White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1933-02-09
HOW IRRIGATION
CAME TO VALLEY
Continued from last week.

When the land owners in this valley
through the Priest Rapids Irrigation
district, purchased at the receivership
sale the project formerly owned and
operated by the old Hanford Irrigation
& Power company, they acquired title
to property worth several times the
purchase price.
In the property listed in the deed
from the receiver to the district are
more than 800 acres of land, including
approximately two miles Of shore land
the power plant together with all ma
chinery and equipment, cottages for
the operators at the plant franchises,
and long list of tools and machinery
at Priest Rapids; the pumping plant
and equipment, together with shore
and other lands at Coyote Rapids;
several miles of transmission line con-
Meeting the power plant and pumping
station; the irrigation canal and lat
erals together with all other property
including bills receivable owned by the
Black Rock Power 81 Irrigation COM
pany and the Consumers Ditch COM
pany when those two companies went
into receivership.
Both the power plant and the pump
ing plant, built of concrete, were well
constructed and are worth as much
now as the day they were built. The
| irrigation canal is even better than
when it was first dug The silt pumped
into it from the river during the more
than 20 years of operation, has set
tied in the bottom and along the sides
and sealed many of the leaks that
| in the early days caused heavy loss
| by seepage Most of the laterals, how
eper, were in a bad state of repair
when the project was taken over by
the receiver and will have to be re-
built.
Much, but not all, of the machinery
in the two plants is obsolete, ineff1-
Gent and worn, and will have to be
replaced sooner or later with more eff
Gci2nt and up-to-elatc equipment
But of far more Importance than
the mere immediate physical value Of
the property are the future POSSIBLE
tiles of the project.
No irrigation project in the west has
a power project of the magnitude of
Priest Rapids tied in with it SO COM
| pletely as has this one Not only can
the power plant be developed to a
point where it will furnish electrical
energy to pump water on all the land
but it will supply a large surplus for
sale, the income from which should
be not only sufficient eventually to
retire all indebtedness but in the end
should be revenue producer for every
| landowner under the project.
The rehabilitation OF the irrigation
project will be undertaken as rapidly
as conditions warrant and eventually
it will be enlarged and extended to
reach all land under the level of the
present canal. From Typographical
standpoint, this is an ideal project.
The contour lines show the land to be
comparatively level which obviates the
necessity of digging expensive tunnels
or hanging fumes or pipe lines on
the side of mountains for the distri-
button of water, as is the case in many
of the projects in the state.
improvements will also no doubt be
made each year at the power plant SO
that the output of electrical energy
will keep pace with the irrigation de-
velopment.
Another asset that is possessed by
this project is the unlimited supply
of water thing that is matter OF
serious concern to all projects whose
water supply is regulated more or less
by the annual rain and snowfall. The
Columbia river drains an immense ter
ritory and there will be flow OF wa
ter in it when many of its tributaries
may be short.
Every irrigation authority, and there
have been many who has famlllarizec
himself at all with this project, agrees
that it has possibilities not equalleo
by any other project in the west. The
one great danger is that it's develop
ment may be undertaken more rapidly
than conditions warrant, to point
where an unnecessary and cumbersome
debt load is built up that would ham
per its natural growth. There is little
chance, however, of this happening
SO long as the land owners under the
project keep its control in the hand.
of competent men with mature judg.
ment.
The beneficiaries who fought through
the long years of litigation have gon'
through their baptism OF fire and thei
reward is the full possession OF tn
|, greatest irrigation project in the west