The Touchet Farmers’ Revolt Against Water Monopolies
Tired of paying exorbitant fees to private irrigation companies, local farmers are going rogue—and going underground.
Artesian water will soon be flowing over the lands of Touchet, turning a semi-arid district into a blooming flower garden, if plans being laid by a number of prominent Touchet farmers are successfully carried out. The success of the Blalock well has convinced the promoters that such a well can be sunk at Touchet and a contract has been let to J. S. McCausland, who bored the Blalock well, to sink a similar well on the farm of John Hanson. The contract price is $500 and work will be commenced immediately. The high rate at which water rights from an irrigation company at Touchet are held is mainly responsible, it is said, for the present scheme. The irrigation company, it is said, wants $50 an acre for a perpetual water right, and a yearly rental of $5 to $7 an acre for water. This is considered exorbitant with the added dilemma that a sufficient amount of water for everybody could not be supplied. The promoters say they have little doubt that a strong flow of water will be struck, the only difficulty being how deep a well must be drilled. If the present well is a success it is understood that a number of such wells will be drilled at various points around Touchet.
“This is considered exorbitant with the added dilemma that a sufficient amount of water for everybody could not be supplied.”
The tension between corporate-controlled water access and independent, farmer-led resource management remains a core feature of the Walla Walla Valley. Today’s debates over the Yakima Basin Integrated Plan and groundwater usage rights echo the 1903 struggle of Touchet farmers trying to break free from high-cost irrigation monopolies.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.