Water War Hits White Bluffs
Federal marshals serve subpoenas to thirty-two local farmers challenging irrigation rates in a deepening legal battle.
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.
A United States Marshal was circulating through the valley the fore part of the week, serving subpoenas on the thirty-two land owners under the Hanford project who signed the complaint to the Public Service commission last summer, asking the commission to regulate the rates of the Consumers Ditch company for water service. The subpoenas are issued out of the Federal court at North Yakima and require an answer within 20 days. A meeting will no doubt be called within a few days and a plan of defense decided upon by the water users.
“A plan of defense decided upon by the water users.”
This 1916 legal skirmish over water rates highlights the long-standing tension between corporate utility control and the survival of agricultural communities in the Columbia Basin, a theme that persists in modern water rights litigation.
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