Two Plans, One Spring, and a $25,000 Holdup

The city council decided at an informal meeting a few nights ago to submit to the voters of Walla Walla the question of bonding the city for the construction of a gravity water system. Two propositions will probably be submitted. One is the Weile plan of conducting water from a point on Mill creek twelve miles from the city at an estimated cost of a little more than $191,000, not including filtration beds, which would cost over $30,000, nor the cost of riparian rights, which would amount to about $125,000 more; the other plan is to continue the development work at Thomas springs and to construct a gravity system from that source at an estimated cost of $100,000.

There is little doubt that if the latter proposition is submitted to the people free from all suspicions of private grafts, it will carry by a large majority. The people should insist that this proposition be submitted in such a form that it will preclude the use of one-fourth the total amount of $100,000 for the purchase of half the Thomas ranch for the accommodation of persons interested in the sale of the land at an exorbitant price. For months every conceivable subterfuge has been employed to force this city to buy half the Thomas ranch as a condition of the city's being allowed to make use of its $10,000 right to all the subterranean water on the farm and its $15,000 development work.

The people have been told that it is necessary for the city to own the land in order to prevent unknown parties from tampering with the water supply. It is a holdup game pure and simple. There is a state law dealing severely with any person who tampers with a city's water supply, and the enforcement of that law should afford the city all the protection it needs. To pay $25,000 to keep somebody from tampering with the city's water supply would be just as reasonable as it would be for the Northern Pacific railroad to pay the Montana blackmailers $50,000 to prevent its tracks and trains from being blown up with dynamite. The people of this city are in no mood to be held up in this fashion, and they will not sanction any scheme to accomplish indirectly what they would never approve if fairly submitted for their approval or rejection. Therefore it is the duty of the council to take care that the Thomas springs bonding proposition shall be submitted to the people in a form that will not allow the purchase of half or all of the Thomas ranch to promote a private graft.

Nor will the people of this city give their approval to a scheme that contemplates the abandonment of the city's valuable rights on the Thomas place in order to double the value of the land for the benefit of the same speculators who have about abandoned hope of selling the land to the city. That is what the Weile proposition means. The city has about $25,000 invested in water rights at Thomas springs, and not even Weile has dared to say that these rights are not worth all the city has paid for them. Hydraulic engineers of national reputation have declared without reservation that water enough can be developed in the vicinity of the Thomas springs to supply a city of at least 25,000 people. All that is needed is for the city to go after this water in a common-sense way. It is not fair to judge what can be done by the hit-or-miss work done by Worley, who from all reports was more interested in developing time checks and grafts than water. Engineers Weile, Storrow and Miller agree that by following the slope of Mill creek and laying the pipes deeper much more water might be developed, and there is no good reason why this should not be done. Councilman Smith has some practical ideas along this line that should be given thoughtful attention by his colleagues.

The Weile proposition to be submitted by the council would cost an enormous sum and would prove a grievous burden to taxpayers for many years to come. The original cost of $191,000, not including filtration beds, would not be more than half the final cost of the system. It would be only a question of a short time when sanitary conditions would require the construction of filtration beds, and there would be no end to costly litigation with riparian owners from the city's intake pipe, twelve miles up Mill creek, to the mouth of the Walla Walla river. It is estimated that the 5,000,000 gallons to be taken by the city from the creek would be worth for purposes of irrigation to the owners of riparian rights along the creek about $125,000. It would cost the city more than that if the damage had to be determined by a multiplicity of lawsuits.

If the people are given a fair chance to decide between the two propositions to be submitted by the council, the Statesman believes that there is no reason to doubt that they will vote by an overwhelming majority for the cheaper one — that of bringing water from the Thomas ranch. If the latter proposition is made so objectionable in form that it cannot be accepted by the people, there will be nothing left to do but to reject both propositions and wait for a square deal.