White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1932-05-26


without which the landowners would
not have had water for irrigation; the
receiver, through the cooperation of
the district, sold receivers certificates,
repaired the irrigation system and sup
piled the water. The costs incurred in
the care and protection of the power
and irrigation instrumentalities must
be paid. That expense is charge
against the title superior to the title
Of the water right landowners. If those
costs are not paid the water right
landowners will lose their water rights.
1t is clear that the district can not be
enjoined from levying assessments
against the lands of the appellants to
pay those costs and to acquire title
to the instrumentalities upon which
their water rights rest. All that the
Federal court asks is that the district
pay the expenses necessarily incurred
by the court in protecting the instru-
mentalities for the benefit of the
water right landowners"
And on the question of these bene-
fits the court holds:
with reference to the contention of
the appellants that they will receive
no benefits from the districts plan of
development, the trial court aptly said:
II can see how proponents of
the bond issue can visualize COM
munity up in that section of this coun-
ty which will surpass almost anything
else in the state of Washington. With
the sum of something like seventy five
or eighty thousand dollars, they are
acquiring properties that have cost in
dividuals and groups, take it from
the exhibits in this case, sums rang
ing from three-quarters of million to
one million dollars. Power possibilities
there are exceptional. Water rights to
the lands are valuable, though it is
fact that not single land owner in
that district can successfully farm an
acre of the ground from his water right
alone. He will have to supplement it
from some source. 1t seems it is easy
to supplement the water from the use
of wells, but, as one witness testified,
no one wants part of his water from
ditch and part from we'll. He wants
it all from one source or the other
source.
The excess power that this Irriga-
ton District can develop, according to
the evidence of Mr.. Chase, would make
it quite feasible and practical to fur
nish electrical energy at rate, it
seems, far less than it is now costing;
as some witness testified yesterday, the
electrical energy bill alone is some SIS
or SIG per acre per season; which al
most creates an excessive situation.
Now, as to the legal questions
raised, Mr.. Hutcheson on the question
of merger, the question of the rights
of the District is interesting and novel,
but am not at all persuaded that our
Supreme Court would hold with you
in that regard. This is an unusual sit
uation, novel situation. I don't know
of another irrigation district existing
in the United States or anywhere else,
that has situation exactly as the one
that is presented here, but the pr1-
mary object, I am convinced, of the
men and women supporting the ma or-
ity position in this matter, is to save
these valuable water rights, in GER
tain way valuable, not even an asset
if you depended upon them alone, be-
cause you could not irrigate with that
amount of water alone, yet a liability
that no private company would want
to undertake, and doubtless, the only
reason that the insolvent company, the
Black Rock Power & Irrigation Com
pany, or whatever the name was, did
not go on with their plans, was that
they found this encumbrance estab-
lished by the Adamson decree. With
out the land having that right, doubt
less the District can continue by pump
ing, but will be largely at the mercy of
the group or individuals selling them
electrical energy
"Now, it has been Indicated here by
some of the persons who oppose the
program of the directors of this Dis
trict, that it is scheme or plan where
by their valuable rights will ultimately
be lost to them, to some private power
concern. The very fact that those rights
pass into the hands of quasi-munici-
pal corporation such as an irrigation
district, is the best argument in the
world that that situation could not
happen, because it can only occur after
the people of that district as whole
consent to it. If those rights would
pass into the hands of private indi-
viduals, then in all probability they
would pass direct for the purpose of
those private individuals personal
so it seems to me that the ]
fear that the minority seem to have
the future welfare of this
District is not we'll founded
"The statute provides that:
4" ANY lands included within any
(irrigation district which have a par
tial or full water right shall be given
equitable credit therefor in the appor- |