10 CapitalPress.com
February 3, 2017
Washington
Quagga mussels a threat to irrigators
Ports, shippers
oppose tax to fund
campaign
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Cattle gather at a feedlot in Franklin County, Wash. Cattle feeders
say a change in how the state Department of Ecology enforces
dust-control plans motivates their support for a bill to exempt feed-
lots from the Washington Clean Air Act.
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — Quagga
mussels clog irrigation sys-
tems and are approaching the
Pacific Northwest, warns a
Washington state senator, who
has proposed a tax on ships to
fund a battle against the inva-
sive species.
Shippers, ports and marine
terminal operators oppose the
new fee, arguing large vessels
are unlikely to introduce in-
vasive species and that anoth-
er tax will make Washington
ports less attractive to compa-
nies.
“I know the big boats are
unhappy, and I’m willing to
work with them on this, but we
do need an adequate and reli-
able source of funds to combat
these species,” said Republi-
can Sen. Jim Honeyford, who
represents the irrigation-de-
pendent Yakima Valley in Cen-
tral Washington.
The quagga mussel and
its relative, the zebra mussel,
are natives of Eastern Europe
and were introduced into the
Great Lakes by ships in the
late 1980s.
Along with clogging pipes
and screens, the mussels upset
the ecosystem.
Zebra mussels have spread
more widely in the Midwest,
but quagga mussels have ap-
peared more places in the
West, including in California.
They were discovered in
Montana in November, in-
creasing concerns that quagga
mussels will reach Idaho and
Washington.
To illustrate the threat,
Honeyford has been showing
other lawmakers quagga mus-
sel-encrusted pipes from Lake
Mead on the Nevada-Arizona
border.
“We really need to get a
Washington feedlots
ask out of state air law
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Washington state Sen. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, examines pipes encrusted with quagga mussels as
Sen. Lisa Wellman, D-Mercer Island, looks on during a Jan. 24 meeting of the Senate agriculture
committee. Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, has been passing around the glass case to highlight
what the invasive species would do to irrigation pipes if it reached Washington.
Quagga mussel
This non-
native
freshwater
mussel
poses a
0.8 inches
major
(Actual size)
threat to
U.S. waterways as an
invasive species. It’s similar
in appearance to its more
infamous cousin, the zebra
mussel.
Binomial name: Dreissena
rostriformis
Appearance: Shell is striped,
being more pale toward the end
of the hinge
Diet: Filter feeder
Life span: 3-5 years
Origin: Dnieper River drainage
of Ukraine
First observed: 1989 in Lake
Erie near Port Colborne, Ontario
Sources: www.wikipedia.org; USGS
Capital Press graphic
handle on this,” he said. “Once
they get in, they’re very diffi-
cult to eradicate unless they’re
in a small area, and if they’re
not in a small area, then you
can pretty much say goodbye.”
Honeyford has introduced
Senate Bill 5303 to enlarge the
state’s program to prevent and
respond to aquatic invasive
species.
Currently,
recreational
boaters are practically the pro-
gram’s only support, spending
$2 a year per boat and raising
about $500,000.
Honeyford’s bill would
charge large vessels calling on
Washington ports $125. Out-
of-state recreational boats and
seaplanes would have to buy a
$20 permit to use Washington
waters. Each tax would raise
an estimated $450,000 a year.
Honeyford’s bill also
would tap taxes already paid
by public utilities. The mus-
sels can interfere with hydro-
electric dams. The tax would
raise an estimated $1 million
the first two years, increasing
to $2.8 million the following
two years.
The bill follows, somewhat,
recommendations from an ad-
visory group convened by the
state Department of Fish and
Wildlife. The group included
farm groups, tribes, environ-
mentalists, ports and the ship-
Washington Ecology plots
course to pick farm practices
ping industry. The group did
not come to a consensus on the
ship tax.
Ports and shippers opposed
the tax at a hearing Thursday in
front of the Senate Natural Re-
sources and Parks Committee.
The shippers argued interna-
tional and federal rules already
prevent vessels from spreading
invasive species.
The ports say they’re bat-
tling Canadian ports for busi-
ness.
“Any cost you put on in-
dustry just makes it that much
more likely you’ll lose cargo,”
said Jordan Roy, vice president
of the Pacific Merchant Ship-
ping Association, which rep-
resents marine terminals.
According to a WDFW re-
port, invasive species could at-
tach themselves to the hulls of
vessels. Also, invasive species
could be introduced when ships
discharge ballast water picked
up in the ocean.
Six states, including Or-
egon and California, collect
fees from ships for invasive
species programs, according to
WDFW. Oregon’s fee is $88,
while California charges $850.
OLYMPIA — The Wash-
ington beef industry wants law-
makers to exempt cattle feed-
lots from the state Clean Air
Act, complaining the Depart-
ment of Ecology has adopted a
no-tolerance stance on dust ris-
ing from thousands of animals
in dry conditions.
“They have adopted what I
would call a new no-tolerance
interpretation as it relates to
dust,” Agri Beef director of reg-
ulatory affairs Jayne Davis told
the House Environment Com-
mittee on Monday. “We don’t
think it can be achieved any-
where in the cattle industry.”
Dust from agricultural oper-
ations is generally not regulat-
ed by the Clean Air Act, which
carries fines of up to $10,000
per violation.
The law, however, does ap-
ply to cattle feedlots with more
1,000 head during the dry sum-
mer months.
House Bill 1299, introduced
by Aberdeen Democrat Brian
Blake, chairman of the agricul-
ture committee, would add cat-
tle feedlots to agricultural oper-
ations exempted from the act.
Ecology pushed back
against the proposal, telling
the committee that feedlots
emit pollution. “Feedlot dust
is not benign,” said Stu Clark,
Ecology’s air quality program
manager.
To control dust, feedlots
must use “best-management
practices,” such as sprinklers,
scrapping pens and wind-
breaks. Ecology and the indus-
try worked out the guidelines in
1995.
Controlling dust is hard,
but the guidelines — “based
on reasonableness” — worked
well, said Ed Field, executive
director of the Washington Cat-
tle Feeders Association.
“We determined it was good
for our neighbors and good for
us and worked very well until
the last several years, when
there’s been a change in person-
nel and a change in attitude,”
Field said.
Clark said Ecology is talking
with cattlemen to update the
1995 policy. The bill, he said,
would “restrict Ecology’s abil-
ity to address real health and
environmental concerns from
cattle feeding.”
He also warned that the En-
vironmental Protection Agen-
cy may not approve, leaving
feedlots vulnerable to federal
enforcement.
Ranchers said that con-
trolling dust makes neighbors
happy and cattle healthy.
“I do my BMPs very re-
ligiously,” Ephrata ranch-
er Will Derting said. “It’s a
good-neighbor thing to do.”
Ecology sent several warn-
ing letters to feedlots for al-
leged dust-control violations
last year, an Ecology spokes-
woman said. The most recent
fine against a feedlot for wind-
blown manure was a $50,000
penalty issued to Simplot
Feeders in Walla Walla County
in December 2015.
PAID ADVERTISEMENT
Farm Bureau ‘very,
very nervous’
Valley Agronomics LLC and Ag West Supply
Working Together to Support Area Agriculture
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Washington producers,
environmentalists and others
will get together this spring
and begin catalog farming
methods that prevent wa-
ter pollution, according to
a plan presented this week
by the state Department of
Ecology.
Ecology says the prac-
tices will be voluntary and
not new rules. Still, “a lot
of folks are very, very ner-
vous,” said Evan Sheffels,
Washington Farm Bureau
associate director of govern-
ment relations. “Our pref-
erence is that this just go
away.”
Ecology has signaled its
intention to move ahead with
an exercise ordered by the
Environmental Protection
Agency during the Obama
administration. The EPA told
Ecology in 2015 to develop
agricultural “best-manage-
ment practices” to help the
state meet water-quality
standards. An EPA spokes-
man said Friday that the
agency still expects Ecology
to do so.
Ecology has approached
the subject cautiously. It
hired a consulting firm, Ross
Strategic of Seattle, last
March to interview produc-
ers and environmentalists
about their expectations and
worries.
“We felt like our stake-
holders would feel freer to
speak with an outsider rather
than ourselves, and we feel
it was helpful,” Ecology wa-
ter quality communications
manager Sandy Howard
said.
Elizabeth McManus, a
principal in the firm, re-
ported that farmers are con-
cerned the practices will be
onerous, uneconomical and
become de facto regulations.
By Jason Pollard January 12, 2017
Oregon-After months of meetings and preparation, it has become
official that the respective companies of Valley Agronomics and Ag West
Supply, based out of Rickreall Oregon, have agreed to work together to
support area Agriculture. Valley Agronomics will lease the business from
Ag West Supply and hire all of the current employees to be part of the
Valley Agronomics operations.
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Workers harvest cranberries in a flooded bog in southwestern
Washington. The state Department of Ecology will form an advisory
group to evaluate farming practices that prevent water pollution.
The Environmental Protection Agency instructed the state to identi-
fy “best-management practices” for agriculture.
While producers are con-
cerned about where Ecology
is heading, environmental-
ists are impatient with the
department’s pace, accord-
ing to McManus. Environ-
mentalists said Ecology was
moving too slow, thwarted
by politics, she reported.
Northwest Environmental
Advocates sued the EPA in
U.S. District Court in Seattle
in December, claiming the
agency should cut off federal
funding for clean-water proj-
ects until Washington adopts
agricultural best-manage-
ment practices. The suit is
pending.
Moving ahead and based
on McManus’ recommen-
dations, Ecology has pro-
posed forming a 10- to
20-member advisory group
by mid-spring to evaluate
the effectiveness and cost of
practices, such as buffers be-
tween fields and waterways.
Ecology says it expects
members to also be drawn
from tribes, counties, regula-
tory agencies, conservation
districts and Washington
State University.
Ecology has so far spent
$40,000 on Ross Strate-
gic and has not yet decided
whether to retain its services
to work with the advisory
group, Howard said.
Ecology has shied away
from the term “best-man-
agement practices,” opting
for “voluntary clean water
guidance for agriculture.”
The state Clean Water Act
already gives Ecology broad
authority to mandate pollu-
tion-control measures for in-
dividual farms and ranches.
Sheffels said farmers
could benefit if the advisory
group weighs costs and ben-
efits and doesn’t depart too
far from Natural Resourc-
es Conservation Service
standards. “Our concern,
as always, is this will turn
into something different in
the later stages and become
a regulatory hammer,” he
said.
Operating in a competitive marketplace had become a challenge for
their ag input supply business. Simplot, CPS, Wilbur Ellis and Wilco all
had locations in the area. As a cooperative, their members desired to
have a convenient location, but acknowledged without partnering with
someone else, it would continue to be a challenge. Wilco and Ag West
Supply had been friendly for years and discussions began a few months
back considering options. With the recent merger of Wilco-Winfield with
Valley Agronomics, this provided an opportunity for Ag West Supply and
Valley Agronomics to come together to support the local community.
“We are excited to have the Ag West Supply Agronomy team joining
ours, and adding a location strategically located between our Whiteson
and Harrisburg Ag Centers,” stated Bill Hubbell Vice President over the
Willamette Valley for Valley Agronomics, Previously General Manager
for Wilco- Winfield Ag. The effective date that the operations will begin
conducting business as Valley Agronomics is February 1, 2017. Valley
Agronomics will add custom application, fertilizer delivery, and lime to
the current offerings out of this facility.
Both organizations are a perfect example of what a cooperative can
mean to a community and the patrons of the cooperative system. By
coming together to form this alliance and lease out the ag business from
Ag West Supply, Valley Agronomics will be able to provide more services,
and products to the local area.
Valley Agronomics LLC is a locally owned cooperative proudly serving
area agricultural producers, commercial businesses and families in
Oregon, Washington, Southern Idaho, and Parts of Nevada and Utah.
Following founding traditions of honesty and caring for others, Valley
Agronomics is customer focused and driven.
For more information, visit www.valleyagronomics.com
5-1/#16
This map shows the
locations of both
Cooperatives throughout
the state of Idaho and
surrounding states