September 30, 2016
CapitalPress.com
7
Senate report says WOTUS
expanding federal control
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Kathy Aney/EO Media Group
United Grain Corp. has pledged to invest $9 million in elevators and terminals it purchased this
summer from Pendleton Grain Growers. New holdings include all of PGG’s upcountry elevators, the
McNary River Terminal (pictured) and the Alicel rail terminal.
After harvest, key decisions
loom for United Grain
Company has
vowed $9M for
facilities upgrades
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO Media Group
PENDLETON, Ore. —
Now that wheat harvest is
winding down across north-
east Oregon, United Grain
Corp. is beginning to focus on
how it will upgrade facilities
purchased from Pendleton
Grain Growers earlier this
year.
United Grain has pledged
to invest $9 million in the
buildings, which include all
of PGG’s upcountry eleva-
tors, the McNary River Ter-
minal and Alicel rail termi-
nal. Regional Manager Jason
Middleton said they have not
made any decisions yet, but
hope to have a plan take shape
by November.
Middleton, who was hired
from PGG after the co-op vot-
ed to dissolve in May, said the
goal is to add capacity at ele-
vators where farmers are most
likely to store their grain, and
increase eficiency at the two
terminals to keep trucks mov-
ing in and out quickly. Other
elevators will likely be shut
down for good, though Mid-
dleton said the crystal ball is
still a little foggy.
“We’ve had a couple meet-
ings about it, but haven’t by
any stretch of the imagination
come away with a plan of
what we’re going to do,” he
said.
This year’s winter wheat
harvest was a baptism by
ire for United Grain, which
inalized its deal with PGG
on June 10. Fifteen days lat-
er, Middleton said, they were
already taking wheat from the
west end of the county, giving
Kathy Aney/EO Media Group
United Grain Corp.’s McNary River Terminal is among the compa-
ny’s facilities it bought from Pendleton Grain Growers. Now that the
busy wheat harvest is winding down, the company is considering
which facilities to upgrade.
them only enough time for an
initial cursory glance at infra-
structure needs.
Several elevators were
closed right off the bat, in-
cluding those at Mission,
Holdman, Elgin and McCo-
mas in downtown Pendleton.
“Some of them were safety
issues, didn’t meet our stan-
dards and hadn’t handled a lot
of bushels for a long time,”
Middleton said.
Others, such as Rew, Stan-
ton and Brogiotti, were closed
by Middleton in 2012 when
he took over as director of
grain operations for PGG.
Since then, Middleton said,
the majority of money has
been spent at McNary and
Alicel, which can hold up to
6.6 million bushels and 1.2
million bushels, respectively.
That has a lot to do with
how the grain farming indus-
try has changed, Middleton
said. Combines are able to
cut wheat far more eficiently
than they used to, and farms
are sending larger trucks lon-
ger distances to get their prod-
uct to market.
What used to be smaller
farm trucks heading to the
closest country elevator are
now large semis lining up out-
side McNary along the Co-
lumbia River. Ideally, Middle-
ton said, they should be able
to weigh and unload trucks in
5 to 10 minutes.
“The terminals are farther
along than our upcountry ele-
vators,” he said. “That’s what
we’re looking at now.”
This year’s harvest wasn’t
without its struggles, Middle-
ton said, as they were forced
to hit the ground running. But
overall, growers in Umatil-
la County had much better
spring and winter conditions
and should be closer to their
average yields, he said.
“We got some saving rains,
and we didn’t have a brutal
winter either,” Middleton
said.
Already, the Pendleton
area has received some good
rains that will help farmers
plant into better moisture for
next year. According to the
National Weather Service,
Pendleton has received .68
inches of precipitation during
September, more than the usu-
al .45 inches.
Middleton said he is en-
couraged, but growers need
more to continue reversing
the damage from previous
years of intense drought.
“We have some guys seed-
ing now into better mois-
ture this year,” Middleton
said.
The Senate Committee
on Environment and Public
Works last week released a
38-page report it says details
how EPA and the Army Corps
of Engineers are already ex-
panding federal control over
land and water based on their
“waters of the United States”
rule — which has been stayed
in federal court.
Committee Chairman Jim
Inhofe, R-Okla., said the re-
port demonstrates in detail that
the agencies, under the Obama
administration, are “running
rogue” and it’s time for Con-
gress to rein in the EPA and the
Corps.
“Congress shouldn’t wait
on the Supreme Court to make
the inevitable decision that this
agency overreach is illegal,”
he said.
The report was prepared
by majority committee staff
and released on Sept. 20. The
committee’s minority staff has
not responded to requests for
comment.
The EPA stated in an email
that it will review the report
and respond to Capital Press at
an undetermined time.
The Corps responded in an
email that it is unable to com-
ment because the rule is still in
litigation, having been stayed
by the court.
Despite EPA’s claims that
existing exemptions, includ-
ing exemptions for farming,
remain unaffected, the case
studies examined by the ma-
jority staff demonstrate the
falseness of those assurances,
according to the report.
The report claims the
agencies have narrowed the
exemption in practice and
simply regulate under anoth-
er name – such as renaming a
ditch a regulated tributary or
wetland.
In a written statement,
Zippy Duvall, president of
the American Farm Bureau
Federation, said the report
exposes the administration’s
“reckless and unlawful” ac-
tions in enforcing the Clean
Water Act and shows in detail
how EPA and the Corps have
used an overly expansive in-
terpretation of their authority
to regulate waters.
“The case studies present-
ed in the report relect the se-
rious concerns we have raised
for more than two years. The
Waters of the U.S. rule … will
cement that lawless expansion
of authority unless Congress
acts to stop it,” he said.
The report is conclusive
evidence of EPA’s continued
efforts to expand its jurisdic-
tion over all waters, Tracy
Bruner, president of the Na-
tional Cattlemen’s Beef Asso-
ciation, said in a statement.
“While EPA has consis-
tently claimed that the WO-
TUS rule preserves the ex-
emptions for normal farming
and ranching activities, their
regulatory track record proves
the exact opposite,” he said.
The report shows that the
EPA and the Corps have and
will continue to advance very
broad claims of jurisdiction
based on discretionary author-
ity to deine their own juris-
diction, the committee report
found.
Inhofe, Farm Bureau and
NCBA are calling on 11 sen-
ators to follow through on
their warning to EPA and the
Corps that they would support
efforts to revise the WOTUS
rule if it were enforced in a
way that eroded traditional
exemptions.
Inhofe also pointed out that
69 senators — a veto-proof
majority — have gone on
record with grave concerns
regarding the WOTUS rule
over the past year, saying it’s
time to come together to pro-
tect land users and end agency
overreach.
Clinton supports WOTUS; Trump does not
Capital Press
Hillary Clinton says she
supports the Environmental
Protection Agency’s “Waters
of the U.S.” rule, while Don-
ald Trump says he will elim-
inate the rule if elected pres-
ident.
The candidates made their
comments in statements pub-
lished Sept. 20 on farmfu-
tures.com.
“I support the rule, but
know we have to work with
all stakeholders to ensure its
common sense implementa-
tion,” the Democratic nom-
inee told the publication. “I
was pleased the EPA worked
hard to ensure the Clean Wa-
ter Rule maintains longstand-
ing exemptions for common
farming practices, while
clarifying the Clean Water
Act and ensuring much-need-
ed certainty for all stake-
holders so our families and
businesses can rely on clean
water.”
Her Republican opponent
took the opposite position.
“I will eliminate the un-
constitutional Waters of the
U.S. rule, and will direct the
Army Corps of Engineers and
EPA to no longer use this un-
lawful rule and related guid-
ance documents in making ju-
risdictional determinations,”
Trump said. “I will also en-
sure that these agencies re-
spect the valid exclusions
under environmental statutes
Capital Press ile photo
Hillary Clinton says she supports implementation of the EPA’s
“Waters of the U.S.” rule. Donald Trump says he’ll eliminate the
rule if elected president.
for agricultural practices. As
importantly, I will appoint a
pro-farmer administrator of
EPA.”
In making the rule, the
EPA an the Corps of Engi-
neers sought to deine the
“waters of the United States”
that can be regulated under
the Clean Water Act. The
agencies sought to reconcile
two separate Supreme Court
decisions on cases involving
the act.
The rules generated a lood
of criticism and legal chal-
lenges from farmers, ranchers
and irrigators.
They claim the rule ex-
pands regulatory jurisdic-
tion to any water with even
a remote connection to those
navigable waters. They say
the rule doesn’t clearly deine
protected waters and leaves
determinations up to the agen-
cy.
EPA oficials say the new
rule includes exemptions for
agricultural activities and that
nothing will change for farm-
ers and ranchers.
Lawsuits have blocked the
rule’s implementation.
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