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CapitalPress.com
February 17, 2017
Faltering Oroville Dam puts region’s $1.5B ag industry at risk Bill would
do away
with dyed
fuel in Idaho
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
Courtesy California Department of Water Resources
Water from the Oroville Dam auxiliary spillway fl ows toward the diversion pool on the Feather River on
Feb. 12. Some of California’s most valuable almond, walnut, peach and prune crops as well as several
processors sit in the path of potential fl ood waters from Lake Oroville.
Area in
detail
SACRAMENTO
99
CALIF.
5
32
70
VA L L E Y
Chico
BUTTE
Lake
Oroville
Oroville Dam
49
er
Sacramen
t o R iv er
45
Oroville
Feather Riv
r
ve
Ri
20
Yu
ba
CHICO, Calif. — A large
portion of the Eastern Sacra-
mento Valley’s $1.5 billion
agriculture industry is directly
in the path of potential fl ood
waters from Lake Oroville if
the dam or its spillway were
to fail.
The Highway 99 corridor
between Chico and Yuba City
is dominated by rice, nut and
tree fruit crops, including al-
monds, walnuts, peaches and
prunes, said Louie Mendoza,
Butte County’s agricultural
commissioner.
In addition to farms, sever-
al major processors are in the
area, including Pacifi c Coast
Producers’ fruit processing
plant in Oroville and several
dehydrators along Highway 70
south of town, Mendoza said.
“If the spillway was to go,
we could have a tremendous
amount of water,” he said.
“There would be substantial
damage to agriculture if that
were to happen.”
The potential for major
damage to their operations
loomed as area growers were
among the roughly 188,000
people from Butte, Yuba and
Sutter counties who were told
to evacuate Feb. 12. Neither
Mendoza nor other local or
state offi cials could say how
many farms were affected by
the evacuation order.
About one-third of Butte
County’s $773 million agri-
culture industry is within the
affected corridor, Mendoza
said. Likewise, signifi cant
portions of Sutter County’s
$544 million ag industry and
Yuba County’s nearly $232
million industry may be at
risk.
As it was, some fruit and
nut orchards planted inside
levees were likely fl ooded as
Feather River waters rose, said
Lisa Herbert, Sutter County’s
agricultural
commissioner.
That’s a normal occurrence
that trees can withstand, al-
though young plantings could
have diffi culties, she said.
Herbert had not received
any damage reports from
99
SUTTER
20
YUBA
20
Yuba City
49
80
70
5
Counties
subject to
emergency
evacuation
65
113
N
10 miles
99
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
farms as of Feb. 13. She said
some growers likely moved
equipment to higher ground
and secured facilities before
leaving.
“We’ve had water in fi elds
before,” Mendoza said. “At
this point, one of the concerns
right now is that almonds are
beginning to bloom and the
trees are starting to grow. If
we have continued fl ooding in
orchards with almonds, there’s
a chance it could damage the
trees and drown them out, ba-
sically.”
A further complication
with almond blossom is that
thousands of bee boxes are in
the orchards. Those are often
placed on the ground, although
Mendoza said many beekeep-
ers anticipating fl ooded fi elds
put them on stands.
Herbert’s offi ce warned
area beekeepers about a week
ago that high water would be
coming and that they should
remove hives from fl ood
zones, she said.
“Most of our almond crops
are located on the outskirts of
the Sutter Buttes ... which is a
little bit higher,” she said.
However, Colleen Cecil,
the Butte County Farm Bu-
reau’s manager, said she has
seen bee boxes sitting in water,
“which isn’t ideal,” she said.
“I’m sure landowners are
doing everything they can to
mitigate those instances,” Ce-
cil said.
Several area fairgrounds
were being used as shelters for
displaced residents, and a large
animal shelter was set up at the
Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in
Chico.
The evacuation order
came after engineers spot-
ted a hole on the concrete lip
of the secondary spillway
for the 770-foot-tall Oroville
Dam and told authorities that
it could fail. Crews later used
trucks and helicopters to move
large rocks and gravel to fi ll
in erosion on the emergency
spillway.
Evacuations remained in ef-
fect as of nightfall on Feb. 13,
although Butte County Sheriff
Korey Honea told reporters he
is “working on a repopulation
plan” to allow people to return
when the state Department of
Water Resources and other
agencies determine it’s safe.
The DWR was releasing
100,000 cubic feet per sec-
ond from the Oroville Dam’s
main spillway to draw the lake
down as much as possible be-
fore another big storm was set
to arrive on Feb. 15.
The same thing was hap-
pening at Shasta Dam, which
boosted releases to 79,000 cu-
bic feet per second on Feb. 13
and raised fl ooding concerns
for residents and farms along
the Sacramento River. In Teha-
ma, Calif., the river was fore-
cast to rise nearly 3 feet above
fl ood stage early Feb. 14, said
former Tehama County super-
visor Ron Warner.
Almond and walnut grow-
ers have received permission
to use fungicides even in stand-
ing water, said Rick Buchner, a
University of California Coop-
erative Extension farm adviser
in Red Bluff, Calif.
Lake Oroville is the center-
piece of the State Water Proj-
ect, which has already raised
its projected allocations to at
least 60 percent of requested
supplies. DWR spokesman
Ted Thomas said he doesn’t
know whether damage to the
Oroville Dam could affect
surface water deliveries this
summer.
“People are working very
hard to deal with the challeng-
es that we have,” said acting
DWR director Bill Croyle,
adding a team that includes
several government agencies
and private contractors are
working to shore up the dam.
Croyle also said during a
news conference he had been
unaware of reported warnings
about the emergency spill-
way’s weakness from environ-
mental groups in 2005 during
the dam’s relicensing process,
but that offi cials will examine
what went wrong once the cri-
sis is over.
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By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
BOISE — A bill that
would eliminate dyed fuel
in Idaho and require farmers
and others who now use it to
pay the taxes on diesel fuel
upfront and apply for a re-
fund has been introduced in
the Idaho Legislature.
The idea has been ad-
amantly opposed by the
state’s main farm groups in
the past, and many of them
have policy opposing the
taxing of dyed fuel, which is
exempt from state and fed-
eral fuel taxes because it’s
only for use in off-road, un-
licensed vehicles.
Idaho Grain Producers
Association Executive Di-
rector Stacey Katseanes Sat-
terlee said her group would
oppose the legislation, which
is in the Senate Transporta-
tion Committee and awaiting
a public hearing.
“We think the state’s dyed
fuel program is important for
agriculture and we want to
see that program retained,”
she said.
Diesel fuel in Idaho is
taxed at a rate of 32 cents per
gallon at the state level and
24.4 cents per gallon at the
federal level.
People in industries such
as agriculture, construction,
mining and logging that pur-
chase dyed fuel don’t pay
those taxes because their ve-
hicles aren’t used on public
roads.
Senate Bill 1052 would
do away with dyed fuel in
Idaho, keeping only clear
diesel fuel in the market-
place for all users, but those
who are eligible could apply
for a refund on a monthly or
annual basis.
State estimates of the
amount of dyed fuel used il-
legally in Idaho range from
$3 million to $15 million.
There is no dyed fuel en-
forcement program in Ida-
ho and efforts to create one
have failed over the years,
said Sen. Chuck Winder,
R-Boise, who is carrying
the bill in the Senate.
The problem with Ida-
ho’s dyed fuel program “is
that it doesn’t get enforced,”
he said.
The bill was crafted by
Jerry Deckard, a lobby-
ist who represents the Ada
County Highway District
and the Associated Logging
Contractors of Idaho. He
did not return phone calls
seeking comment for this
story.
“I do like the bill as an
alternative to the issues
we’re going through with
how to regulate dyed fuel,”
said Winder.
The legislation would
still accommodate those
who are eligible to not pay
taxes on diesel fuel, he said.
“It doesn’t cost them
any more money,” he said.
“They just have to submit
an application to receive the
money back.”
A separate bill intro-
duced by Sen. Bert Brack-
ett, a Republican rancher
from Rogerson, would cre-
ate a basic dyed fuel en-
forcement program in Idaho
that would allow certain
law enforcement officials
as well as weigh stations to
check vehicles to see if they
are using dyed fuel illegally.
That bill is also await-
ing a hearing in the Senate
Transportation Committee,
which Brackett chairs.
Satterlee said Brackett’s
Senate Bill 1072 addresses
most of the concerns farm
groups have with a dyed
fuel enforcement program
and IGPA sees no reason to
oppose it.
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