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-
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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.
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cause the attorneys conducted
a great deal of work, facing
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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-
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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.
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bore fruit in June 2015 after
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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-
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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