spoilers ROSS Seattle City Light SCL Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission SEEC Society for Pollution and Environmental Control SPEC Archives British Columbia Ministry of the Environment Archives BCMEA British Columbia Archives BCA CBC Vancouver Media Archives CBCA City of Vancouver Archives CVA International Joint Commission Archives, Ottawa IJCA Library and Archives Canada LAC Seattle Municipal Archives SMA Swinomish Tribal Community Archives STCA University of British Columbia Special Collections and Archives UBCSCA University of Victoria Archives and Special Collections UVASC University of Washington Archives UWA U.S. National Archives and Records Administration NARA vii Acknowledgements It was my immense privilege to interview or speak with many people who were involved in the High Ross Dam controversy or who otherwise know the Skagit Valley very well. Their stories, even when not quoted directly, greatly informed how I came to think about and write this dissertation. Everyone I interviewed was also enormously generous with their time, patience, and hospitality. Such generosity alone made this a very rewarding project to undertake. A truly humble and heartfelt thank you thus goes out to Tom Brucker, Russell Busch, Larry Campbell, Archie Charles, Joseph Dunstan, Ian Efford, Ken Farquharson, Ralph George, Patrick Goldsworthy, June Harris, John Haugen, Ron John, Patricia John, David Laroche, Roger Leed, Guy McNeil, Tyrone McNeil, Tom Perry, Stephen Ralph, Terry Simmons, Nathan Spinks, Rhoda Spinks, Geoffrey Thornburn, and Mel Turner.