The Yakima Water Wars
A landmark federal court decision secures the future of government irrigation projects across the Yakima Valley.
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.
In a far-reaching decision rendered Saturday in the federal court, Judge Rudkin upheld the limiting agreements which safeguard $8,000,000 worth of government irrigation projects in the Yakima Valley. The defendant in the case was the West Side Irrigation Company, which the government was asking to be restrained from using more water each year from the Yakima River than its limiting agreement allowed. The decision is said to be of the highest importance to the government, as it settles the validity of a large number of limiting agreements, upon the faith of which the Reclamation Service has expended millions of dollars. If these agreements had been invalidated, endless litigation would have followed, and every water user in the Yakima Valley would have been involved. The suit was brought by District Attorney Francis Garrecht upon the request of the secretary of the interior. The Yakima project involved comprises the Kittitas, Tieton, Sunnyside, Wapato, and Benton units.
“If these agreements had been invalidated, endless litigation would have followed and every water user in the Yakima valley would have been involved.”
The struggle for control over Yakima River water rights defined the transformation of the region into an agricultural powerhouse. Today, these same systems remain the lifeblood of the valley, while modern climate concerns and tribal water rights continue the century-long debate over who truly owns and controls our most precious natural resource.
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