The Great Walla Walla Water Heist
City officials discover a massive, clandestine system of secret pipes siphoning irrigation water into the municipal supply.
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.
Proof positive that the major portion of the water flowing in the city pipe lines on the Thomas place came from irrigation ditches traversing the farm was obtained Saturday by the Commercial Club’s water committee. Guided by a former employee, George Gradwohl, officials unearthed a series of 'Ys'—underground pipe connections—cunningly concealed beneath loose rocks and dirt. Cameras documented the water gurgling noisily from the ditches into the city's main lines, a theft estimated at 15,000 gallons per day. The intakes were found less than two feet below the surface, disguised to evade detection by anyone unacquainted with the site. Further efforts to trace other connections to the Moore ditch were hampered by deliberate wooden boxing, but the committee confirmed that irrigation water was indeed the primary source of the city's 'developed' supply.
“The Ys unearthed were located immediately behind the Thomas orchard and midway between the north and south pipe lines... so thoroughly concealed that one unacquainted with the situation would never have discovered their location unless by accident.”
Resource management and the integrity of public infrastructure have been central to Walla Walla's development since its founding. This 1904 scandal, involving the surreptitious diversion of water, reflects the high stakes of water rights in the arid Inland Northwest—a perennial struggle that remains a critical issue for the region today.
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