May 5, 2017
CapitalPress.com
3
Judge nixes Farm Bureau suit against pay initiative
Plaintiffs weigh
next step
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A judge has rejected a law-
suit by the Washington Farm
Bureau and other business
groups against a voter-ap-
proved measure that raised
the minimum wage and man-
dated employers provide paid
sick leave.
In a written ruling released
Monday, Kittitas County
Superior Court Judge Scott
Sparks said the challenge to
Initiative 1433 fell short of
proving beyond a reasonable
doubt the measure was un-
constitutional.
Judges, Sparks wrote,
“should not interfere with the
democratic process of deter-
mining which laws to enact
unless there is a clear legal
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
A worker picks corn in a field in Washington. A Kittitas County
judge rejected on May 1 a challenge to a voter-approved measure
that raised the state’s minimum wage and mandated paid sick
leave. The Washington Farm Bureau participated in the lawsuit.
requirement establishing the
necessity of doing so.”
The decision was a set-
back for the Farm Bureau,
which had hoped for a fa-
vorable initial ruling against
an initiative that Washington
Attorney General Bob Fergu-
son has promised to defend all
the way to the state Supreme
Court if necessary.
The Farm Bureau said
Tuesday that it and the other
groups that filed the lawsuit
have not decided their next
step. The National Federa-
tion of Independent Busi-
nesses, Washington Retail
Association, Northwest Food
Processors Association and
Washington Food Industry
Association also joined in the
suit. The lead plaintiffs are
Farm Bureau members Brad
Haberman and Mark Charlton
of Kittitas County, and Wil-
liam Wirth of Chelan County.
The attorney general’s of-
fice did not have an immedi-
ate comment on the ruling.
The suit alleged I-1433 vi-
olated the state Constitution’s
single-subject requirement
for laws and ballot measures.
The suit claimed the measure
had two distinct subjects —
the minimum wage and paid
sick leave — and cited other
initiatives that the state high
court has overturned for that
reason.
Sparks, however, agreed
with the Attorney General’s
Office that I-1433 had one
subject — labor standards.
Sparks cited a 2015 state
Supreme Court ruling in Filo
Foods v. the City of SeaTac, a
case that he called “very sim-
ilar.”
The high court in that case
upheld a city ballot measure
that raised SeaTac’s mini-
mum wage to $15 an hour for
transportation and hospitality
workers and mandated paid
sick leave. The measure also
required businesses to offer
part-time workers more hours
before hiring new employees
and for workers to be retained
for 90 days after businesses
were sold or merged.
The justices ruled that the
measure had one topic, labor
standards, and there was “ra-
tional unity” before the differ-
ent policies.
In challenging I-1433, the
plaintiffs’ lawyer, ex-state
Supreme Court Justice Phil
Talmadge, argued the SeaTac
case should not guide Sparks.
That case was more about
whether the city measure pre-
empted state and federal laws,
Talmadge stated in a court
filing.
Dissenting judges in the
5-4 SeaTac decision said the
measure infringed on the Port
of Seattle’s authority to man-
age the Seattle-Tacoma Inter-
national Airport, but did not
challenge the majority’s judg-
ment on whether the measure
had more than one subject.
I-1433 won 57 percent of
the vote in November. The
minimum wage rose to $11
on Jan. 1, tying Washington
with New York and Massa-
chusetts for the state with the
highest pay floor. The wage
is scheduled to gradually rise
to $13.50 by 2020. Paid sick
leave becomes mandatory
next year.
USDA’s agreement to kill
Oregon wolves ruled lawful
EPA approves limited use of
herbicide to control GE bentgrass
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Sean Ellis/Capital Press File
A genetically engineered creeping bentgrass plant grows in an
onion field south of Ontario, Ore., on June 14, 2016. EPA has
approved a special local need label for an herbicide that is effective
in controlling the genetically engineered creeping bentgrass that
has taken root in Malheur and Jefferson counties in Oregon after
escaping field trials in 2003.
to its promise to continue help-
ing growers and irrigation dis-
tricts control it.
Les Ito, a farmer and work-
ing group member, said his big-
gest fear when USDA dereg-
ulated the bentgrass was that
Scotts would walk away from
the issue.
“I’m much more comfort-
able with them now than I was
prior,” he said. “They’re show-
ing that they are putting out a
great deal of effort to work with
us.”
Andersen said Scotts led the
effort to get the special need
label, which is valid through
2022, and the company has
designated an employee to
coordinate with the working
group and address concerns as
they arise.
Andersen said no crops
have been contaminated by the
grass to date and he feels good
about Scotts’ commitment to
controlling the bentgrass.
“The relationships we have
built up with Scotts are sound.
I’m going to trust them to do
what they say they are going
to do,” he said. “And yet we
are also going to keep their
feet to the fire and we’re go-
ing to keep asking questions
and we’re going to keep on
them.”
Grass
Expertise.
The USDA’s agreement
to kill wolves on behalf of
Oregon wildlife regulators
isn’t a “major federal action”
warranting environmental re-
view, according to a federal
judge.
Even if USDA’s Wildlife
Services was required to study
the impact of killing wolves
in Oregon, the agency prop-
erly concluded it would have
no significant environmental
impact, U.S. District Judge
Michael McShane ruled.
Several
environmental
groups filed a lawsuit last year
arguing that USDA’s Wildlife
Services insufficiently stud-
ied the effects of its contract
with the Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife to kill
wolves.
The plaintiffs — Cascadia
Wildlands, Center for Bio-
logical Diversity, Wildearth
Guardians, Predator Defense
and Project Coyote — claimed
the agency’s decision violated
the National Environmental
Policy Act, or NEPA.
Wolf management is gov-
erned by state wildlife of-
ficials in Eastern Oregon,
where the predators aren’t
protected under the federal
Endangered Species Act.
In 2009, ODFW direct-
ed USDA Wildlife Services
to kill two wolves, bringing
about a lawsuit from environ-
mental groups.
The resulting settlement
obligated USDA to conduct
an environmental assess-
ment of the agreement, but
Courtesy of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
OR42, the breeding female of the Chesnimnus Pack in northern
Wallowa County, is seen in February. A judge has ruled USDA’s
contract to kill wolves on behalf of Oregon wildlife officials was
lawful.
the analysis found the federal
agency’s involvement didn’t
have significant environmen-
tal consequences.
McShane has now rejected
the plaintiffs’ argument that
USDA should have conducted
a more extensive “environ-
mental impact statement,” or
EIS, due to the controversy
and unknown risks of killing
wolves.
The agency took a “hard
look” at the issue and allow-
ably concluded that “due to
the high reproductive rates
of wolves and the ample prey
and territory in Eastern Or-
egon, wolf populations are
expected to grow despite wolf
removal, regardless of the
source,” the judge said.
Some of the studies sub-
mitted by the environmental
plaintiffs supported the con-
cept that killing wolves elim-
inates “genetic or behavioral
traits” linked to livestock dep-
redation, McShane said.
However, the USDA
wasn’t even mandated by
NEPA to perform this envi-
ronmental analysis, he said.
The decision to kill wolves
ultimately rested with ODFW,
not USDA Wildlife Services,
so the action doesn’t trigger
an environmental review by
the federal agency, the judge
ruled.
“Because Wildlife Ser-
vices provided only marginal
federal funding and lacks the
requisite discretionary con-
trol, Wildlife Services’ actions
in assisting with wolf remov-
al as part of Oregon’s Wolf
Plan does not constitute ‘ma-
jor federal action’ and NEPA
does not apply,” he said.
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ONTARIO, Ore. — The
Environmental
Protection
Agency has approved a spe-
cial local need label for an
herbicide that controls a ge-
netically engineered creep-
ing bentgrass that has taken
root in Malheur and Jefferson
counties in Oregon.
The grass escaped field tri-
als in 2003.
The label is approved for
only those counties.
The bentgrass was genet-
ically engineered by Scotts
Miracle-Gro Co. and Monsan-
to Co. to resist applications of
glyphosate, the active ingre-
dient in Monsanto’s Roundup
weed killer, which makes it
hard to kill.
The special label will al-
low growers, irrigation dis-
tricts and others to spot spray
glufosinate over water during
the growing season.
Glufosinate has proven the
most effective herbicide for
controlling the bentgrass but it
previously could only be used
over waterways such as canals
during a short period at the be-
ginning and end of the growing
season.
“This is a huge tool in our
tool box,” said Dan Anders-
en, co-chairman of a working
group of farmers, irrigation
district representatives and oth-
ers that was developed in Mal-
heur County to coordinate with
Scotts in its continuing efforts
to control or eradicate the grass.
Some farmers worry the
bentgrass could clog irrigation
ditches and affect shipments of
crops to nations that don’t ac-
cept traces of genetically modi-
fied organisms.
The bentgrass has proven
difficult to control near canals
and irrigation ditches because
of the previous lack of an her-
bicide approved for use over
water.
Malheur County farmer
Bruce Corn, a member of the
Owyhee Irrigation District
board of directors, said having
the ability to use glufosinate
over waterways for the entire
growing season will be a big
benefit. “It should really help
efforts to eradicate it,” he said.
“It’s a big deal.”
USDA in January deregu-
lated the bentgrass and some
growers have questioned
Scotts’ commitment to contin-
ue controlling it.
But Andersen and other
members of the Malheur Coun-
ty working group told Capital
Press the company is living up
Judge rules that
USDA’s involvement
not a ‘major
federal action’
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