The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation will hold four virtual public information sessions in September and October on how the United States uses reservoir space in Canada could change in September of next year if the two countries cannot reach agreement to modernize the 60-year-old Columbia River Treaty.  Absent modernization, the treaty will no longer require Canada and the United States to coordinate for flood risk management as they have for the past 60 years of the Treaty.  The United States’ ability to “call upon” Canadian storage when needed does not expire and continues so long as Canada has dams in the basin that contribute to flood risk reduction in the United States, but how Canada would react to those calls is unknown.  One potential result is less predictability of managing runoff from Canada to better protect the United States from flooding, because the United States does not have additional reservoir space to offset the loss of assured water storage space in Canadian Treaty reservoirs.  Water managers do not anticipate increasing flood risk in the United States because of existing rights to call upon Canadian reservoirs under the Treaty and our ability to operate Lake Roosevelt consistent with current operating rules.  For information on the virtual meetings, go to the Army Corps of Engineers’ Columbia River Basin Water Management page.