The Fight for Hanford's Water
Local water right owners resolve to keep their legal battle for irrigation rights alive all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Authorizing their committee and attorney to take every necessary action to protect the victory won last spring in the Circuit Court of Appeals and empowering the committee to make whatever assessments are needed to raise the funds to finance the fight, was the substance of a resolution unanimously adopted at a fairly well attended meeting of Hanford water right owners held in Community Hall in Hanford Thursday evening. The Black Rock Power Irrigation company is attempting to appeal to the United States Supreme Court from the Circuit Court of Appeals decision and the water right owners made it clear that they want a vigorous fight made in resisting such an attempt. Robert Nichols and E. J. O’Larey, the two members of the committee who upon request of Attorney Carroll B. Graves went to Seattle the first of the week for a conference on the new turn in the case, reported to the meeting Thursday evening the results of the conference and what Judge Graves said he believed were the proper legal steps to be taken and, also, his optimistic opinion of the final outcome of the case.
“The water right owners made it clear that they want a vigorous fight made in resisting such an attempt.”
Water access remains a foundational struggle for the semi-arid lands of Eastern Washington, echoing the century-old battles over irrigation rights that defined the early development of the Hanford region. This local resistance against corporate litigation over essential resources persists as a recurring theme in the Pacific Northwest's legal and environmental history.
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