Jan. 15, 1928 - Aug. 24, 2015

The new federal Clean Water Rule went into effect Friday in Washington, Oregon and California with agricultural groups still uncertain about whether the law will put farmers, ranchers and irrigation projects under more federal control.

Washington State Dairy Federation director of government relations Jay Gordon said he met in the morning with representatives from other farm groups and didn’t hear answers to questions he’s posed for months, including in meetings with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“There was a lot of speculation and not a lot of clarity,” said Gordon, a Western Washington dairyman. “Until they arrest me, I guess I won’t worry about.”

The uncertainty about the rule extends to whether it’s actually in effect. North Dakota U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Erickson granted an injunction Thursday sought by 13 states, including Idaho, to delay the rule’s implementation. North Dakota’s attorney general, Wayne Stenehjem, said he believes the injunction applied to all 50 states.

The EPA asserts the injunction only applies to the 13 states and that the new rule went into effect in the other 37 states as scheduled, 60 days after it was published.

Gordon blasted the EPA for forging ahead rather than waiting for clarification from the judge and a ruling on the underlying issue — whether EPA exceeded its authority under the Clean Water Act.

“It was immature behavior by the EPA,” he said. “They should have said, ‘We’ve got split decisions in the court. You know what? We’re not going to implement the rule today.’”

In response to an inquiry from the Capital Press, the EPA issued a statement saying it was evaluating the order and considering its next legal steps. EPA noted that U.S. District Courts in Georgia and West Virginia denied requests for injunctions.

All together, attorneys general in 28 states have sought to delay implementation. Washington, Oregon and California — all with Democratic attorney generals and governors — were not among the states.

“EPA is moving forward with implementation because the Clean Water Rule is fundamental to protecting and restoring the nation’s water resources that are vital for our health, environment and economy,” according to the agency’s statement.

The California Cattlemen’s Association director of government relations Kirk Wilbur said Friday the group is advising ranchers to be cautious about undertaking projects near water or places that are occasionally wet.

Ranchers should be wary about assurances from the EPA that the new rule won’t hinder agriculture, he said.

“When an agency is attempting to regulate you, it’s not always the smartest thing in the world to take their word for it,” Wilbur said.

Judge Ericksen, in his written opinion, stated that states were likely to prevail in seeking to permanently block the rule. The EPA rule positioned the agency to regulate “intermittent and remote wetlands” that have no connection to navigable waterways, he stated.

Wilbur said California’s state water pollution law already imposes strict standards, but agreed with Ericksen’s observation about the potential scope of the new federal rule.

“We don’t know to what extent the law will be enforced,” he said. “There’s a lot of ambiguity in the rule. You’re adding another level of bureaucracy.”

Oregon and Washington state agencies enforce federal and state water pollution laws, and officials in both states said the new federal rule won’t change their enforcement practices because they already have broadly defined the waters that must be protected.

“We do not think it will have a significant effect on how the state implements its various programs,” said Jennifer Wigal, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s water quality manager.

Washington Department of Ecology’s water quality manager, Heather Bartlett, also said the new EPA rule won’t change how DOE polices water pollution.

“The Legislature defined state waters over two decades ago,” she said in an email. “Ecology has used this state definition for any enforcement act. In addition, ecology retains enforcement discretion that we will continue to exercise.”

Washington Cattlemen’s Association Executive Vice President Jack Field said the new rule may not change DOE’s actions, but it’s uncertain how EPA will wield the authority.

The EPA could interfere with DOE’s recent efforts to work with ranchers on protecting water, he said.

“The biggest question is what the EPA will do with expanded authority, and that’s anybody’s guess right now,” Field said.

The Washington, California, and Oregon cattlemen’s association have all joined federal suits by private groups against the new rule.

In a written statement, the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association said Friday that EPA should rescind and rewrite the rule.

The rule “because of its broad language, has the potential to take water management on private property away from landowners and threatens locally driven initiatives that are proven to be effective,” according to the association.

Stan Wangberg, general manager of the Anderson-Cottonwood Irrigation District in Northern California, said Friday he was trying to learn whether the new rule will require the district to obtain federal permits to clean and line with concrete irrigation ditches.

“I’ve been thinking about it for the past couple of days, and I don’t know,” he said.

PORTLAND — Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said freeing up federal natural disaster money to fight fires, rather than dipping into the U.S. Forest Service’s operating budget, is the primary thing he wants to accomplish when Congress reconvenes in September.

Speaking during a briefing at the Northwest Coordination Center, which coordinates the air and ground response to wildfires in Oregon and Washington, Wyden said there is bi-partisan support in the Senate for the idea.

“We can’t have business as usual any longer,” Wyden said. “The business as usual has been that fire prevention always gets shortchanged.

“I have no higher priority this fall than of getting this fixed,” Wyden said.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, attending the briefing with Wyden, said 52 percent of the Forest Service’s budget is eaten up by fire suppression work, compared to 16 percent in 1995. At this rate of increase, responding to wildfires will take two-thirds of the agency’s budget within a few years, he said.

The Forest Service has seen a 115 percent increase in personnel assigned to fight fires, and a 38 percent decrease in people assigned to do everything else, Vilsack said.

As Wyden and Vilsack spoke, forest and rangeland officials have counted 3,382 fires in Oregon and Washington since June 1, with 1.4 million acres burned. Three firefighters died in Washington, and dozens of homes and outbuildings have been destroyed in the two states. To date, the fires have cost an estimated $370 million to fight, with nearly 11,000 firefighters deployed. Fire managers have counted nearly 60,000 lightning strikes this summer.

Wyden said much of the West has “just been slammed” by what he called a “terrible trifecta” of drought, high temperatures and an enormous build-up of fuel on the forest floor.

The legislation he favors would treat the largest fires as natural disasters, on par with hurricanes and floods and eligible for response and recovery funding from such agencies as FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

That would free up Forest Service money for its intended purpose such as increased thinning and salvage logging, which would reduce the intensity of fires by eliminating fuel.

Wyden, a liberal Democrat, said one of the key supporters is Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi, a conservative Republican. The Obama administration strongly supports the proposal, Wyden said.

During the briefing, Wyden and Vilsack were told the fire season is projected to last through October. Heavy rain was predicted to hit western Oregon and Washington the weekend of Aug. 29-30, but it wasn’t expected to reach the eastern side of both states, where the fires are raging. Instead, the system was likely to kick up fierce windstorms east of the Cascades, which could cause “extreme” fire behavior, said John Saltenberger, fire weather program manager for the Northwest Coordination Center.

Saltenberger said the first six months of 2015 were the warmest six-month period on record in the West since 1895. Fire season began about a month early; there were even some fires in the Oregon Coast Range in January, when the coast is normally socked-in and drizzly.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Talk to folks on the street about the "holy trinity" and you're as likely to get a lesson on onions, celery and peppers as you are Catholicism. That's New Orleans, a city wh…

TUESDAY, SEPT. 15

 

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Talk to folks on the street about the "holy trinity" and you're as likely to get a lesson on onions, celery and peppers as you are Catholicism. That's New Orleans, a city wh…

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Talk to folks on the street about the "holy trinity" and you're as likely to get a lesson on onions, celery and peppers as you are Catholicism. That's New Orleans, a city wh…

SALEM — Oregon has yet to burn through its firefighting budget, despite ongoing catastrophic wildfires around the state.

In what now appears to have been a prudent decision, lawmakers and a committee of forest landowners agreed earlier this year to more than double the amount of money budgeted for the Oregon Department of Forestry to fight fires to a total of $50 million annually.

“I’m pleased we did it,” said Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, a member of the budget-writing Ways and Means Committee. “We had been warned that fires this summer, with the kind of moisture that was predicted, could be pretty high.”

The size of the Canyon Creek fire in Grant County and the Grizzly fire in northeastern Oregon “are well over 120,000 acres and growing,” he said. “And I think we’ve probably got another several weeks or so at least until we get some good rain.”

As of Thursday afternoon, the Canyon Creek Complex near John Day had burned nearly 85,000 acres and the Grizzly Bear Complex had burned more than 68,000 acres in the Umatilla National Forest and private land in Oregon and Washington state. An additional 17 large wildfires continued to burn in other areas of the state Thursday, according to an interagency fire tracking website.

Oregon relies on a unique system to pay wildfire fighting costs. Property owners with land classified as forest pay a state assessment to help cover firefighting costs in addition to money the Legislature appropriates from the general fund. The state has also purchased an insurance policy most years since 1973 to help cover firefighting costs.

After two severe fire seasons, however, the state’s insurance deductible more than doubled from $20 million to $50 million. When lawmakers and forest landowners decided to purchase the policy earlier this year, they had to prepare to spend up to $50 million before they could tap into the $25 million insurance policy.

Rod Nichols, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Forestry, said this week that the agency estimated its net spending this year at $26 million, when expected reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other sources are factored in. Oregon spent an estimated total of $63 million to fight the wildfires, and fire officials so far expect to receive approximately $15 million in reimbursement from FEMA and $22 million from other federal sources.

“The main thing everyone is focused on now is getting the fires out,” Nichols said. “We cannot not respond to fires, so we just have to do it. That said, we’re spending a lot of money obviously from those figures.”

The state has to pay contractors in a timely manner, for example, to ensure they remain in business and can continue to work on the fires, Nichols said.

At the start of fire season, the Oregon Department of Forestry had 500 seasonal firefighters, 220 fire engines, 15 bulldozers and 14 aircraft. The state also had access to three 188 private contract hand crews, inmate hand crews from state prisons, three incident management teams and National Guard helicopters.

Oregon has since pulled in resources including additional fire crews, aircraft and fire managers from other states and Canadian provinces to fight the wildfires.

“Basically, the cupboard is bare, though some of the large fires are winding down and resources are starting to return from them,” Nichols wrote in an email.

July 25, 1935 - Aug. 21, 2015

July 25, 1935 - Aug. 21, 2015

LANGLOIS — A month-long silent auction fundraiser has begun at the Langlois Public Library. The auction continues through Saturday, Sept. 12, when the annual Blueberry Bash, starting at 6 p.m., ends the auction at 6:45. Blueberry cobbler a la mode…

LANGLOIS — A month-long silent auction fundraiser has begun at the Langlois Public Library. The auction continues through Saturday, Sept. 12, when the annual Blueberry Bash, starting at 6 p.m.…

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — State regulators will hold a public hearing on the proposed expansion of five dairies around Oregon after multiple requests from Salem vegan groups.

The Statesman Journal reports that this will be the first hearing in more than four years on changes to Oregon confined animal feeding operations. The hearing is expected in September or October.

After 17 requests from activists, advisory groups are now looking at how the state can restrict information about such farms from being released to the public. Officials say farmers fear releasing permits puts them at risk from people who want to videotape, trespass or vandalize property.

Environmental groups say the state is following a trend of restricting information about farms to the public.

BANDON — The Coast Community Health Center's open house will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sept. 19. 

Eola Hills Wine Cellars west of Salem began picking grapes Aug. 26, marking one of the earliest starts to the Willamette Valley harvest on record.

The very early outlook: Another big harvest in terms of yield, and quality appears good as well, vineyard Manager Jim Huggins.

Crews picked Chardonnay grapes to make sparkling wine, and may pick Pinor noir grapes for sparkling wine on Friday, Huggins said.

Like multiple other Oregon crops, wine grapes are coming on about two weeks early due to an unusually warm, dry summer.

If weather conditions hold, the wine made from this year’s crop may rival the 2014 vintage, which winery managers described as outstanding.

“Typically when we get a lot of heat, the wines are big and bright,” Huggins said. “It really depends on how we end up the season.

“If rain sets in, a fantastic crop can turn into an average crop in pretty short order.”

In response to the long string of hot days, vineyard managers kept more fruit on the vine so the grapes wouldn’t ripen too quickly, Huggins said. The grapes are healthy, with very little disease pressure, he said.

“We’re very optimistic it will be a real nice year,” he said. “Certainly a big year, because there’s a lot of fruit hanging out there.”

Farther north, at Stoller Family Estate vineyard in Yamhill County’s famed Dundee Hills, vineyard manager Rob Schultz reported a similar outlook. Stoller also began picking Wednesday, harvesting Pinot noir grapes for sparkling wine.

“Things look good,” Schultz said. “We had no disease outbreak, no sunburn, no vine stress.

“I’m surprised,” he said. “With all the heat I anticipated more stress. But the vines are really happy, they like it warm and dry.”

Schultz agreed wine quality could be excellent, based on conditions now.

“I think if you liked 2014, you’ll love 2015 – very similar season,” he said.

Oct. 21, 1932 – Aug. 22, 2015

Oct. 21, 1932 – Aug. 22, 2015

Sundays

Oregon’s hazelnut crop is projected to hit 39,000 tons this fall, an 8 percent increase over 2014, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service in Portland.

The crop won’t be a record — the state produced 47,000 tons in 2009 and 45,000 tons in 2013 — but Oregon accounts for 99 percent of U.S. production and continues to add orchard acreage at a pace of 3,000 to 5,000 acres per year. The state has an estimated 40,000 acres of hazelnuts.

Whether the price for this year’s crop will approach the record set in 2014 is an open question. Last year, frost severely damaged the crop in Turkey, the world’s leading producer. Candy, nut spread and snack companies quickly sought other sources, and the price for Oregon nuts soared over $1.70 a pound as a result. At one point last fall, an Oregon grower estimated every nut on his trees was worth 1.3 cents.

Michael Klein, executive of Oregon Hazelnuts, an industry group, said Turkey’s crop this year appears to be average. Frost hit again, but not as badly as in 2014, he said.

Like many other crops this year, hazelnut harvest will likely happen two or three weeks earlier than normal, Klein said.

According to the NASS harvest projection, 87.2 percent of the Oregon nuts tested as “good” and the average dry weight was 3.17 grams, down from 3.23 grams recorded in 2014. About 43 percent of nuts tested by NASS were categorized as “large” and 36 percent as “jumbo.”

Hazelnuts are Oregon’s ninth leading crop, with a 2013 value of $120 million, according to NASS.