Natches & Cowyche Ditch Co. v. George Weikel

Citations

• 87 Wash. 224

Syllabus

<p>Waters and Water Courses—-Irrigation—Appropriators—Rights —Pollution. Plaintiff, the prior appropriator of the waters and of a portion of the bed of a stream for use for irrigation, cannot complain of the reasonable use of the stream by upper proprietors for the purpose of drainage' whereby waste waters taken by them from a canal for irrigating their lands flowed into the stream (which was the natural drainage of such lands), and rendered the water muddy and deposited some silt in plaintiff’s irrigation canal and pipes, causing some inconvenience and damage, the water not being so polluted as to render it unfit for irrigation; since plaintiff’s appropriation did not give it greater rights than those of a riparian owner, or deprive upper proprietors of the right to reasonable use of the stream.</p>