State Ex Rel. Close v. Meehan

Since its incorporation, the city of Spokane has discharged its raw sewage into the Spokane river. The state department of health, by notice dated De-. cember 4, 1935, notified the city that a public nuisance existed in the Spokane and Columbia rivers resulting from such discharge of raw sewage, and ordered the city to abate the nuisance.

Subsequent thereto, the legislature enacted chapter 186 of the Laws of 1941, p. 529 (RCW 35.88.080), forbidding the city from depositing its sewage into the Spokane river and providing that the same should become a public nuisance which might be summarily…