Chief Joseph Dam provides power
Water from the Columbia River spills through Chief Joseph Dam near Bridgeport, Washington. Chief Joseph has one powerhouse that is over a third of a mile long and holds 27 house-sized turbines capable of producing enough electricity to power 1.6 million homes. The flexibility of hydropower is critical to water managers’ efforts to balance competing priorities, and that becomes increasingly difficult when there’s a lack of precipitation combined with colder temperatures.