A Jury Walks the Ditches: Chewelah’s Drainage War Ends
After weeks of testimony and a field inspection, a jury ruled that draining the Colville Valley would harm no one—clearing the way for the Chewelah district and weakening objections elsewhere.
The great drainage case for the Chewelah district was decided last Thursday afternoon in favor of the drainage commissioners, who had brought suit against all the land owners in the district, as well as all those affected below the district, in order to drain the lands in the Colville valley. The case was on trial several weeks and was before a jury. The jury personally inspected the lands in the district and below the district to be drained, and decided that no one would suffer any damage, either in the district or below it, if the land is drained. This effectually settles the Chewelah district, and ought to have a wholesome effect on the objecting parties in other districts. The district can now go ahead with the work of drainage. We learn that there is little prospect that the case will be appealed, as the evidence is so long that it would require about $2,000 to make a transcript, and the fellows opposed are not likely to shoulder this expense. The drainage commissioners were represented by Joseph E. Grinstead, of this city, and Judge Richardson, of Spokane. — Statesman Index.
“The jury personally inspected the lands in the district and below the district to be drained, and decided that no one would suffer any damage, either in the district or below it, if the land is drained.”
Drainage districts still spark fights over who pays and who benefits when low ground is opened to farming. The Chewelah case shows the same questions—damage to neighbors, the cost of appeal, the power of a jury’s view—that shape water and land-use disputes in the Pend Oreille country today.
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