On Jan. 10, the United States and Canada entered their twelfth round of negotiations on the Columbia River Treaty, a 1960s-era agreement between the two countries over flood control, hydroelectric power generation, and other facets of water resources management in the massive, cross-border Columbia River Basin. The agreement’s flood control provisions are set to expire in 2024, sixty years after the treaty’s 1964 ratification. Initial negotiations over the new agreement started in May 2018 under U.S. President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Key to the negotiations are transboundary water flows from one U.S. dam—the Libby Dam—and three Canadian dams—the Duncan, Mica, and Keenleyside (or Arrow) Dams. Under the terms of the original treaty, Canada provided 15.5 million acre-feet of storage for Columbia River flow at those dams. In exchange, the United States paid Canada $64.4 million for flood control until 2024, along with half of the downstream hydropower …