A Spokane Syndicate Files on Four Stevens County Lakes
Ex-Mayor Floyd Daggett claimed 5,000 cubic feet of water from Fan, Trout, Horseshoe and Diamond lakes—prompting Newport-area residents to ask why local water should flow to Spokane.
Ex-Mayor Floyd Daggett, of Spokane, who is at the head of a large irrigation syndicate operating in the edge of Stevens County and in Spokane County, has filed a water right on the following lakes located in the southern portion of Stevens County: Fan, Trout, Horseshoe and Diamond.
He claims 5,000 cubic feet from each and states in his filings that the water is to be used in Spokane and Stevens counties.
The irrigation project is a large one, but the citizens of Stevens County, and especially of this section of the county, in which Diamond Lake is located, and which should be utilized for the benefit of Newport and vicinity, would be much better pleased if the rights should not be allowed.
“The citizens of Stevens County, and especially of this section of the county, in which Diamond Lake is located, and which should be utilized for the benefit of Newport and vicinity, would be much better pleased if the rights should not be allowed.”
Water rights filed by distant syndicates are still a familiar Northwest fight, from rural wells to lake levels. The 1908 objection was simple: who gets to decide whether a local lake serves the people beside it or a growing city downstream?
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