10 CapitalPress.com
March 10, 2017
Washington
Rancher-photographer honored
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Courtesy of Roseanna Sales
A Moses Lake, Wash.,
rancher and photographer has
been honored for her Facebook
page advocating farm life.
Sue Tebow, who owns the
TBO Cattle Co. cow-calf op-
eration with her husband, re-
ceived the 2017 Charles Eastin
Outstanding Service Award
from the Agriculture Council
of America. The award honors
individuals who are advocates
Moses Lake, Wash., rancher
and photographer Sue Tebow.
for accurate communications
between rural and urban audi-
ences.
Tebow launched the “agri.
CULTURE” page on Face-
book in April 2016. A longtime
“budding” photographer, she
often took pictures of people
and work on the farm.
“It just came as an opportu-
nity to me, or maybe a respon-
sibility in a way, to tell other
people about the hard-work-
ing people in agriculture,” she
said.
Tebow sees her photos as
telling the personal stories of
farmers and ranchers.
The page has more than
5,000 followers from around
the world and has reached
27,000 people, according to
the council.
Tebow’s audience is divid-
ed equally between rural and
urban residents, she said.
“I’ve had farm people fol-
low along and leave me notes
about how it brings them back
to the roots of what they do,”
she said. “I’ve had people
who used to farm and now
live in the city — these sto-
ries get them to reminiscing
about their childhood days.”
Tebow first started taking
pictures of friends and neigh-
bors. Now she hears from
people interested in getting
involved. She’s offered several
photo series, including 30 days
of photos from a Hutterite col-
ony; 30 days of little kids on
the farm and 30 days of FFA
members, including photos
submitted by FFA members.
Roughly 90 percent of the pho-
tos on the page were taken by
Tebow.
For the month of May, she
plans to have a series of pho-
tos of farming moms on the
page.
The Moses Lake Muse-
um and Arts Center recently
exhibited “agri.CULTURE”
photography for a month.
Railroads on track for regulatory relief
Bill passes
House 97-1
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — The House
has passed a bill to pare back,
but not eliminate, new state
rules that threaten to make
hauling vegetable oils unprof-
itable for three small railroads
in Eastern Washington.
The
Democratic-con-
trolled chamber voted 97-1
on Wednesday to allow the
railroads to adopt less elabo-
rate spill-response plans than
BNSF Railway and Union
Pacific Railroad. House Bill
1136, introduced by Pomeroy
Republican Mary Dye, now
goes to the Republican-led
Senate.
The bill would amend a
2015 law that mandated rail-
roads to hold twice-yearly
drills and equip themselves to
quickly clean up worst-case
oil spills.
Although the law was driv-
en by an influx of crude oil
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
The Washington House has passed a bill that would pare back
Department of Ecology rules that threaten to make transporting
vegetable oils unprofitable for small railroads.
rail tankers, Ecology applied
the rules to short-line rail-
roads that don’t carry crude
oil, arguing that the state also
should be vigilant about vege-
table oil spills.
Spill-response plans are
due at the end of the month
from the Central Washington
Railroad, Columbia Basin
Railroad and Great North-
west Railroad. The compa-
nies serve farmers and food
processors by hauling canola,
mineral and soybean oils, but
do not move crude oil.
The small railroads argue
it’s absurd to equate vegetable
oil with potentially explosive
crude oil. They say that they
already must meet feder-
al safety standards and that
complying with Ecology’s
rules will cost more than they
charge for hauling vegetable
oils.
Under HB 1136, small rail-
roads would not have to retain
clean-up equipment and crews
on stand-by. Companies that
haul fewer than 24 carloads of
vegetable oils a year would not
have to hold drills. If over that
threshold, companies would
have to drill once every three
years.
The railroads would have
to submit a “basic contin-
gency plan,” which would
include a “field document”
for responding to spills
and identify the clean-up
contractors the companies
would use.
Patrick Boss, a lobbyist
for the small railroads, said
he hoped the Senate will push
up the threshold for holding
drills, but said the House bill
was “quite a few steps for-
ward.”
“I think the House recog-
nized it was ridiculous to do
a cookie-cutter approach to
oil,” he said.
House Environment Com-
mittee Chairman Joe Fitzgib-
bon, D-Burien, supported the
bill, saying it balanced pre-
paring for spills without im-
posing financially damaging
rules.
Courtesy of Charles Lyall
A long stick excavator scoops mud from the Wahluke irrigation
canal south of Othello, Wash. About a half-mile of canal was filled
with mud from Feb. 20 flash flood.
Canal repairs delay irrigation
start-up by several days
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
PASCO, Wash. — The
South Columbia Basin Irri-
gation District will be seven
days late providing water to
growers this month as it fin-
ishes repairing canals dam-
aged by spring runoff.
A Presidents Day warm-
up with rain caused snowmelt
and flash flooding that dam-
aged fields and closed roads
in Franklin County and dam-
aged irrigation canals in sev-
eral places, said Dave Solem,
district manager.
Kevin Moss, a grower near
Eltopia, north of Pasco, post-
ed a video on FaceBook of a
large sink hole and waterfalls
in his alfalfa field. He could
not be reached for comment.
Solem said the Feb. 20
flash flooding filled the Wah-
luke branch of the district’s
canal, south of Othello, with
mud for half a mile and blew
out about 20, 20-by-15-foot
concrete panels from the sides
of the 60-foot-wide, 15-foot-
deep canal. The panels are 4
to 6 inches thick. It took three
excavators 10 days to dig
out the canal and new panels
were to be poured the week of
March 5, he said.
“District employees have
really stepped up to get the
work done. We’ve had dam-
age in springs past but not this
much,” Solem said.
About 1.5 miles of panels
were damaged on the Eltopia
branch and damage in other
places is still being found, he
said.
“Normally at this time
of year we’re doing normal
maintenance for spring start-
up. This is setting us back,”
he said.
The start of charging ca-
nals with water has been de-
layed from March 6 to 13 and
first water will be available to
growers on or around March
29 instead of the 22nd, he
said.
Charles Lyall, a district
board member and Matta-
wa grower, said a seven-day
delay in water should not be
too big a hardship this sea-
son because it’s a cool, late
spring, so far, with tree fruit
buds developing slower than
normal.
“I’m sure growers will be
ready to take water when we
have it. If it warms up, they
will want water,” Solem said.
The South Columbia Basin
Irrigation District is one of
three large districts served by
the U.S. Bureau of Reclama-
tion’s Columbia Basin Irriga-
tion Project fed by water from
Lake Roosevelt behind Grand
Coulee Dam.
It is the largest water rec-
lamation project in the U.S.,
using an average of 2.65
million acre-feet of water
annually.
The district irrigates
230,000 acres of farmland
growing 70 crops but mostly
alfalfa, potatoes, wheat, tree
fruit, corn and grapes.
LEGAL
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT
OF THE STATE OF OREGON
FOR THE COUNTY
OF MARION
Probate Department
IN THE MATTER OF THE
ESTATE OF
Daniel R. McGowan, Deceased
No. 17PB00512
NOTICE TO
INTERESTED PERSONS
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN
that the undersigned has
been appointed Personal
Representative of the above
estate. All persons having
claims against the estate are
required to present them to
the undersigned Personal
Representative in care of the
undersigned attorney at: 319
Sixth Street SW, Albany, OR
97321 within four months
after the date of the first
publication of this notice, as
stated below, or such claims
may be barred.
All persons whose rights
may be affected by the
proceedings in this estate
may obtain additional infor-
mation from the records of
the Court, the Personal Rep-
resentative, or the attorney
for the Personal Represen-
tative.
DATED and first published
March 3, 2017.
Personal Representative:
JOSHUA R. MCGOWAN
62020 Quail Run Place
Bend, OR 97701
10-4\#04N
Attorney:
DAVID B. BECKHAM
319 Sixth Avenue SW
Albany, OR 97321
legal-9-3-1/#4
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