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Show Walla Walla River Litigation Washington v. Oregon 297 U.S. 517 (1936) The object of this original suit was to obtain an apportionment be- tween the two States of the waters of the Walla Walla Eiver and tributaries, supported by an injunction. The case was heard on ex- ceptions to the report of the Special Master, William W. Ray, Esquire, of Utah, to whom it had been referred. Mr. Justice Cardozo delivered the opinion of the Court. With leave of court (283 U.S. 801), the State of Washington filed a bill of complaint on July 22,1931, in which it charged that the State of Oregon was wrongfully diverting the waters of the Walla Walla River to the prejudice of inhabitants of Washington, and prayed an adjudication apportioning the interests of the two states in the river and in tributary streams and restraining any use or diversion of the waters found to be unlawful. To this complaint Oregon filed an an- swer containing denials and defenses, to which Washington replied. On February 20, 1933, this court appointed a Special Master with au- thority to take evidence and with direction to make findings of fact and conclusions of law to be submitted to the court with recommenda- tions for a decree. 288 U.S. 592. The case is now here upon excep- tions filed by Washington to the Master's report, which finds the facts fully and advises the dismissal of the bill. The Walla Walla River, a non-navigable stream, rises in the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon. For about four miles above the City of Milton it flows through a narrow canyon, the waters for that reach being inaccessible for purposes of irrigation. At Milton the river broadens out in a delta formation. The first division in this formation is at Red Bridge, near the city, where the river breaks into two branches. One, the Tum-a-lum, as it is known in Oregon, or the main Walla Walla, as it is known in Washington, flows through cobble rocks over great depths of gravel till it reaches the McCoy Bridge. There, at the margin of an alluvial fan, springs rise from below the surface, and feed the flow anew. Thus reinforced, the stream moves northwesterly to the line between the two States, and again north- westerly for about thirty miles in Washington to its confluence with the Columbia River. A second branch of the river, starting at the Red Bridge, is known as the Little Walla Walla, which divides after a mile into the Crocket and the Ford. Prongs of the Crocket which contribute little, if 'any, water during the irrigation season, combine 778 |