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December 25, 2015 CapitalPress.com 5 Attorneys get $10.6 million in potato antitrust deal Lawyers for plaintiffs awarded 42 percent of the $25 million fund By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Attorneys who fought a potato farmers’ cooperative in court over alleged price manipulation will receive more than $10.6 million for obtaining a settlement deal in the lawsuit. Earlier this year, the Unit- ed Potato Growers of Amer- LFD DQG DI¿OLDWHG FRPSDQLHV agreed to pay $25 million to resolve class action litigation brought by several grocers and consumers who claimed the cooperative unlawfully re- stricted production of the crop. Aside from the monetary award, the settlement pro- hibits UPGA from trying to control potato production for seven years. A federal judge recently approved that agreement and awarded the plaintiff’s law- yers roughly 42 percent of the settlement fund, which represents attorney fees and expenses. 7KH DZDUG LV MXVWL¿HG EH- cause the attorneys conducted a great deal of work, facing VLJQL¿FDQWULVNVDQGREWDLQHG an “excellent result” for their clients, said U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill. Attorneys representing “direct purchasers” of pota- toes, such as grocery stores, will get about $6.43 million in fees and another $1.55 mil- lion in expenses, while those representing “indirect pur- chasers,” such as consumers, will receive $1.65 million in fees and nearly $1 million in expenses. The litigation began in 2010, when Brigiotta’s Farm- land Produce and Garden Cen- WHU ¿OHG D FRPSODLQW DJDLQVW WKH FRRSHUDWLYH DQG DI¿OLDWHG defendants for coordinating potato acreage to boost prices for the crop. Other plaintiffs soon joined the litigation. UPGA thought its efforts were shielded from anti- trust prohibitions under the Capper-Volstead Act, under which farmer cooperatives get some exemptions. However, in 2011, Win- mill found that such “collu- sive crop planning” was not covered by Capper-Volstead, which led to settlement talks that twice failed in 2012 and 2013. 7KH QHJRWLDWLRQV ¿QDOO\ bore fruit in June 2015 after WKHSODLQWLIIV¿OHGDPRWLRQWR certify their lawsuit as a class action, which allows other parties to join the litigation. In announcing the deal, UPGA maintained that it did not engage in illegal conduct and said it would continue gathering data and making recommendations even as the acreage planning program was ceased. Despite the settlement, the cooperative and other defen- dants are still defending them- selves in court because one plaintiff, Associated Whole- sale Grocers, did not join in the agreement. Barring another settle- ment, proceedings in that case are scheduled throughout next year, with expert depositions concluding in August 2016 and court documents being submitted in December 2016. Okanogan ranchers looking for grazing By DAN WHEAT Capital Press U.S. Bureau of Reclamation photo Kachess Lake, west of Cle Elum, Wash., is shown at low pool. It is RQHRI¿YHUHVHUYRLUVVHUYLQJWKH<DNLPD%DVLQ The Roza Irrigation District has dropped plans to pump additional water from it. Roza irrigators pull plug on pump By DAN WHEAT had indicated support, owners Capital Press of 8,358 acres were opposed and owners of the remaining SUNNYSIDE, Wash. — 41,592 acres in the district had The Roza Irrigation District not expressed an opinion, he has dropped plans to pump ad- said. ditional water from a mountain Some residents of Kachess reservoir next summer if the Lake, the reservoir where the drought continues. pumping was to occur west of The district’s board unan- Cle Elum, were opposed, fear- imously agreed Dec. 15 that a ing the impact on wells and $20 million increase in estimat- bull trout. ed costs was more than it could When full, the lake holds afford, said Scott Revell, dis- 825,000 acre-feet of water trict manager. with 239,000 acre-feet avail- The district’s engineering able for irrigation. Even with consultant estimated the cost the demise of the plan for of the project at $57 million in emergency use of 50,000 acre- October with a low end of $44 feet, plans remain to access million and a high of $80 mil- 200,000 acre-feet via pump- lion. Based on that, the board ing in coming years as part of voted Oct. 15 to proceed and the Yakima Basin Integrated assess growers $85 per acre Water Resource Management per year over 10 years to pay Plan. for the work to gain 50,000 The district board voted to acre-feet of water next sum- increase grower assessments mer. from $133.90 to $182.65 per But the estimates for con- acre next year to help pay for struction of a barge, a coffer $1.35 million spent on emer- dam, mooring and use of tugs gency pumping, $1.8 million escalated when a marine sub- on water leases and pump and contractor was brought in, canal repairs and to restore a re- Revell said. The consultant serve of $3.5 million in drought revised his estimate Dec. 11 funds for 2016. to $78 million with a low of Kachess and four other $66 million and a high of $101 mountain reservoirs serving the million. Yakima Basin are at 123 per- About 75 growers attend- cent of average water currently ed the meeting and many who because of recent storms, Rev- were opposed seemed pleased, ell said. Snowpack ranges from Revell said. Row crop farm- 54 to 105 percent of normal in ers, part-time farmers and the upper basin, he said. dairies were opposed, saying While that generally looks WKH\ZRXOGQRWEHQH¿WHQRXJK good, Revell said he’s leery of while tree fruit, hop and grape a false sense of security. growers generally supported “We will see if we have the project at the $57 million good snowpack in March,” he level, Revell said. said. “I hesitate to feel comfort- Owners of 22,050 acres able this early.” OKANOGAN, Wash. — Ranchers in Okanogan County are looking for whatever help they can get to survive the next year or more with limited graz- LQJ GXH WR WKH ZLOG¿UHV RI WKH last two years. More than 1 million acres of the county has burned and state and federal grazing allotments cover 50 to 80 percent of that, Jack Field, executive vice pres- ident of the Washington Cattle- men’s Association, said. Ranchers would like to extend emergency grazing of Conservation Reserve Program land. Okanogan County com- missioners say they are trying to help ranchers by seeking a greater voice in U.S. Forest Service decisions on grazing. “Commissioners are invok- ing coordination with the Forest Service. That’s in statute. It’s like the equal footing doctrine. It gives us the right to talk to them and they have to listen to what we have to say,” said Jim DeTro, county commissioner. A USFS spokeswoman could not be reached for com- ment. DeTro said the agency bends over backward to please environmentalists opposed to grazing while ranchers should have the greater say. So far, the agency has said ranchers can’t run their cattle on burned grazing allotments next year, but there are lightly burned allotments that “will have good grass next season,” DeTro said. “They are telling ranchers they won’t look at it until 2018 and that’s ridiculous. We need an independent survey of what could be grazed because the 86)6 LV LQ¿OWUDWHG ZLWK WKRVH who don’t want to graze,” he said. No grazing could force some ranchers to sell their en- tire herds and put them out of business, he said. Last year, USDA opened 1.2 million acres of Conserva- tion Reserve Program land in Eastern Washington for emer- gency grazing because of state drought. Ranchers who lost grazing ground were allowed to join in that usage. 52-4/#5 Dan Wheat/Capital Press Burned grazing ground is shown near Haeberle Ranch between Okanogan and Conconully, Wash., on Aug. 31, after the Okanogan ¿UH5DQFKHUVQHHGJUD]LQJODQGIRUWKHLUFDWWOHQH[W\HDU About 25,000 to 30,000 acres were used, said Judy Ol- son, state director of the USDA Farm Service Agency in Spo- kane. Those same acres could not be used for a second year in a row and emergency usage of any CRP ground will be much harder if the drought doesn’t continue in 2016, she said. Okanogan County only has about 1,100 acres of eligible CRP land, she said. It’s cost prohibitive to use a lot of CRP land because ranch- ers not only have to haul cattle, but build fence and haul water, DeTro said. Gerald Scholz, a Pine Creek rancher north of Riverside, said he lost a lot of timber, grazing land, hay, sheds and equipment to unnecessary backburning by agencies. He’s been selling off cattle, reducing his herd from 700 to 500 mother cows and is work- ing on a deal to pasture 250 in the southern part of the state for two years. “It’s knocked me down a third for a couple of years. Ev- ery ranch up here is looking and doesn’t know what to do yet on grazing in the spring,” he said. “People are plenty upset. This country will never be the same.” Craig Vejraska, Omak, said more than 25 percent of his USFS allotments burned, 11 percent severely and the rest light. All but 16 percent of Okan- ogan County is state, federal or tribal land and if ranchers can’t graze it, “we’re going to lose a whole industry,” he said. Vejraska bought some 2014 Timothy hay at a “fairly rea- sonable” price of $130 per ton delivered that should stretch his supply to cover two years. He said he might have to convert some irrigated hay ground into pasture next year. He has 700 mother cows, of which about 20, plus 14 calves are still miss- ing. Rod Haeberle, Conconully, said he has about 500 mother FRZVDQGORVWRQHFDOILQWKH¿UH He lost 40 miles of fence, 200 tons of hay and all of his own 6,000 acres of spring and fall pastures. He said he will be able to graze one allotment next year that didn’t burn but will have to stay off others and will feed hay to mid-June or maybe July 1. Forty years ago, there were about 70,000 mother cows in the county. Now there are 11,000 to 15,000, he said. Much of the reduction, he said, has been caused by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife buying up 120,000 acres and not grazing it. “They say they have grazing available, but they want you to fence it for 30 days when you need it for months,” he said. It should be a “criminal vi- olation,” he said for the USFS to waste the amount of timber it wastes by salvaging so little DIWHU¿UHV Jon Wyss, former president of the Okanogan County Farm Bureau, said about 200 cows of 1,250 estimated missing in the county in September have been found alive. He said he still believes 2,000 to 3,000 will be sold as ranchers decide they can’t afford to feed them. He has estimated a $50 mil- lion loss in production over seven years. 52-1/#14 County trying to help