White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1933-01-19
HOW IRRIGATION
CAME TO VALLEY
Continued from last week.

| IldQ COME 1IlCO UIle valley, COllClIlucu
the cultivation of their lands and Or
chards In certain years when fruit
prices were low and maintenance fees
were increasing, it required much
courage to carry on. When the first
orchards began to come into bearing
and commercial shipments were made,
much of the fruit prior to the coming
of the Milwaukee Railway, was hauled
to the river landings and loaded Oh
boats for shipment to Kennewick,
where it was again hauled from the
docks to the railroad The handling
of soft fruit on the steamboats, very
often required that it be piled at the
| river landings or at the dock at Ken
newick without proper protection from
high temperatures. Growers suffered
a number of severe losses through this
method of handling SO that the COM
ing Of the Milwaukee in 1918 provided
easier methods of shipment and proper
refrigeration.
The State of ,Washington's selection
in 1922, of the Priest Rapids valley
as the location of the state Soldiers
Settlers project brought an influx of
new settlers, and while political diff
ferences later caused the abandon
ment of the project by the state, it
resulted in the expenditure Of large
sums of money and the bringing into
the country numebr of new settlers.
Following the decree in the Adamson
case, when the Hanford water right
owners rights in the Priest Rapids
lands were defined, the Consumers
Ditch company established rate for
maintenance fees for the irrigation
season of 1925, of $1O40 per acre for
inches and 20 cents per acre inch for
water in excess of the contract al
lowanGe Most of the lands using water
during 1926 paid this rate, but many
of the owners engaged attorneys to
bring action protesting the increase.
No action was taken during 1925 but
in 1926 group of water right owners
secured an injunction in the United
States court against the collection of
the higher maintenance fees and
sought to have established rate of
$500 per acre. In that year, certain OF
the water users rendered fee of $500
per acre and 10 cents per acre inch
for excess water, while others paid the
$10.40 and 20 cent rate.
The stockholders of the Consumers
Ditch Company and the Black Rock
Power 81 Irrigation company then de-
cided that settlement with the wa
ter right owners was not possible and
in the summer of 1926 petitioned the
United States Court for the appoint
ment of receiver to take over the
power and irrigation property. The
court at that time refused to appoint
a receiver, but upon the renewal of
the petition and upon representation
that these comanies were without funds
with which to operate another year,
the court appointed Marvin Chase as
receiver, effective as of January IL,
1927.
During this, the second receivership
operated the property during the years
1927 to the end of the 1882 irrigation
season, with which operations most of
the people in the Priest Rapids valley
are familiar.
Late in the year 1880 the United
States court ordered the property sold
at receivers sale. The order of sale
specified that it should first be offered
subject to the rights of the water
right owners, and, failing to receive
a bid under these conditions, to sell
the property free and clear Of all OBJ
legations. The minimum price fixed by
the court was 5000.
During the period between the time
of issuance of the order of sale and the
date the property was offered, various
groups of water right owners evolved
plans for taking over the property,
which resulted in much antagonism
between factions over the merits of
their various schemes. AS early as
1921, the Priest Rapids Irrigation dis
trict had been organized, it's proponents
having in mind such an organization
to protect the interests of the Han
ford water right owners at hearings
before the Federal Power Commission
at Washington, d. c., on the question
of extending the term of the permit
granted to the Washington Irrigation
and Development company for the
construction of the large dam at Priest
Rapids The irrigation district made an
assessment of 10 cents per acre to
cover costs, which assessment applied
to very much larger area than that
lying below gravity flow from the pre-
sent canal. The district as then or
ganized embraced lands around Priest
Rapids, in the vicinity of Allard and