White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1928-04-06


Black Root Power & Irrigation
company and the Consumers Ditch
company, has filed his report in the
Federal Court at Yakima. The re-
port, which is quite voluminous, COW
ering II typewriter sheets, deals
in detail with Mr.. Chase's, administra-
ton of the property since his ap-
po:ntment as receiver on January
II, 1927, up to and including De-
cember 81, 1927.
After listing the property that
the receiver found when he took
charge of the two companies, the re-
Port says:
"The Court is cognizant of the fact
that the irrigation system and all of
the physical properties mentioned in
the order of appointment were con-
structed in 1908 and the ordinary de-
teriorat.on necessitates considerable
repair and careful operation to
carry it through the season with
out serious Interruptions in service.
In conditioning the irrigation system
fcr the 1927 season to deliver an
adequate supply of water to the
lands receiving same, an outlay of
labor and money was necessary, but
with the exception of few dollars
all of the labor was performed by the
farmers and applied on their MAIN
| tenance.
Under the contracts and deeds, the
irrigation season is fixed as beginning
earlier date materially assisted the
farmers, owing to the fact that they
required water for their early spray
and some irrigation. Therefore, the
System was reconditioned in time to
have the water in the canals fof the
farmers use on March 21 and a con-
tinuous and uninterrupted service was
maintained to the closing of the
season on October 1st.
"The behavior of the hydro-electric
and pumping plants, together with
the canal, was 100 per cent, and
credit should be given to the oper-
ators, who understand the need of
| giving the farmers an abundant sup
ply, and maintained the same with
out any interruption in service.
"The payroll was reduced on Oc-
tober to only a watchn.an at the
hydro-electric plant at Priest Rapids
and one at the pumping station at
Coyote. This supervision is necessary
to protect the plants froin river ice
and to keep the buildings warm to
J prevent freezing of the transformers
and other machinery having water
jackets.
"The former custom of delivering
water to the land has been in con-
formity with the provisions Of the
deeds and contracts which fixed a
duty Of one second foct of water fol
160 acres of land, equalling about 81
acre inches in depth. The farmers
found tl1isi was inadequate and pur-
chased extra water. Measuring devices
have been installed and daily i1;easure-
n1ents were necessary in order to
determine the amount of water de-
1ivered. As this enta:led great deal
of expense on the part Of the manage
ment, and was not satisfactory to the
farmer, or adequate for the needs of
the land, your receiver believed it was
better to rateably apportion the water
over all the lands irrigated. This was
done, and an average Of three So
called contract allowances was pro.
vlded, which equalled eight acre feet
per acre. The water ledger in the of.
flee Of the company showed 1888 acres
as having received water during the
season of 1926, and as it seemed about
the same acreage would be farmed in
1927, the funds believed necessary tc
operate the system were computed or
same. Therefore a petition was pre-
c,nted to your Honor to fix the
maintenance at fiften ($150O) pei
acre. After getting into the season, il
was found that this was not the true
acreage watered but the farmer had
under the old system, purchased wat
er, in many instances, for a larger
acreage that what he was actually
irrigating, and used his excess water
on the smaller amount of land, thus
cutting the actual acreage irrigated
to 1864. Had the larger acreage
obtained, we could have reduced the