The Price of Water: Hanford’s Irrigation Struggle
As residents of the arid Columbia Basin organized against a powerful utility, a local newspaper feud revealed the high stakes of early regional water rights.
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.
Attorney M. M. Moulton came up from Kennewick Thursday and held a conference with the committee representing the local water users regarding the Hanford water case now pending before the Public Service Commission. The hearing on the case will be held at Kennewick on Monday, January 17, and the commission will hear the testimony on both rate and valuation features of the case. It is estimated that the hearing will last at least two days and will be largely of an expert nature. Several fine legal questions will be up to the commission for determination, and it is possible that some new law will be written in their decision regarding irrigation matters in the state. The local committee is working in harmony with the committee selected by the non-resident Hanford water right owners, and both committees feel they have a strong case. F. M. Weil has been engaged by the two committees in the capacity of secretary to solicit funds for the necessary litigation and to perform clerical work. R. M. Calkins, traffic manager of the Milwaukee railroad, has injected himself into the case in the hope of settling the matter out of court, though progress has been slow. The Hanford Columbian is trying to deliver the ranchers over to the power company. In last week’s issue, it spilled a fierce tirade against the people in the lower end of the valley in an apparent attempt to poison the minds of the Hanford ranchers about the efforts of the committee. These outbreaks of the Columbian are no new thing; it does seem a pity that the good people of Hanford must be saddled with such a miserable misfit for a newspaper.
“It is estimated that the hearing will last at least two days and will be largely of an expert nature. Several fine legal questions will be up to the commission for determination, and it is possible that some new law will be written.”
The struggle over the cost of water remains a fundamental tension in the semi-arid Benton County landscape. Today's public utility districts and irrigation districts still grapple with the legacy of these early legal fights over the ownership and fair pricing of the Columbia River's life-giving resources.
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