Burbank Farmers Fight for Snake River Wing Dam
Local irrigationists look to federal authorization to break the hold of utility costs on their annual overhead.
The story, cleaned up
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According to a telegram received in Walla Walla from Representative John W. Summers of the federal power commission, Washington, D.C., recommendations will be made to the commission that authorization be given for the construction of a wing dam in the Snake river for a period of five years, during which time it should be possible to determine its feasibility. Irrigationists of the Burbank district are now paying $30,000 a year for the maintenance to an electric power company and state that the wing dam will relieve this cost and pay for itself within a year. Work on the project will be started at once.
“Irrigationists of the Burbank district are now paying $30,000 a year for the maintenance to an electric power company and state that the wing dam will relieve this cost and pay for itself within a year.”
The struggle for affordable, locally-controlled water access remains a hallmark of Eastern Washington agriculture. Today, as in 1923, the tension between public benefit and the heavy costs of utility infrastructure defines the economic life of the Columbia and Snake river basins.
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