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CapitalPress.com
June 2, 2017
Idaho groundwater users give lawmakers, libraries Swan Falls book
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
BOISE — State lawmak-
ers and public libraries will
receive copies of a former
state Supreme Court justice’s
book on the cornerstone case
in Idaho water law, courtesy of
irrigators who belong to Idaho
Ground Water Appropriators
Inc.
Jim Jones, author of “A
Little Dam Problem,” recent-
ly retired from the state’s high
court and was Idaho’s attorney
general during the early 1980s,
when a water dispute over
control of the Snake River
led to the historic Swan Falls
Agreement.
Water experts say the 1984
agreement balanced Idaho
Power’s need for a predictable
minimum flow at its Swan
Falls power plant with the
need to maintain an adequate
water supply for irrigators and
other users, thereby paving the
way for the state’s continued
Courtesy of Jim Jones
Recently retired Idaho Supreme Court Justice Jim Jones signs
copies of his book, “A Little Dam Problem,” about the historic Swan
Falls Agreement, in March. Jones was the state’s attorney general
during the landmark water battle.
economic development.
“The Swan Falls Agree-
ment does set the framework
for how we manage the Snake
River system,” said Brian Pat-
ton, the Idaho Department of
Water Resources Planning Bu-
reau chief, acknowledging the
book raised his awareness of
“a lot of the history.”
IGWA Executive Director
Lynn Tominaga said the book
provides a behind-the-scenes
account of the agreement to
share with new lawmakers,
and he added, “I don’t know if
there’s a lot of water history in
the public libraries.”
Jones
started
poring
through old records in his file
cabinet to commence work
on the project about two years
ago. Caldwell-based Caxton
Press published his 374-page
book in December.
“The stakes were extremely
high, and we were able to get
a resolution that I think served
everybody pretty well,” Jones
said. “I thought it was history
that ought to be preserved so
we wouldn’t some time down
the road end up fighting this
battle again.”
Jones explained Idaho
Power and the state agreed in
the 1950s that water rights on
all of the company’s Snake
River dams would be sub-
ordinated to agricultural and
other upstream uses. Howev-
er, in response to a suit from
rate payers, Idaho Power filed
a suit claiming it had a senior
water right at Swan Falls. Re-
versing a decision by a lower
court, the Supreme Court ruled
in 1982 that the subordination
agreement applied only to the
Hell’s Canyon complex of
dams, and Idaho Power had a
right at Swan Falls for 8,400
cubic feet per second of water.
The case was sent back to
the district court to determine
if additional factors would af-
fect the company’s right, but
Jones explained, “Everybody
went to the Legislature to see
if they could win there.”
Idaho Power’s bills were
vetoed by Democratic Gov.
John Evans, an ally of Jones
on the issue, and bills support-
ed by Jones and the governor
to subordinate the company’s
water right failed to make it
through the legislature. Jones
said he recruited a pair of can-
didates who won legislative
seats against supporters of
Idaho Power.
Ultimately, however, the
sides agreed no victories
could be won in the Legisla-
ture and began negotiations.
Idaho Power officials declined
to comment for this story.
The agreement promised
Idaho Power minimum flows
of 3,900 cfs at Swan Falls
in the summer and 5,600 cfs
during winter — the differ-
ence between the company’s
specified water right and the
lesser volume it’s granted un-
der the agreement is known
as trust water. The agreement
also called for the Snake Riv-
er Basin Adjudication, which
was only recently completed
and cataloged all of the sys-
tem’s water rights.
“Over the years, a lot of
people had gotten water rights
on paper that were significant-
ly more than what they used,”
Jones said. “If you’re not us-
ing it, it should go to some-
body else.”
Calif. citrus industry to boost Beekeepers build high-tech
assessments to battle psyllid storage to improve hive survival
By TIM HEARDEN
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — A bill
that would enable the citrus
industry to boost spending to
battle the Asian citrus psyllid
and huanglongbing is headed
to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk.
Legislators unanimous-
ly approved the bill by state
Sen. Cathleen Galgiani,
D-Stockton, that allows for
an additional $9.6 million
in grower assessments to be
spent by the California De-
partment of Food and Ag-
riculture for psyllid control
programs.
The legislation follows
a previous bill signed by
Brown that enables the in-
dustry to raise its assessment
from 9 cents per 40-pound
carton. A separate bill was
needed to authorize state
agencies to spend the money.
“That’s all industry money
that’s funded to operate the
program,” said Joel Nelsen,
president of California Cit-
rus Mutual. “It’s operated
through CDFA, so it looks
like general fund (in the state
budget).”
Depending on crop siz-
es, the assessment generates
SHELLEY, Idaho — Bee-
keeper Adam French plans to
build a large, modern facili-
ty in which he’ll store hives,
hoping to curb his winter-kill
losses.
French, with Cox’s Honey,
explained he wants as many
hives as possible to survive
the winter so he can take full
advantage of increasing de-
mand for pollination services
in California’s almond or-
chards. He’s noticed a trend of
regional beekeepers investing
in bee storage lately, rather
than leaving hives exposed to
the elements or turning to the
historic standby among Idaho
apiaries — renting space in
potato cellars.
In the past five years,
French estimates almond pro-
ducers have increased pay-
ments for pollinators by $35
to $50 per hive to the $175-
$210 range. According to
USDA, California’s rapidly
growing almond industry pro-
duced a crop valued at more
than $5 billion in 2015 and
stepped up its acreage by 7
percent to 1.24 million acres
in 2016.
“The incentive is now
greater than it’s ever been to
have those bees alive in the
winter,” French said.
For several years, his fam-
ily has stored up to 10,000
hives in uninsulated “shell”
buildings during the cold
months preceding late Janu-
ary, when the bees are needed
in California. He’s also leased
space in a local potato cellar
for the surplus hives. Though
both options have served him
well, French said his storage
buildings are outdated, and he
can’t always count on finding
an available potato cellar.
Last winter, he was forced
to leave 2,100 colonies out-
doors, and he lost 500 of them.
Next year, French plans to
build a new facility in Nam-
pa with the capacity to hold
15,000 colonies — allowing
him to expand production. His
building will be insulated and
climate-controlled to maintain
a constant temperature, and it
Courtesy Calif. Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Program
California Citrus Mutual president Joel Nelsen talks to growers
during a meeting in Ventura County on the Asian citrus psyllid in
2016. The Legislature has passed a pair of bills that will allow the
citrus industry to raise its grower assessments to tackle the psyllid
and huanglongbing, the deadly tree disease it can carry.
between $15 million and
$18 million a year and is
matched by nearly $11 mil-
lion in federal funds, Nelsen
said. A committee will de-
cide this fall how much the
assessment will be raised, he
said.
The grower-funded Citrus
Pest and Disease Prevention
Program was created through
legislation in 2009, and
growers have since invest-
ed more than $100 million
in the program, according to
Citrus Mutual.
Most of that money has
gone to trapping, treatments
and surveys in urban areas to
stop the spread of the psyllid
and huanglongbing, the dead-
ly citrus tree disease that the
psyllid can carry.
As of late April, huan-
glongbing had killed 54 res-
idential trees in Southern
California, but the disease
has not yet migrated to the
Golden State’s commercial
groves.
Courtesy of Israel Bravo
A high-tech bee storage facility built in Twin Falls, Idaho, last fall
kept winter kill of hives to just 6 percent, leading to plans for a
second area storage building. Bee storages protect hives during
the winter until they’re moved to California for pollination, and are
becoming increasingly popular.
will be modeled after a new
facility built for Noyes Apiary
in New Plymouth, Idaho.
Last fall, Shaun Steele, with
Steele Apiaries in Eagle, Ida-
ho, invested nearly $600,000
to build a 15,000-square-foot
bee storage building, frustrat-
ed by rising lease rates for po-
tato storages. In his first win-
ter in the new building, Steele
stored 3,500 of his colonies
and leased space for 9,800
colonies to local beekeepers.
Last fall in Twin Falls, Is-
rael Bravo and the local pota-
to cellar manufacturer, Agri-
Stor, built a cutting-edge bee
storage facility with technol-
ogy to regulate humidity, car-
bon dioxide and temperature
using a smart phone.
In its first winter, Bravo
said the “smart storage” lost
just 6 percent of the 17,000
colonies held for a Texas bee-
keeper.
Bravo will be breaking
ground soon on another Twin
Falls storage facility, with
plans to rent space to area
beekeepers. He said he and
Agri-Stor may build a third
building next year. They also
intend to offer equipment
comprising the “brains” of
their facilities to small, re-
gional beekeepers, enabling
them to retrofit existing build-
ings to have controlled tem-
peratures, carbon dioxide and
humidity.
Bravo finds the high hu-
midity, dusty air and pesticide
traces in potato storages are
often less than ideal for bees.
NAFTA renegotiation prompts farm tariff investigation
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
22-4/#18
U.S. trade experts will
study the economic effects of
eliminating tariffs on Canadi-
an and Mexican farm goods
in anticipated negotiations
over the North American Free
Trade Agreement.
The U.S. International
Trade Commission will in-
vestigate a list of nearly 400
“import sensitive agricultur-
al products” to see if any are
still subject to tariffs under
NAFTA, as well as the impact
of removing those tariffs on
the U.S. economy.
Many of the items on the
list are dairy products, fruit and
vegetable crops, oils, sweeten-
ers and processed ingredients,
but it’s unclear how many are
still subject to tariffs.
The investigation was
launched due to a request by
U.S. Trade Representative
Robert Lighthizer, who asked
USITC to keep information
related to “probable econom-
ic effects” confidential for 10
years due to national security
concerns.
A public hearing on the
matter is scheduled for June
20 in Washington, D.C., and
the USITC plans to submit its
report to Lighthizer on Aug.
16.
It’s likely the Trump ad-
ministration may offer to elim-
inate certain tariffs to persuade
Canada to get rid of programs
aimed at curbing overproduc-
tion in its dairy and poultry
industries, said Steve Suppan,
senior policy analyst at the
Institute for Agriculture &
Trade Policy.
The U.S. is also opposed
to Canada’s higher quality
standards for grain, which al-
low less non-grain material in
bulk shipments and impose a
barrier to U.S. grain exports,
Suppan said.
“I’ve got to believe it’s
a preparation for a trade-off
proposal,” he said.
The U.S. generally op-
poses “supply management”
programs aimed at controlling
agricultural production but
supports them in other con-
texts, such as for Chinese
steel and aluminum produc-
tion, Suppan said.
It’s “striking” that Ligh-
thizer wants to keep certain
information confidential for
10 years, he said.
The U.S. likely expects to
use the report to support its
arguments for renegotiating
NAFTA, but keeping infor-
mation about methodology
secret would prevent indepen-
dent analysis of the agency’s
econometric studies, Suppan
said.