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Show WALLA WALLA RIVER LITIGATION 779 with another stream after crossing the state line, and discharge into the main river above the intake of the canal of the Gardena project. Another prong of the Crocket comes together with the Ford and joins the main river in Washington below the intake of the canal. Still another tributary, known as the Mill Creek, rises in the Blue Mountains, and flows far to the east of the courses just described. After breaking up into other creeks (the Yellowhawk, the Garrison and others), it joins the main stream of the Walla Walla within the State of Washington. No claim is made by the complainant that the waters of Mill Creek have been illegally diverted. Indeed, the fact appears to be that the inhabitants of Washington use the waters of that creek to the exclusion of any use thereof by the inhabitants of Oregon. The claim of wrongdoing has its centre in the use of the waters of the Walla Walla arising above the Red Bridge. The Walla Walla Basin has a semi-arid climate with warm dry summers and cold wet winters. The streams contributing to the river are supplied in the main from the snows of the Blue Mountains. Upon the coming of spring, these snows are melted, and the river at that season attains its highest flow. Even then there are variations, not only from month to month, but from day to day. With the ad- vance of summer, the flow diminishes greatly, particularly in the latter part of July and August. In such a climate agriculture cannot go on successfully without the aid of irrigation. A sporadic supply of water will not meet the farmer's needs. "To be available in a practical sense the supply must be fairly continuous and dependable." Wyoming v. Colorado, 259 U.S. 419, 471. A fair division of the water is thus vital to the prosperity of this agricultural community, and even to its life, for agricultural in the main it is. True, there are cities also within the limits of the watershed, Walla Walla in Washington with a population of 15,976 \ Milton and Freewater in Oregon with a combined popula- tion of 2,308. Even so, the welfare of the cities is closely bound up with that of the area about them. Indeed, there has been a unity of growth in the development of the whole community, a development quite independent of the dividing line between the states. As already pointed out, farmers in Washington have had the benefit of Mill Creek, which takes its rise in Oregon. Complainant and defendant have stipulated that for the purposes of this case the individual rights of the respective land owners and water owners concerned in both states are governed by the doctrine of prior appropriation. Wyoming v. Colorado, supra. The Washington court made a decree in September, 1928, adjudging the priorities of appropriators in Washington. The Oregon court made one in August, 1912, adjudging the priorities of appropriators in Oregon. Neither state was a party to the judicial proceedings in the other. The stream supply has been sufficient through the aid of the Mill Creek to satisfy rights with priorities up to 1891 under each of the decrees. What Washington complains of chiefly is the deficiency in the supply available for the satisfaction of alleged priorities up to 1892. Particu- larly it complains of the deficiency of the supply for the Gardena Farms District. By the decree of September, 192*8, the District was adjudged the holder of a water right with an 1892 priority for the irrigation of 7,000 acres upon specified conditions. This priority, |