Foster Coulee is a coulee in Douglas County,

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. Like the larger Moses Coulee nearby, it was formed during the Missoula Floods at the end of the last ice age, some 14,000 years ago. Washington State Route 17 between Bridgeport, Washington and Coulee City, Washington follows East Foster Creek along much of the coulee's valley floor. East Foster Creek now flows east to west through Foster Coulee. The

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

quadrangle map "Foster Coulee" is named for this prominent feature.

Creation of the coulee

Foster Coulee was formed during the Missoula Floods. The Okanogan lobe of the Cordilleran Glacier moved down the Okanogan River valley and blocked the ancient route of the Columbia River, backing up water to create Glacial Lake Columbia. Initially, floodwater discharged from Glacial Lake Columbia by running up through the head of Grand Coulee and down through Foster Coulee to rejoin the Columbia River. After the floods, meltwater from the glacier reversed course and flowed east through the coulee, forming a hanging valley above the west rim of Grand Coulee and a debris fan on the Grand Coulee floor that can be seen today. As the glacier moved further south, Foster Coulee was cut off and the Columbia River then discharged through Moses Coulee.

Proposed reservoir

Foster Coulee has been studied as a potential

pumped-storage hydroelectricity Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH), or pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES), is a type of hydroelectric energy storage used by electric power systems for load balancing. The method stores energy in the form of gravitational potential ...

site. The coulee would be dammed and approximately 500 MW generation capacity installed, exploiting the c. difference in elevation between the new reservoir and the existing

Banks Lake Banks Lake is a long reservoir in central Washington in the United States. Part of the Columbia Basin Project, Banks Lake occupies the northern portion of the Grand Coulee, a formerly dry coulee near the Columbia River, formed by the Missoula Fl ...

. Banks Lake is in turn created by pumping water uphill from the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

at the

Grand Coulee Dam Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had two powerhous ...

Notable wildlife

The

Washington ground squirrel The Washington ground squirrel (''Urocitellus washingtoni'') is a squirrel that lives in the Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon, United States. Description The Washington ground squirrel lives in sagebrush or grassland habitats in ...

, a candidate for U.S.

Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA or "The Act"; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of ec ...

listing, inhabits Foster Coulee.

References

External links

*—mouth *—source * {{Ice Age Floods Geology of Washington (state) Glaciology of the United States Geography of Douglas County, Washington