From Washington To You
Landsat view of Grand Coulee Dam with Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake upstream and Banks Lake in the Grand Coulee.
Image by NASA Landsat 7, July 23, 1999. Public domain.

From Washington to you

Banks Lake

Banks Lake · Grant County · Grand Coulee irrigation water, spring 1952

Reclamation's equalizing reservoir for the Columbia Basin Project sits behind the Feeder Canal from Grand Coulee, the first stop for irrigation water heading south.

Banks Lake is a primary irrigation work of the Columbia Basin Project. The Bureau of Reclamation lists it with the Feeder Canal that carries Columbia River water from Grand Coulee Dam into the reservoir. From Banks Lake the Main, West, East High, and East Low canals take water south into the irrigated counties.

Congress authorized the Columbia Basin Project in 1943. Irrigation water first left Grand Coulee for about 66,000 acres in spring 1952. This card is the reservoir, not the whole project. The project-wide story is a separate file.

The photograph is a Historic American Engineering Record view of the feeder works. The source below is the Bureau of Reclamation Columbia Basin Project page.

  • Geography & Geology
  • History

Sources (1)

Last reviewed: September 20, 2026

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