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"What Does the Columbia Basin Mean to the People of Bonner County"
To the People of Bonner County:
The proposal to dam the Pend d'Oreille river at Albeni Falls and raise the level of the lake above normal high water, impounding the water to irrigate the Columbia Basin and generate power, is the most vital issue that has ever confronted the people of Bonner county.
The latest move of those interested in the Columbia Basin project is the proposed excursion of the representatives of the powers interested to Boise on Jan. 24, as we are informed by the press notices in the Spokesman-Review of January 14th to "present in a friendly manner questions concerning storage facilities and division of water," in their efforts to induce the Idaho legislature to repeal the enactment of the last session preventing the appropriation of the waters of Idaho for irrigation in other states. Prominent in the party mention is W.J. Turner of the Washington Water Power company.
The interest of the water power company shouldn't be far to seek, with four power plants in operation along the Spokane river below the point where the Columbia basin canal is surveyed to cross the Spokane river in an aqueduct. It is easily conceivable that this water diverted to the channel of the Spokane river at the close of the irrigating season, and during the low water stage of that river, has big financial possibilities for the water power company, bringing their plants to capacity at all times.
The transcontinental railroads are squarly (sic) behind the project for financial reasons apparent to any on that has seen the benefits that the railroads reap from the opening of large tracts to new settlers whether the settlers are to become prosperous or otherwise.
The farm lands in the valleys along the Pend d'Oreille and the Clarks Fork rivers and around the lake are sub-irrigated and fertile – some of the richest in the state. These lands attracted the earliest settlers in what is now Bonner county. Homes were built and farms reclaimed – some of the farms were literally hewn from the forests.
The water flow in and out of Lake Pend d'Oreille has a peculiarity in that the outlet is congested at flood stage and does not let the water flow out as fast as it flows in, with the result that the lake continues to rise long after the inflow of the Clarks Fork river has started to subside. In occasional seasons of extreme high water in the lake much land is flooded along the river. To remedy this condition the Pend d'Oreille Drainage association was organized in 1912 and federal aid was sought to widen the outlet and lower the flood level of the lake. As the federal government could render no assistance under the present law, nothing further was done.
Now, with the construction of the proposed dam and the low water level of the lake raised some 19 feet, the flood level is bound to go much higher, and as the crest of the flood comes in the middle of June, thousands of acres of the most fertile land in Idaho will be hopelessly ruined. Homes that have taken a lifetime to build and land that has taken a lifetime to clear, will be lost forever.
For comparison, one only has to travel a few miles to the south and view the ruins in the valleys tributary to Lake Coeur d'Alene. Any one living in this country a few years can remember the heroic struggle of the settlers there to protect their homes. After the damage was done, the settlers, in their efforts to save their farms, organized an improvement district to dyke their valley from the waters raised by the power dam. The writer distinctly remembers reading of the court decree creating the improvement district, specifically excluding all property of the power company within the district from any taxation for the reclamation of the very land despoiled.
Surely, the best interest of the people of Bonner county and the future prosperity of Sandpoint do not lie in having the fertile valley lands along the Clarks Fork and Pend d'Oreille rivers hopelessly inundated and the prosperous homes abandoned.
Sincerely,
Compton I. White, Clarksfork, Idaho
Page taken from an informational training pamphlet, circa early 1940s.
From the collection of the Bonner County Historical Society.