The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1923-09-27
WHICH HIGH LINE?

WHlCh HUH LINE
THE Ellensburg Record believes
= the Kittitas high line should be
the next unit of the Yakima project
constructed for the reason that 20
years ago private appropriations OF
water from the Yakima river limited
their appropriations of water with the
understanding that the government
would irrigate their lands. There
fore the government is honor bound
to keep it's promise.
In this respect the Kittitas unit
has no talking point over the Kenne-
wick unit. Prior to the creation of
the Yakima government project suf-
ficient water appropriations had been
made down here to irrigate every
acre in the new proposed Kennewick
unit. The status of these appropri-
ations was exactly the same as those
in the Kittitas valley. The same
representations We've made to the
Kennewick appropriations as to those
Of the Kittitas and the same limit
ing agreements were signed by both.
The real fact is that the appropri-
atoms in the Kittitas valley, as were
those in the Kennewick district,
didn't mean anything. They were not
water rights, they were NEARLY over
drafts. The appropriations existed on
paper all right but the water thus
appropriated didn't exist in the Yak
ina river.
Regardless of what promises may
have been made by over-zealous real
estate enthusiasts who wished to
start government reclamation in the
Yakima valley, what the government
really did was this. When its engi-
neers measured the flow of the Yaki-
ma river and checked it with appro-
priations on file they ascertained that
the river had been greatly over
appropriated. The government then
proposed its limiting agreement. 1t
said to the landowners all along the
Yakima river from Ellensburg to Ken
newick. eff you will limit your APP
preparations to quantity of water
equal to the present flow of the
Yakima river, the government will
get into the irrigation business in the
Yakima valley, will build storage
works and put into the Yakima river
enough water eventually to irrigate
your lands" This agreement was
accepted and landowners all along the
river surrendered their excess appro-
priations on a pro rata basis. They
didn't really give up any water only
a mess Of interminable legal en-
tanglements.
The Record also says that at the
time these limiting agreements were
made the Kennewick and some other
of the now uncompleted units were
only vaguely thought of. In this
the Record is mistaken. The Benton
unit, now known as the Kennewick,
was one of the original five units of
the Yakima project as established by
the reclamation service. In the ORR
ginal survey the Benton unit embrac-
ed 100000. This original acreage has
been whitfield down to the $4,000
acres included in the present Kenne-
wick unit.
Solar as the limiting of private
water appropriations, and being one
of the original units of the Yakima
project goes, the claim of the Kittitas
and the Kennewick units stand fifty
fifty and may we'll be disregarded by
the board of engineers who are to
decide which unit is to be constructed
first.
The purely engineering features of
the two units have been definitely
worked out by the reclamation service
so that the question of which is to be
selected for construction is essentially
an economical one. The chief determ-
lining factor should be the per acre
cost of construction compared to the
normal per acre production. Soil and
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