Use It or Lose It: Washington’s 1917 Water Rights Showdown
A proposed state water code would end speculation in stream rights and force landowners to put water to work—or forfeit the claim.
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 bill for the determination, regulation and use of the waters of Washington, drawn to eliminate the long-persisting conflict between water users and those insisting upon full riparian rights, is now being circulated among newspapers, interested citizens and public officials. The keynote of the bill is that a man must use the water to which he claims a right in order to retain it. Use is held to be the essence of the property owner’s right in a stream, and he will ultimately lose that right if he does not use the water. If enacted, the bill would prevent a person from acquiring a riparian right and holding it purely for speculation.
The water code was adopted by the Water Code Conference called by Governor Lister at Tacoma, July 11 and 12, 1916, and adjourned to North Yakima, November 15, 1916. The conference represented water-power companies; water users’ associations; irrigation districts and companies; state bankers associations; clearing-house associations; the state bar association; railroad companies; chambers of commerce and commercial bodies; state higher educational institutions; civil, hydraulic and electrical engineering associations; and the cities and towns of the state. The principal contest was between the riparian-rights representatives and the irrigationists. This conflict is disposed of by sections 44 and 45 of the water code, which fix a limit of time within which a person claiming riparian rights must exercise them.
The code provides for a state hydraulic engineer and gives him liberal authority to settle water controversies. All applicants for water rights must make application to the state hydraulic engineer, and a full hearing is had to determine the rights of all concerned. A water code commission appointed by the governor, with O. L. Waller as chairman and E. W. Burr as secretary, prepared the measure.
“The keynote of the bill is that a man must use the water to which he claims a right in order to retain it.”
Washington still lives under a use-it-or-lose-it water doctrine, and the 1917 code’s bargain remains recognizable in modern drought disputes and rural-versus-urban water fights. Then as now, the central question was whether water is a public resource to be put to work or a private asset to be held for speculation.
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