Editing Columbia Basin Project (section)

==Economic benefits and costs==
The irrigation water provided by this project greatly benefits the agricultural production of the area. North Central Washington is one of the largest and most productive tree fruit producing areas on the planet. Without Coulee Dam and the greater Columbia Basin Project, much of North Central Washington State would be too arid for cultivation.

According to the federal Bureau of Reclamation the yearly value of the Columbia Basin Project is $630 million in irrigated crops, $950 million in power production, $20 million in flood damage prevention, and $50 million in recreation.<ref>{{cite web |title= The Story of the Columbia Basin Project |publisher= [[United States Bureau of Reclamation]] |url= http://www.usbr.gov/pn/project/columbia_details.html#ten |accessdate= 25 October 2009 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090513103154/http://www.usbr.gov/pn/project/columbia_details.html#ten |archive-date= 13 May 2009 |url-status= dead }}</ref> The project itself involves costs that are difficult to determine. The farms that receive irrigation water must pay for it, but due to insufficient data from the Bureau of Reclamation, it is not possible to compare the total cost paid by the Bureau to the payments received. Nevertheless, the farm payments account for only a small fraction of the total cost to the government, resulting in the project's agricultural corporations receiving a large water subsidy from the government.<ref name=75years/> Critics describe the CBP as a classical example of federal money being used to subsidize a relatively small group of farmers in the American West in places where it would never be economically viable under other circumstances.<ref name=75years/>