My name is Victoria Youmans, long time resident of the Columbia River living in Nakusp, British Columbia. As some of you may know, the water has been going your way most of the summer and continues to for the foreseeable future, while you have your summer recreation and nothing has changed for you.

You would see a huge change in our back yard: our reservoir is almost at pre-dam levels and has left our lake to devastation. Our fish are dead on shores, birds abandoned nests with eggs, and marsh lands completely dried up. Not to mention our tourism plummeted, people are being laid off in mills and logging, and our economy suffering immensely.

It’s hard to read and see your Grand Coulee Dam is allowing for 36 minutes straight (of) 1,000,000 feet per second over your spillway for no other reason than entertainment while we suffer so much up north. My country or yours, we share this resource if we like it or not, and it’s time we all stand together on both sides of the boarder to protect our watershed. I’m sure most of you, the public, were unaware of the ongoings up here in BC along the Columbia River, and we have to raise awareness and inform to our situation and get water levels that accommodate all fish/wildlife and peoples!

To help make changes please email me at victoriayoumans6@gmail.com.

Victoria Youmans