Catrin Bryan
McMillen, Inc.

Cody Desautel
Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation

Kristian Mickelson
US Army Corps of Engineers

DESCRIPTION

The Columbia River Treaty is an internationally respected water management agreement between Canada and the United States. The Columbia River basin is approximately the size of France and includes drainage from seven states, and one Canadian province. It is the 4^th largest river, by flow, in the USA and the largest river in the Northwest. Following twenty years of negotiations, the Columbia River Treaty between the United States and Canada took effect in 1964, as a mechanism for the cooperative development of portions of the Columbia River Basin for flood control and electricity generation. 

The Treaty provided for the construction and operation of new dams and electricity generation as well as defined and coordinated hydro operations, and provisions for sharing the benefits of hydropower.  While the Treaty has no expiration date, the assured flood control operation provisions were set to end in September 2024 and automatically replaced by less-defined flood control operations termed “called-upon”.

Negotiations began in 2018 to address this issue and other components of the Treaty regime, after a decade of regional consideration.  In July 2024, the U.S. and Canada announced an agreement on key elements for a modernized Treaty.  Join a discussion on the latest steps being taken to implement Treaty operations at this time, as well as tribal and local utility perspectives. 

Most hydropower operations in the Northwest are either physically linked to the Columbia River basin or affected by power pricing on the Columbia, thus, this session is for everyone who works in the Northwest.

This panel is within the Hot Topics at the conference. 
This is a general interest topic relevant to anyone working in the Northwest.  

Moderator:
Catrin Bryan, McMillen

Panelists:

• Hub Adams, Attorney-Advisor, Bonneville Power Administration
• Kristian Mickelson, FRM Advisor, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Cody Desautel, Executive Director, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
• Peter Graf, River Coordinator, Grant County PUD

Speaker Bios:

• Cody Desautel is a member of the Colville Tribe. He has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science, and a master’s degree in Indian Law. He has spent the entirety of his career working for his people on the Colville Reservation. That time includes working for both the Tribal Government and the Bureau of Indian Affairs in a variety of capacities, including forestry, fire management, and range. He was hired as the Natural Resource Division Director in April 2014. A position he held until assuming the Executive Director position in June of 2022.
• Peter Graf has been at Grant PUD since 2011 and is currently the District’s River Coordinator. Peter oversees the commercial operations of the Priest Rapids Project as well as operations to meet FERC license and regulatory requirements. Prior to working for Grant PUD, Peter worked on hydro relicensing in Central California.
• Kristian Mickelson has been in his current position as the United State Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Northwest Division FRM Advisor the last two years. Prior to that Kristian worked at USACE Seattle district for 14 years as the Columbia River Treaty (CRT) H&H Technical lead, climate change expert, and dam regulator. His experience with the USACE has primarily focused on Columbia River System operations with experience in supporting modernization of the Columbia River Treaty and support of NEPA compliance for US federal dam operations. Prior to being at USACE Kristian received his master’s at the University of Washington in Civil Engineering, served in the Peace Corps in Bolivia, and received his bachelor’s degree from Oregon State University in Civil Engineering. He is originally from Gold Beach, Oregon.
• Hub Adams is an attorney who serves as BPA’s lead negotiator in negotiations with Canada for modernization of the Columbia River Treaty. He has over 20 years of experience working on Treaty issues, first as a BPA attorney and for the last several years as BPA’s lead Treaty negotiator. In addition to Treaty matters, his legal practice has included advising on agency compliance with environmental laws and litigating challenges to BPA actions in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. As part the U.S. delegation for Treaty negotiations, he works closely with the U.S. Department of State and other Federal agencies on negotiation matters. Mr. Adams holds a B.A. in Urban Planning from the University of Illinois and a J.D. with a certificate in environmental and natural resources law from Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon.