AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Ingrid A. Timboe for the degree of Master of Science in Water Resources Policy and Management presented on June 6, 2016. Title: Assessing the Current State of Transboundary Cooperation in the International Columbia River Basin Abstract approved: _____________________________________________________ Aaron T. Wolf The Columbia River Treaty (CRT) is often used as an example of how treaties can work to normalize, regulate, and improve the cooperative management of shared water resources between basin countries. Few would argue that, in its limited mandate to regulate hydropower generation and flood risk management for downstream communities, the CRT has been anything but a success. However, there are many aspects of water resource management, including water quality, aquatic species, and indigenous peoples’ rights and responsibilities that are left unaddressed by the Treaty. These issues are of increasing importance to managers and stakeholders in river basins around the world. This paper asks, in the absence of a formal agreement governing these issues, are the United States and Canada coordinating the broader management of the Columbia River and its international tributaries? If so, around which water resource issues do they collaborate and at what level? If not, do these gaps in co-management negatively affect the basin? In order to assess the current state of transboundary water cooperation between the United States and Canada within the basin, 50 transboundary initiatives were identified and categorized into management categories including: ecosystem function, fish passage & habitat, climate change, invasive species or toxics management, and energy. Interviews were then conducted with 34 natural resource managers throughout the international basin on their work with these initiatives, specifically addressing areas where they are, and are not, collaborating at this time. The interviews revealed that, while there is a great deal of collaborative work being done, it appears largely fragmented and restricted to sub-basin activities. International, basin-wide cooperation, outside of treaty obligations under the CRT, appears limited at this time. This thesis contends that there is a need for these sub-basin activities to be networked with one another, either through the Treaty, or through an inclusive, legitimate, and transparent river basin organization. ©Copyright by Ingrid A. Timboe June 6, 2016 All Rights Reserved Assessing the Current State of Transboundary Cooperation in the International Columbia River Basin by Ingrid A Timboe A THESIS submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Presented June 6, 2016 Commencement June 2016 Master of Science thesis of Ingrid A. Timboe presented on June 6, 2016 APPROVED: Major Professor, representing Water Resources Policy & Management Director of the Water Resources Graduate Program Dean of the Graduate School I understand that my thesis will become part of the permanent collection of Oregon State University libraries. My signature below authorizes release of my thesis to any reader upon request. Ingrid A. Timboe, Author ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank, first and foremost, my committee members, in particular my advisor Dr. Aaron T. Wolf. Aaron, thank you for taking me on as an advisee, for giving me the space to craft my own program of study and do my own research while at the same time providing generous encouragement and perspective when I would inevitably get stuck in the weeds. Your work is an inspiration to us all and I am honored and humbled to be following in your footsteps. To Dr. Matt McKinney, thank you for answering my unsolicited email and bringing me into the Universities Consortium fold last spring, and for agreeing to serve on my thesis committee. I am indebted to both you and Richard Paisley for connecting and mentoring Meghan and I through our work with the Northwest Power & Conservation Council last summer. To Hannah Gosnell, thank you for agreeing to serve on my thesis committee. Your expertise in the area of adaptive co-management / adaptive governance has been particularly enlightening to me and is hopefully reflected in this thesis. Thanks also to the Northwest Power & Conservation Council and the Columbia Basin Trust, in particular John Harrison, Councilwoman Jennifer Anders, and Kindy Gosal, for the summer internship opportunity and generous financial support. I hope that our report proves useful for the Council and Trust as they consider their future role in the Columbia River basin. And to Meghan Carter, my partner in crime last summer, none of this would have happened without you! Thank you for agreeing to spend your entire summer working overtime with me to conduct interviews, write a 30-page report, and present our findings to the Council. You’re a rockstar. I would also like to thank my friends and cohort in both geography and water resources here at OSU for keeping me grounded during the hurricane that is our master’s program. For providing me with endless opportunities to relax and kvetch, I am grateful! You are all wonderful, talented human beings and I can’t wait to see where you all end up. To my partner, Jason, thank you for agreeing to move across the country with me and then for putting up with my long disappearances and my increasing inability to talk about anything besides water. Thank you for getting up early on weekends with me to watch English football and for being my hiking / camping / adventuring partner for the past two years. And finally, to my family. To my mother and father, Ken & Sandy, thank you for always supporting me in my various intellectual pursuits, be they in Syria, Washington, D.C., Oregon, and beyond. Thank you for providing me with a wonderful example of what it means to be a partner, a parent, and a human being. Your love and prayers mean the world to me and have kept me going through it all. To my sisters Emma, Elly, and Louise, and my brothers-in-law Alex and Mike, thank you for your love and encouragement and for helping me take myself less seriously. Lord knows I need it! To my grandmother, Stella Timboe, for her love and support, and to my grandparents Ray & Wanda Bodin, and Al Timboe, whose spirits live on inside of me. You have all had a profound influence on my life and continue to provide me with strength and courage each and every day. I love you! TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………... 1 1.1. Research questions …………………………………………………………... 3 1.2. Study design & scope ………………………………………………………... 5 1.3. Literature Review…………………………………………………………….. 6 1.3.1. Paradigm shifts in water resources management: From prevention to mitigation and on to adaptation…………………………….. 7 1.3.2. Managing for complexity………………………………………… 12 1.3.3. The rise of adaptive governance………………………………….. 13 1.3.4. Incorporating new values into existing institutions………………. 16 1.3.5. What constitutes “good” adaptive governance?............................... 18 Chapter 2. Methodology …………………………………………………………………………….. 24 2.1 Study area …………………………………………………………………………. 24 2.2 Data collection and Gap Analysis ………………………………………………… 27 Chapter 3. Results …………………………………………………………………………………… 33 3.1 Initiatives…………………………………………………………………………... 33 3.2 Interviews …………………………………………………………………………. 38 3.3 Existing cooperation by issue area………………………………………………… 40 3.3.1 Ecosystem Function …………………………………………………………. 41 3.3.2 Fish passage and habitat ……………………………………………………... 43 3.3.3 Invasive species and toxics mitigation ………………………………………. 49 3.3.4 Climate Change ……………………………………………………………… 54 3.3.5 Energy ………………………………………………………………………... 56 3.4 Summary …………………………………………………………………………... 57 Chapter 4. Discussion ……………………………………………………………………………….. 60 4.1 Does the current transboundary cooperation landscape support adaptive governance? …………………………………………………………………………….. 60 4.2 Implications for the international Columbia River basin …………………………... 64 4.3 Implications for other transboundary basins ……………………………………….. 78 4.4 Limitations ………………………………………………………………………….. 82 Chapter 5. Recommendations & Conclusion ………………………………………………………... 85 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………………………. 91 Appendices APPENDIX A – Transboundary Initiatives by Governance Level and Issue Area………… 99 APPENDIX B – Transboundary Initiatives Database………………………………………. 103 APPENDIX C – List of Interview Participants……………………………………………... 141 APPENDIX D – Interview Notes (link to online repository)……………………………….. 143 APPENDIX E – OSU IRB Exemption Confirmation ………………………………………. 144 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page Figure 1. Map of the International Columbia River Basin ……………………………………. 25 Figure 2. Historical Peak Flows at The Dalles, Oregon ………………………………………. 26 Figure 3. Data collection methodology representation ………………………………………... 28 Figure 4. Fifty transboundary initiatives by overlapping issue areas …………………………. 36 Figure 5. Fifty transboundary initiatives by governance level ……………………………….. 37 Figure 6. Interview Composition by Issue Area ………………………………………………. 39 Figure 7. Columbia Basin map: Areas Blocked to Anadromous Fish Passage………………... 44 Figure 8. Maximum and average water temperatures at Bonneville Dam, Oregon…………… 46 Figure 9. Columbia basin map: Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams ………………………. 75 LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table 1. Framework for Adaptive Governance, Pahl-Wostl, 2008 ……………………… 19 Table 2. Summary Table of Interviews ………………………………………………….. 38 Table 3. Adaptive Governance in the Columbia
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