January 2, 2015
CapitalPress.com
3
Terminal operators blamed for port congestion
Union undecided on
federal mediation
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Courtesy of Kevin Lewis
Twin Lakes Canal Co. is awaiting approval of a permit by the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a dam on the Oneida
Narrows stretch of the Bear River within Franklin County, Idaho.
Supporters of Oneida
Narrows dam await ruling
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
PRESTON, Idaho —
Franklin County farmers view
a dam they’ve proposed on
the Bear River as a solution
to persistent water shortages
that often force them to leave
acres fallow and cut off irriga-
tion prematurely.
A public comment period
on Twin Lakes Canal Co.’s
planned project on the river’s
Oneida Narrows reach ended
Dec. 16, after the Federal En-
ergy Regulatory Commission
launched an environmental
review of the final license ap-
plication.
The 230 Twin Lakes
shareholders,
representing
16,000 irrigated acres, hope
FERC will grant the project
a long-awaited draft envi-
ronmental impact statement
by a June 15 deadline. The
canal company has worked
for about a decade seeking to
advance its proposed 109-foot
dam, which would create a
4.5-mile reservoir impound-
ing water upstream to the base
of the existing Oneida Dam.
Power generated from the
new dam would raise revenue
to repay construction costs
and to replace the company’s
open-ditch canal system with
pipe, thereby saving addition-
al water lost to seepage.
But the project has faced
strong opposition from envi-
ronmental groups, sportsmen
and the federal Bureau of
Land Management, Pacifi-
Corp and the Shoshone-Ban-
nock Tribes.
Some opponents, includ-
ing PacifiCorp, have filed mo-
tions asking FERC to dismiss
the application. PacifiCorp
argued in its public comments
the dam would create “irrec-
oncilable conflicts” with its
existing Bear River hydro-
power projects. PacifiCorp
contends the dam would “de-
stroy or alter” measures it’s
undertaken to mitigate for
impacts on native Bonneville
cutthroat trout.
BLM officials insist they
lack authority to approve
rights of way to allow the
project to disrupt a BLM-ad-
ministered research natural
area.
The Tribes seek to inter-
vene based on “adverse im-
pacts to cultural resources,
fish and wildlife resources and
off-reservation treaty rights.”
“There are a number of ab-
solute roadblocks to building
this dam,” said Kevin Lewis,
conservation director with
Idaho Rivers United, which
also filed a motion to dismiss
the application. “Instead of
them realizing that, they keep
forging forward and spending
more money.”
The Idaho Department of
Water Resources has already
denied water rights for the
project based on public con-
cerns, though Twin Lakes Ca-
nal Co. President Clair Bosen
believes the agency would
place considerable weight on
the approval of a FERC per-
mit.
Bosen said his company
has also invested millions in
a suite of studies to address
public concerns — and gone
back and updated its applica-
tion to address a host of addi-
tional FERC questions.
The canal company cur-
rently operates Twin Lakes,
Conde and Winder reservoirs.
“Six out of 10 years, we’re
way short of water,” Bosen
said. “A lot of times, we don’t
even plant crops.”
Wes Beutler, who farms in
Dayton, Clifton and Weston,
left 265 acres fallow during
the 2013 season due to a tight
water supply. Because he’s
contractually obligated to
supply seed potatoes and dry
bean seed, he elected to stop
irrigating alfalfa after his first
cutting.
“That (dam) is the only
way we can come up with to
solve our problem,” Beutler
said. “There’s a moratori-
um on drilling any irrigation
wells in the Bear River drain-
age now.”
Beutler said many farm-
ers in his area have already
left the business due to water
challenges.
The longshoremen’s union
claims that container terminal
operators have purposely con-
tributed to port congestion to
blame shipping disruptions on
worker slowdowns.
The International Longshore
and Warehouse Union also re-
mains undecided whether to let
federal mediators participate in
the labor contract negotiations
with the Pacific Maritime Asso-
ciation, which represents West
Coast terminal operators.
The PMA requested that
federal mediators assist with the
talks, citing a lack of progress,
but the ILWU must agree to
their participation.
Jennifer Sargent, a spokes-
person for the union, said ILWU
is still deciding whether such
mediation would be useful but
in the meantime wants PMA’s
board of directors to become
directly involved in the negoti-
ations.
The PMA says its leaders
are paying close attention to
the talks already and reiterated
accusations that longshoremen
are staging work slowdowns
along the West Coast to the
detriment of exporters and im-
porters.
Agricultural
exporters
have urged the parties to reach
an agreement because port
disruptions are costing them
millions of dollars and perma-
nently damaging relationships
with overseas customers.
The ILWU claims that
congestion is caused by mis-
management by the terminals
and that operators in Seattle
and Tacoma have canceled
night shifts to exacerbate the
problem, hoping to blame it
on longshoremen.
Both the union and termi-
nal operators seem content to
trade barbs without actually
escalating the situation, said
Jim Tessier, a labor consultant
and former PMA employee
who is critical of both parties.
For example, the PMA
could lock out the longshore-
men from its facilities or im-
plement a final contract offer,
which could cause longshore-
men to strike, he said.
As for ILWU’s demand
that PMA’s board of directors
directly participate in negoti-
ations, it would be naive and
ineffective for the terminal
operators to accept that condi-
tion, Tessier said.
The board is already in-
structing its negotiators, so
such a change would not ac-
tually make any difference, he
said. “They’re all going to say
the same thing, no matter who
is saying it.”
Washington steps up testing for bird flu
Residents asked
to report sick and
dead birds
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Washington wildlife of-
ficials are asking the public to
help them find wild birds in-
fected with a lethal and conta-
gious strain of avian influenza
that has struck British Colum-
bia poultry, surfaced in a back-
yard flock in Southern Oregon
and caused concern in Asia and
Europe.
The virus, deadly to do-
mestic poultry but rarely fatal
in migratory waterfowl, may
endanger hawks, falcons and
eagles, state Fish and Wildlife
veterinarian Kristen Mansfield
said.
Mansfield said she’s sur-
prised there have been no re-
ports of dies-offs among native
wild birds, but there is a risk.
“We really want to enhance our
surveillance,” she said.
The department encourages
people to report dead or sick
wild birds by calling 1-800-
606-8768.
State and federal game
managers also plan to approach
hunters and ask to take samples
from harvested birds.
Game managers will fo-
cus their efforts in Whatcom,
Skagit and Snohomish counties
in northwest Washington, and
in Thurston and Clark counties
in southwest Washington. “It’s
kind of the next step down the
flyway,” WDFW waterfowl
section manager Don Kraege
said.
“The sampling procedure
takes less than a minute per
bird and will help us determine
the prevalence of the disease in
wild birds,” he said.
The highly pathogenic
H5N2 bird flu was found this
month in a dead northern pintail
duck at Wiser Lake in What-
com County. A captive gyrfal-
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Wild birds mix Dec. 24 in the Coweeman River in southwest Washington. The Washington Department
of Fish and Wildlife plans to step up testing of wild birds for avian influenza.
con that ate a wild duck shot at
the same lake died from highly
pathogenic H5N8 bird flu, a
closely related virus.
Kraege said the falcon’s
death showed the potential for
the virus to kill raptors.
The ducks breed in Alaska
and northeast Asia and migrate
south through Canada and to-
ward Europe.
The discovery in Washing-
ton of a duck with highly patho-
genic bird flu was the byprod-
uct of an ongoing investigation
into a die-off at Wiser Lake.
Mansfield said the depart-
ment has submitted about 20
duck carcasses collected from
the lake this month for testing
in Madison, Wis. Every duck,
including the one with bird flu,
died of aspergillosis, a fungal
disease that has killed ducks at
the lake before.
Game managers believe the
ducks are feeding on moldy
grain somewhere in the area,
but haven’t found the source.
So far, only the one duck
was found to have highly patho-
genic bird flu. “Just because of
the other event, we found it,”
Kraege said. “It’s kind of a nee-
dle in the haystack finding.”
Washington State Depart-
ment of Agriculture spokesman
Hector Castro said the depart-
ment is monitoring flocks in
Whatcom County but has not
seen any cases of bird flu in
poultry.
WSDA is advising backyard
flock owners to keep their birds
away from wild birds.
The bird flu that infected a
backyard flock of guinea fowl,
chickens and turkeys in Win-
ston, Ore., in Douglas County
is the first case of highly patho-
genic H5N8 virus in poultry in
North America, according to
the World Organization for An-
imal Health.
The virus has not been re-
ported in commercial flocks,
but South Korea, which has
battled the same strain all year,
has temporarily banned the im-
port of U.S. poultry.
Hong Kong’s Center for
Food Safety on Monday
banned poultry from Douglas
County.
Douglas County chicken
producer and processor Kerry
Olson said he raises chickens
for local consumption. Many
rural residents raise chickens
and sell the eggs, he said.
“Almost anybody out in the
country has a small flock,” he
said.
Olson said he raises chick-
ens in the summer only and
in cages to protect them from
predators. He has no chickens
on the farm now. “If this hap-
pened in the middle of June,
I would have a concern,” he
said.
Low pathogenic avian in-
fluenza is common in wild
birds. WDFW tested more
than 10,000 wild birds between
2005 and 2011 and 10 percent
had the virus. No sicknesses or
deaths were linked to the virus,
according to WDFW.
Highly pathogenic H5N8
appeared for the first time in
European poultry in November.
This month, more H5N8 cases
have been reported in Italy, the
United Kingdom, Germany,
Russia, Vietnam and Japan.
Although the virus in British
Columbia has been identified
as highly pathogenic H5N2, it
shares many of the gene seg-
ments of H5N8, according to
the World Organization for An-
imal Heath.
The bird flu has struck
11 B.C. farms and claimed
245,600 birds, according to
the Canadian Food Inspection
Agency. Several countries, in-
cluding the United States, have
banned B.C. poultry and poul-
try products.
Farm groups hope for clearer food safety regulations
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
On-farm hazelnut and hop
dryers will likely escape federal
regulations for food processing
facilities but the fate of mint
stills remains unknown, experts
say.
The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration is leaning to-
ward excluding on-farm dry-
ing facilities from its proposed
rules for processors under the
Food Safety Modernization
Act.
Under the latest proposed
revision to the food manufac-
turer regulations, the FDA con-
siders drying to be part of the
harvesting process, said Steph-
anie Page, food safety and ani-
mal health director at the Ore-
gon Department of Agriculture.
That point is significant be-
cause the FDA requires manu-
facturers to develop preventive
control plans to mitigate risks
and increase their analysis of
hazards, which would be bur-
densome for farmers.
The original rules for man-
ufacturers didn’t specifically
exempt drying facilities, which
worried the hazelnut industry,
said Mike Klein, executive di-
rector of the Oregon Hazelnut
Marketing Board.
Increased plantings of ha-
zelnuts in recent years will
spur demand for new on-farm
drying facilities, but greater
government scrutiny might dis-
suade growers from building
them, he said.
“We don’t want anything to
happen to discourage that, be-
cause it’s a crucial step in the
harvest process,” Klein said.
Hop drying and baling
would also be excluded from
food manufacturer regula-
tions, but the industry is still
concerned that the crop hasn’t
been specifically exempt from
FDA’s proposed produce safety
rules.
Those rules require irriga-
tion water testing and other
practices that don’t make sense
for a beer-making input, said
Ann George, administrator of
the Hop Growers of America
trade group.
“Nobody is going to take
hops and chomp down on
them for snack food,” she said.
“There is no necessity for the
added layer of regulation on
hops.”
It’s also unclear whether on-
farm distilling of mint oil will
be covered by the food manu-
facturing rules.
Mint oil is a food ingredient
and undergoes further process-
ing before it’s consumed, so
distilling should be considered
a part of harvesting, said Bryan
Ostlund, administrator of the
Oregon Mint Commission.
The oil is naturally anti-mi-
crobial and high-pressure steam
distilling kills pathogens, he
said. “I don’t think anything
can survive that process.”
Growers want mint stills
excluded from the processing
rules to avoid unnecessary au-
dits and recordkeeping require-
ments, Ostlund said.
“The label of being food
processing takes you into a
whole new world of regulation
and headaches,” he said.
The FDA’s manufacturer
regulations have convinced
I.P. Callison & Sons, a mint
oil supplier in Lacey, Wash., to
hire additional staff for internal
audits and recordkeeping, said
Les Toews, the company’s vice
president of purchasing.
“It’s terribly expensive,” he
said. “For us, it seems sort of
silly.”
If the FDA does extend pro-
cessing regulations to on-farm
mint stills, growers who al-
ready have implemented “good
agricultural practices” on their
farms will adjust to the rules
more easily, Toews said.
I.P. Callison & Sons can
provide farmers with check
box forms to ensure they’re
complying with the rules, he
said. “If it becomes mandatory,
we’re in good shape to get that
program in place.”
January 10 th , 2015
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