The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1921-01-27
r..aewick Irrigation Project
pas Backing of Country's
Best Engineers e
nIERCIAL CLUB REPLIES
,e.A.r of u. S. Reclamation Service
Ays Project is Feasible and
Merit0riOus

mat the unknown special writer
IAe Spokesman-Review drew large
! mon his imagination when he at
,.ted the Kennewick Irrigation pro-
u IN an. effort to discredit the work
! ! the state reclamation board, is
Aom by communication which the
r.nnewick Commercial club has adj
drssed to the managing editor of the
Spokane paper.
In its reply the local club quotes
fran y. S. reclamation reports, the
ooutract existing between the state
,nd the irrigation district and other
documents which, are matters of public
record and charges that the Spokes-
man-Review writer has attempted to
set up his Judgment against that of
the country's foremost engineers and
reclamation experts. The letter in
full follows:
There appeared in the columns of
the Spokesman-Re of January II,
1S, and 10, a series Of three articles
severely criticising the policies and ac-
tivities Of the state reclamation board.
The writer Of these articles has based
his criticism, in part, upon the boards
consideration Of the Kennewick irri-
CATION project and either from misin-
formation or lack Of information, has
presented this project in an entirely
false light. For this false presenta-
tion there can be no valid excuse for
the reason that the real facts have at
all times been available not from the
state reclamation board, but from the
public records Of Benton county, the
Kennewick Irrigation district, and the
U. S. reclamation service.
This organization does not purpose
to come at this time to the defense of
the state reclamation board but in
view OF the injury done to an entirely
legitimate and meritorious enterprise
-one which represents years of COM
munity effort-we most emphatically
request that this communication be
pVen publication on your front page
nd that it be as prominently brought
sthe notice of your readers as were
M articles referred to.
We quote from your issue of Jan
NY 49,: a
Charles Benson, brother of the for.
V commissioner Of agriculture, lis
hldent and large owner in the Yak
~ River Farms company, of Kenne-
nk and Seattle, which controlled on
ag l9, 1920, 10000 of the privately
Med E2,9O0 acres of land on the high
sS south and west of Kennewick.
sM the Northern Pacific railway
@ ZOO acres in this same district.
!ilse lands are worth without water,
nom 81 to possibly SIS an acre. The
aeepmen have bought the best of
aen at an average price of $3.50 an
M The cost of irrigating these
Mds will go probably to 5000 an acre
- some complex engineering prob
! ems will be involved. So the state
%ard agreed to promote an irrigation
Gstrlct to cover these areas and a lit
!. ue outside land. If the board pursues
rs past policy it will pay the present
TTwners Nv $50 an acre for this SIS land.
Inc board will then raise the $6,0OO,-
w or $7,000,000 needed to build the
Eolect and the lands must then sell
aor $25O to $500 an acre"
Inc writer here charges, that the
Anos within the proposed project are
poof : and of little value; that the feas-
,Olnfy OF the project is questionable
o0th from an engineering and econom-
&C standpoint; that the state reclama-
oon board promoted The district large
y IN the interest of certain land spec
ulators.
SiSy VI each Oh CneSS CHoI
g is readily proved By the following
general statement If facts concerning
:. Tue project which are matters of pub
lie record:
Inc kennewick irrigation project al
ways has been, and is as it stands to
'uay, a part of the Yakima government
project. 1t was created, has been SUI
'eyed and approved, both As to its en-
sheerlng and economic feasibility, b
.he U. S. reclamation service. 1t ha
Deen approved as a project of unusus
merit by such we'll know irrigation er
sineers as A. P. Davis, director U.
reclamation service; F. E. Weymouth
chief engineer U. S. reclamation SCI
vice; D. c. Henney, Portland, consul
ing engineer U. S. reclamation Sc