Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 14, 2015)
FARMERS KEEP AN EYE ON WHEAT PRICES AS HARVEST WRAPS UP Page 5 Capital Press The West s Weekly FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 2015 VOLUME 88, NUMBER 33 WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM Ecology Exporters buying less edges Situation worsened by devaluation of China yuan toward regulating manure lagoons By DAN WHEAT Capital Press Agency revamping terms of its CAFO permits By DON JENKINS Capital Press The Washington Depart- ment of Ecology tentatively moved Tuesday to regulate hundreds of dairies and other livestock operations that have manure lagoons. Ecology offi cials say they’re trying to keep live- stock waste from seeping into groundwater, fulfi lling their mandate to enforce federal and state pollution laws. An environmental group’s director said the move is over- due, while livestock industry representatives warned the proposal could lead to costly rules that hinder producers. DOE is rewriting the rules for confi ned animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. Cur- rently, only 10 operations, such as feedlots, in Washing- ton state are required to have CAFO permits. The permits set out what producers must do to keep manure from wash- ing into surface water, regulat- ing the size, design and main- tenance of lagoons. Under the new propos- al, which Ecology offi cials described as a “preliminary draft,” the department turns its attention to groundwater, as well. DOE assumes lagoons leak manure into groundwater, so any producer with a lagoon will need a CAFO permit. Plus, the producer will have to test fi elds on which manure is spread. Soil samples down to 3 feet deep will have to be tak- en. The higher the contaminant level, the stronger the action the producer will have to take to clean up the ground. Lagoons lined with two layers of synthetic material, with a leak-detection system between the layers, will be ex- empt from the CAFO permit requirements. Jay Gordon, governmental relations director of the Wash- ington State Dairy Federa- tion, said most of the state’s 400-plus dairies have manure lagoons, but he didn’t know of one lagoon that’s dou- ble-lined. “It’s unbelievably expensive,” he said. Turn to LAGOONS, Page 12 ELLENSBURG, Wash. — West Coast hay exporters are buying signifi cantly less hay this year because of a buildup of inventory remain- ing from last winter’s port slowdown. Business is bad and about to get a whole lot worse be- cause China devalued its currency, said Jeff Calaway, president of Calaway Trad- ing Inc., a major hay exporter based in Ellensburg, Wash. Currencies in Asia tum- bled and stock markets worldwide fell Aug. 11 after China’s central bank deval- ued the yuan. U.S. hay exporters and their customers in China, Ja- pan and the Middle East are losing money on 2014 crop hay contracts they have to complete, Calaway said. “We’re losing our shirts and they are. No one is mak- ing money. Now the future of commodity prices looks very challenging because Chi- na just devalued the yuan. Turn to HAY, Page 12 $2.00 hay this season Dan Wheat/Capital Press Swathers work on third-cutting alfalfa between Quincy and George, Wash., on July 31. Exporters have been buying less hay this year as they deal with stockpiles built up from last winter’s port slowdown. A DIFFERENT DROUGHT Steve Elde, a Skagit County, Wash., farm manager and irrigation district commis- sioner, clears sticks from a pump that draws from the north fork of the Skagit River for two 6-hour intervals each day. Prolonged hot, dry weather impacts all of Washington’s farmers By DON JENKINS Capital Press C Photos by Don Jenkins/Capital Press Water from the Skagit River pours into a ditch to irrigate crops in northwest Washing- ton. A pump drawing the water must be shut off 12 hours a day. Cranberries ripen in the sun on the Long Beach Peninsula in southwest Washington. The berries illustrate the complexities of forecasting the drought’s economic impact on agriculture. ONWAY, Wash. — Irrigation dis- trict commissioner Steve Elde is losing sleep over this year’s his- toric drought. Several times a day — or night — the re- sponsibility often falls to Elde to go to the Skagit River to tend the pump that serves as a lifeline to the district’s farmers. “It’s a weird schedule, but it’s the only op- tion we have,” he said. Elde’s northwestern Washington district has a pump just upstream from where the river empties into Puget Sound. The pump provides much-needed water to the area’s farmers, whose verdant fi elds would other- wise be parched by this year’s drought. The region has received just 1.68 inches of rain since May 1 — 29 percent of normal. Because the river is running low, and to leave more water for fi sh, the Skagit Valley’s Drainage and Irrigation District 15 can run the pump only three hours before and after the twice-daily high tides. That means an around-the-clock schedule for Elde and those tending the pump. Washington drought conditions Intensity D2-Drought (severe) D0-Abnormally dry D3-Drought (extreme) D1-Drought (moderate) D4-Drought (exceptional) (As of Aug. 4) Intensity of drought by percent area affected Date Current 3 mo. ago 1 yr. ago None 0% 32.5 39.2 D0-4 100 67.5 60.8 D1-4 100 51.8 40.8 D2-4 100 15.5 20 D3-4 31.7 0 0 D4 0 0 0 Source: National Drought Mitigation Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Turn to DROUGHT, Page 12 Capital Press graphic “As a lifelong Washington resident, I don’t think I’ve ever prayed for rain.” Tom Buroker, the state Department of Ecology’s Northwest Region director