Wash. Rev. Code § 90.16.010
Such water companies incorporated for the purposes specified in the preceding section shall have the right to purchase or take possession of and use and hold such lands and waters for the purposes of the company, lying without the limits of the city or town intended to be supplied with water upon making compensation therefor. The mode of proceeding to obtain possession of such lands for the use of the company, right-of-way for laying pipes and aqueducts for the use of the company, when the parties cannot agree shall so far as the same be applicable be as prescribed in chapter 187: PROVIDED, That nothing therein contained, shall be so construed, as to authorize the appropriation of water belonging to any person, unless the owner thereof shall refuse to supply said town or city with water after being requested so to do by the town board or city council.
RCW 90.16.010
Reviser's note: The language "for the purposes specified in the preceding section" refers to Code 1881 s 2447 (repealed by 1939 c 143 s 19) which stated in part: ". . . for the purpose of supplying any cities or towns in this territory, or the inhabitants thereof with pure and freshwater."
The language "chapter 187" refers to chapter 187 of the Code of 1881 the existing sections of which chapter are codified in chapter 81.36 RCW and RCW 90.16.100; the remaining sections thereof have been repealed.
Validating-1881 Act: "All persons who have organized themselves as a corporation under the provisions of this chapter for purposes other than those enumerated in section 2421, are hereby declared incorporate bodies, with all the powers the same as they would enjoy had they been incorporated for the purposes set forth in section 2421." [Code 1881 s 2445.] The language "this chapter" refers to chapter 185, Code of 1881 which embodied the territorial laws relating to the formation of corporations; current provisions relating thereto are codified in Titles 23 and 24 RCW. The language "section 2421" refers to Code 1881 s 2421 which set forth the purposes for which a corporation might then be formed. General purposes for which a corporation may be formed under existing law are codified in Title 23B RCW; see also Table of Prior Laws following Title 23 RCW digest.