Irrigation Crisis Forces Assessment on Farmers
Facing a $1,060 power bill, the White Bluffs Water Company moves to levy assessments on landholders to save the irrigation system.
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.
The White Bluffs Water Company met at the school house Saturday evening to talk over the financial condition of the company and to discuss plans for financing it during the coming irrigation season. To liquidate the $1,060 power bill that the Water company now owes, it was proposed that an assessment of $2 per acre be levied against the land, to be paid before April 1. There are approximately 503 acres under the project, but some of this land is not paying maintenance. The directors, at a meeting Tuesday evening, ratified this action by the passage of a resolution. It is the intention of the directors to collect the 1916 maintenance in monthly installments and when these installments are not paid promptly, shut off the water.
“It is the intention of the directors to collect the 1916 maintenance in monthly installments and when these installments are not paid promptly, shut off the water.”
Water and power utility politics are the lifeblood of rural Washington history; the struggle to maintain private or communal irrigation infrastructure often pitted neighbor against neighbor, as seen in the threat to 'shut off the water'.
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