Wednesday, January 18, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
19
Environmental groups
Contractor builds to last in Sisters
concerned about mega-dairy
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
PENDLETON (AP) — A
coalition of health and envi-
ronmental groups is asking
Oregon officials to investi-
gate construction of a mega-
dairy in Morrow County.
It’s unclear whether state
agencies will sign off on the
controversial 30,000-cow
dairy farm, reported The
East Oregonian. It hasn’t
been determined whether
Lost Valley Ranch broke the
law by breaking ground long
before it secured the neces-
sary permits.
Representatives from the
health and environmental
groups plan to meet face-
to-face with state regula-
tors in Portland on Friday.
The Oregon Department of
Agriculture and Department
of Environmental Quality are
jointly responsible for out-
lining how Lost Valley will
manage the roughly 187 mil-
lion gallons of liquid manure
it generates each year and
protect against groundwater
contamination.
The agencies said they
haven’t yet issued a permit
for Lost Valley, and the coali-
tion said the dairy doesn’t
have a construction storm
water permit, either.
“We will definitely
be considering what our
response should be,” said
ODA Confined Animal
Feeding Operations program
manager Wym Matthews
said.
California dairyman Greg
te Velde is developing Lost
Valley Ranch. He did not
comment on the coalition’s
complaints other than to say
that the company is work-
ing through the permitting
process.
He also told The East
Oregonian that Lost Valley
Ranch has built milk barns
and stalls on site, although
he wouldn’t say exactly
how much money has been
spent so far. He would only
describe the amount as “a
lot.”
The coalition is not only
concerned that the farm is
hurting the environment —
it also believes it the mega-
dairy could have violated
laws by starting construction
even though it still hasn’t
registered as a business
with the Secretary of State’s
Office.
There is already a Lost
Valley Ranch, LLC, in
Eastern Oregon. That ranch is
registered to Robert and Joan
Wade of Condon.
“It suggests the company
perhaps doesn’t take the per-
mits seriously,” said Ivan
Maluski, policy director for
Friends of Family Farms,
one of a dozen groups in the
coalition. “That’s very prob-
lematic as well.”
Te Velde did apply for
a confined animal feeding
operation permit in August
2016. In the application, he
described a system that stores
liquid manure in six main
lagoons and uses the nitro-
gen-rich wastewater to irri-
gate 5,900 acres of farmland,
growing feed for the dairy’s
cattle.
ODA instructed the dairy
to stop building the wastewa-
ter system without its CAFO
permit in November, and the
dairy did comply with that
request, said Matthews. But
he said the state can’t stop
them from building some
other structures.
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“I am very particular about
what I do,” says contractor Ed
Cook. “I’m all about detail.”
That’s an ethic that Cook’s
father instilled in him from an
early age, and one that carried
him through a long and dis-
tinguished career in building
restoration in Virginia.
“My dad was my dad, my
brother, my best friend and
my teacher,” Cook recalled.
“And I was taught if you can’t
give 100 percent, don’t get
out of your truck.”
Cook is now bringing that
lifelong commitment to qual-
ity work to Sisters as 3 Sisters
and Cook Contracting. Cook
is quick to emphasize that he
isn’t trying to elbow his way
into the local trade.
“There’s so much work
that is here,” he said. “I’m not
trying to take work away from
anybody local … I just want
to do what the local guys don’t
want to do or can’t do — you
know, they just can’t get to it.”
He’s looking for modest-
sized projects that he can take
on himself.
“There’s nothing I really
can’t do,” he said. “I’m just
going to be more selective
because I want to be a one-
man show out here.”
Cook’s restoration busi-
ness in Virginia is 69 years
old, and he’s worked on his-
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After many years of restoring homes in Virginia, Ed Cook has settled in
Sisters and is ready to apply his commitment to quality to homes here.
Fathers, like James Monroe,
and the properties of movie
stars.
“I worked on some of the
finest estates in Virginia,” he
said.
With so many buildings
calling out for restoration,
“we never did any new work
at all,” he said.
Cook is serious about his
commitment to quality, and
he’s not willing to cut corners
or cheap-out. He’s not the
bargain-basement guy — he
prides himself on a job well
done, built to last. And that
offers the best value in the
long run.
“I’ve never cut corners
and I never will,” he said. “To
give a good product, you’ve
got to use good materials. I
want to sell the best product
I can at the fairest price I can
deliver to them.”
Cook has been visit-
ing Central Oregon for two
decades, and he has felt most
welcomed as he has moved
into the Sisters community.
He says he’s been well treated
everywhere he goes.
“The people here —
it’s hard to explain ’em to
people back East,” he said.
“Everybody’s just gone out of
their way to serve not just me,
but to serve the community.”
Cook is eager to find ways
to pitch in and serve the com-
munity himself.
“I like to help people,” he
said. “I’ve been blessed my
whole life, and now it’s just
time for me to give back as
much as I possibly can with
the time I’ve got left.”
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