By 1918, regional promoters developed two different plans to bring water to the Columbia Basin. Residents of central Washington favored a dam on the Columbia River at Grand Coulee, with pumps to lift water to the dry plateau. The Spokane Chamber of Commerce, however, backed a dam at Albeni Falls on the Pend Oreille River, with a canal to carry water by gravity to the basin.
While the gravity vs. pumping debate raged in Washington for more than a decade, Idaho residents worked to protect their land and water rights. Compton I. White of Clark Fork warned Bonner County in January 1927 that the proposed dam would inundate fertile Idaho lands and force the abandonment of many homes. One month later, the Idaho legislature passed a law prohibiting the appropriation of Idaho water for use in Washington.
This ended Washington’s gravity plan whose fate was permanently sealed in 1932 when a federal study showed that a dam at Grand Coulee could irrigate the Columbia Basin more cheaply, with the added benefit of power production.
Compton White’s letter to the people of Bonner County
