Foster Coulee cut off and the Columbia River then discharged through Moses Coulee. Foster Coulee has been studied as a potential pumped-storage hydroelectricity 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 in turn created by pumping water uphill from the Columbia River at the Grand Coulee Dam. The Washington ground squirrel, a candidate for U.S. Endangered Species Act listing, inhabits Foster Coulee. Foster Coulee Foster Coulee is a coulee in Douglas County, Washington. Like the larger Moses Coulee nearby,
Grand Coulee Dam interest in irrigation projects. The Bureau of Reclamation, desirous of a major project that would bolster its reputation, was focusing on the Boulder Canyon Project that resulted in the Hoover Dam. Reclamation was authorized to conduct a study in 1923, but the project's cost made federal officials reluctant. The Washington state proposals received little support from those further east, who feared the irrigation would result in more crops, depressing prices. With President Coolidge opposed to the project, bills to appropriate money for surveys of the Grand Coulee site failed. In 1925, Congress authorized a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study