The Price of Water: Farmers Challenge Irrigation Monopoly
Water users take their case to the state commission, alleging that high salaries and massive advertising campaigns have left the local irrigation canal in a state of ruinous neglect.
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Water users are contesting the annual cost of water for lands in the district. They contend that lands formerly under the canal, which were sold to the Agathon Land Company free of water rights, should bear their fair proportion of the annual maintenance costs. The complainants further allege that money collected from the sale of water rights and maintenance fees—instead of being used for system upkeep—was disbursed in unreasonably high salaries and expensive advertising campaigns. As a result, the canal is in such a state of neglect that more than 50 percent of the normal volume of water is lost through seepage. Expert testimony from three engineers was introduced, detailing the original investment and the cost of reproduction. The case was heard by the entire state commission in an attempt to determine if the company can justly make the small number of remaining cultivated acres bear the entire cost of operation, including interest, taxes, and depreciation. The commission expects to reach a decision before the opening of this year's irrigation season.
“It is their claim that if the canal were put in good repair it would be possible to irrigate an acreage sufficiently large to reduce the annual maintenance to even less than $4 per acre.”
Kennewick's history is defined by the struggle to manage the arid landscape through irrigation, a fight that remains central to the region’s identity. The tension between profit-driven utility management and the survival of local farmers remains a modern resonance in an era of climate-driven water scarcity.
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