Columbia Basin Project Facts and Issues

Grand Coulee/Columbia Basin Project:  Getting Started

• July 28, 1933 - Funds  appropriated, National Industrial Recovery Act 
• August 30, 1935 - Rivers and Harbors Act, authorized
• March 10, 1943 -  Columbia Basin Project Act, renamed and reauthorized Project

The Project

• Multi-purpose
• 1,029,000 authorized acres
• Diversions at Coulee — 2.65 million acre-feet 
• 671,000 acres irrigated
• 350,000 acres of Federal land and over 6,000 miles of right-of-way

   Columbia Basin Project Map

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671,000 Irrigated Acres

• Nearly all operations still family management
• 6,000 Farm Units 557,500 acres
• 114,000 Water Service Contracts and Sub-Area acres

Recreation Benefits

• 350,000 acres of Project land and water available for recreation
• Before development, 35 lakes
• Today, over 140 lakes, ponds, and reservoirs
• Grant County is now the most heavily fished freshwater county in the state

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