Seeking Federal Aid for the Sunnyside Canal Extension
Senator Miles Poindexter tours the Kennewick valley as local leaders lobby for a federal survey to irrigate 40,000 acres of land between Kiona and Hover.
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Senator Miles Poindexter spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday in Kennewick visiting friends and discussing matters of legislative interest. Kennewick business men took advantage of the visit to acquaint him with plans for extending the Sunnyside canal to irrigate 40,000 acres tributary to Kennewick. J. J. Rudkin, chairman of the Commercial Club’s irrigation committee, explained the plan to syphon water across the Yakima River between Prosser and Benton City. This would irrigate lands between Kiona and Hover by gravity. The Senator was taken on an automobile ride over the valley and promised to use his best efforts to secure a federal survey for the project. Local leaders argued this was part of the original government Yakima project, and that previous appropriations for such a survey were lost in the shuffle.
“The Senator showed marked interest in the proposition and asked that he and the other members of Washington’s delegation in congress be furnished with full information.”
The struggle to secure water rights and irrigation infrastructure defined Kennewick's early growth. Water politics remain a critical and often contentious issue in Washington State governance to this day.
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