The Water Wars of Ahtanum Creek
Forty-five farmers organize to protect their water rights against upstream diversion, signaling the beginning of a long-standing struggle for irrigation in the Yakima Valley.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A brisk waking up has lately occurred among the farmers having riparian rights to the waters of the Ahtanum creek. They were struck very forcibly with the belief that unless they took decided measures for the protection of their waters from the appropriators on the dry benches, they would be left like the fish, without enough water to swim in. The farms on the Ahtanum were among the first filed upon in this county, and the old settlers have been generous, while the new settlers have taken out enough canals to drain the creek, leaving the old farms with not enough water for the stock. Forty-five farmers, representing twenty thousand acres of land, have organized themselves into the Ahtanum Riparian Rights Association, and are determined to prevent the waters of the Ahtanum from climbing the benches and meandering off through the tall sagebrush, never to return.
“They were struck very forcibly with the belief that unless they took decided measures... they would be left like the fish, without enough water to swim in.”
Water rights and the competition between established farmers and new development remain the defining political and legal issue of the Yakima Valley. The tension between historical riparian rights and the needs of expanding 'bench' agriculture is a struggle that continues to shape the region's environmental and economic landscape.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.