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4 CapitalPress.com July 7, 2017 Ex-EPA official linked to Analyst sees positive signs ‘What’s Upstream’ to for the U.S. sugar market stay in Puget Sound post By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press McLerran pleased; farm group not By DON JENKINS Capital Press OLYMPIA — Former Environmental Protection Agency regional director Dennis McLerran will stay on the Puget Sound Partner- ship Leadership Council, a position that had appeared in jeopardy because of his link to the What’s Upstream cam- paign to restrict farming in Washington. The Senate environment committee on June 29 ad- journed what’s likely to be its final meeting this session without forwarding McLer- ran’s appointment to the Senate floor, where he could have been ousted if a majori- ty opposed his confirmation. McLerran can serve indef- initely in the unpaid post if the Senate doesn’t act. “I’m pleased I’ll be able to serve on the leadership,” McLerran said Monday. “I clearly have a passion for the recovery of the Puget Sound and have a lot of experience to bring to that.” McLerran was Region 10 director as the Swinomish In- dian tribe between 2011 and 2016 spent nearly $500,000 from an EPA grant on What’s Upstream, a media campaign that portrayed farmers as un- regulated polluters. His appointment by Gov. Jay Inslee to advise the agen- cy that oversees Puget Sound restoration was opposed by Save Family Farming, which was formed to respond to claims by What’s Upstream. “We’re disappointed with the governor’s actions certainly and disappointed it didn’t come to a Senate vote,” the group’s director, Gerald Baron, said. “This appointment has put us on notice to be watching care- fully the actions of the Puget Sound Partnership.” McLerran was grilled about What’s Upstream June 14 by the Senate environment committee in a confirmation hearing. McLerran said the campaign was too harsh to- Courtesy Environmental Protection Agency Former Environmental Protection Agency Northwest Adminis- trator Dennis McLerran stands on a beach in Seattle during a 2015 Earth Day cleanup. A state Senate committee has decided to allow him to stay on the Puget Sound Partnership Leadership Council. ward farmers, but declined to outright condemn it. The hearing was unusual. None of the other six mem- bers on the leadership coun- cil, appointed over the past several years, have been sub- jected to a hearing. McLerran was summoned soon after he was appointed. The chairman of the envi- ronment committee, Ferndale Republican Doug Ericksen, denied that he singled out McLerran because of What’s Upstream. Ericksen said that he didn’t realize the other members of the council had not been called for a confir- mation hearing. He deflected questions about why the committee didn’t forward McLerran’s appointment for a vote by the full Senate and didn’t rule out taking up the issue again. “There’s no rush to it,” he said. The Republican-led com- mittee lacked one vote to force a floor vote, according to a person familiar with the matter. McLerran was appoint- ed to fill the final year of an unexpired four-year term. McLerran said he would be willing to be on the council beyond the one year. “If the governor asked me to serve again, I certain- ly would,” he said. “I’d very much like to have a positive and collaborative relation- ship with agriculture.” What’s Upstream culmi- nated in 2016 with a media blitz to influence state legis- lators to impose mandatory buffers between fields and waterways. The effort col- lapsed that spring when some federal lawmakers took note and denounced the campaign as a malicious attack on ag- riculture. According to EPA re- cords, McLerran met tribal officials in 2015, assuring them he didn’t see the cam- paign as a legal issue but also urging them to tone down the campaign’s attacks on agri- culture. Subsequently, the tribe, in partnership with several environmental groups, inten- sified its criticism of farming through a revamped website and letter-writing campaign to state lawmakers, “I think I did everything possible to change the tone and the nature of the cam- paign,” McLerran said. The EPA’s inspector gen- eral found that What’s Up- stream was a proper use of an EPA grant, dismissing alle- gations by some federal law- makers that it was illegal lob- bying funded by taxpayers. NAMPA, Idaho — U.S. sugar beet growers are poised for a profitable year despite expectations of a large global sugar crop, market analysts with Rabobank predict. A new report from the Ra- bobank Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory Group estimates the world’s sugar growers will overproduce by 2.7 million metric tons in the current crop year. But U.S. sugar prices should avoid downward pres- sure from the expected inter- national glut, thanks largely to a recently renegotiated agree- ment addressing the dumping of subsidized Mexican sugar into the country, explained RaboResearch sugar analyst Stephen Nicholson. Nicholson said the outlook is for increased production in major sugar-producing coun- tries — including Brazil, India and Thailand. Domestically, however, USDA estimates U.S. sugar farmers cut their beet acres by 2.7 percent and their cane acres by 3.4 percent. Adverse growing conditions in U.S. sugar production areas should also reduce sugar output, Nicholson said. He said the weather has been especially dry in Minnesota, Montana and the Dakotas, and a turn to humid weather could raise dis- ease pressure. Duane Grant, chairman of John O’Connell/Capital Press Sugar beets grow in American Falls, Idaho. Experts say beet growers in the U.S. should enjoy stable prices, thanks to a recently renegotiated agreement with Mexico, despite an expected global glut of sugar. the board with Idaho-based Snake River Sugar Coopera- tive, said his company’s grow- ers planted late in Vale, Ore., Weiser, Idaho, and pockets of the Magic Valley, due to heavy snowpack and storms. “Probably 10 to 15 percent of the company’s fields were planted in challenging condi- tions,” Grant said, adding de- layed planting also affects how plants take up nitrogen and produce sugar content. “We’re probably not looking at record yields, but I think it will be a decent crop.” Pest pressure could also pose challenges for growers in Idaho’s Treasure Valley, where Amalgamated crop consultant Kevin Fouldger has reported finding loopers, armyworms and false celery leaftier. Nicholson said there’s also been a recent narrowing of a price gap that developed in the U.S. between sugar cane and sugar beets, which some buy- ers have avoided because most of the crop comes from seed produced with biotechnology. The five-year average end- ing with the 2016 crop year shows a 0.3 percent reduction in beet sugar deliveries for human use and a 3.1 percent increase in cane deliveries, Nicholson said. More recently, he said beet sugar got cheap enough that buyers purchased most of the remaining 2016 crop inventories from beet pro- cessing companies. Further- more, prices have risen about 1.5 cents since the early June updated agreement with Mex- ico, now at 32 cents per pound for refined beet sugar delivered to the Midwest. Yakima reservoirs stay fuller longer By DAN WHEAT Capital Press YAKIMA, Wash. — Five mountain reservoirs that pro- vide summer irrigation to hun- dreds of thousands of acres of Yakima Basin farmland fell two days short of remaining full into July. They’ve only reached July in 11 of the last 37 years, says Chris Lynch, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation hydrologist in Yakima. It’s called the “storage con- trol date,” when reservoir out- flows are greater than inflows to the point that drawdowns start. Most years, that happens in June, seldom in May or July and only a very few times has it been in April or August, Lynch said. Dates are later in years of water abundance from good snowpack and later mountain runoff. Dates are earlier in drought years. The most recent late dates were July 23, 2011, and July 15, 2012, Lynch said. Being on the later side of normal, this year’s storage control date of June 29, from a good winter snowpack and cool, wet spring increases the chance of more water carry- over in storage heading into winter. However, Lynch said, it looks like hot weather is in the forecast for the next couple of weeks. Highs will be in the 90s and 100s in the lowlands of the Yakima Basin and that will work against a large carryover. “Hopefully, the hot streak won’t last a whole month. That would cut into our carryover, but we have enough water in the reservoirs to cover that and even two months of unbroken heat,” he said. The five reservoirs — Keechelus, Kachess, Cle Elum, Bumping and Rim- rock — have a total capacity of 1,065,400 acre-feet. As of the Fourth of July, they were at 1,042,232 acre-feet, which was 98 percent of capacity. The irrigation districts, providing water from the res- ervoirs to 464,000 acres, most of it farmland, have been using 104 percent of normal amounts daily for about a week, but av- eraged 95 percent of normal in June and 79 percent of normal since March 1, Lynch said. Two years ago in the last drought, the storage control date was April 15, tying the same date of 1981. But the early record was April 1 in the drought year of 1977, he said. The only other April date was in 1986. The record late date was Aug. 17, 1972, a wet year. August dates also occurred in 1933, 1955, 1971 and 1974. Spud growers encouraged by acreage reports By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press EAGLE, Idaho — Idaho potato growers are optimistic that their down market may turn around in 2017 following the recent release of estimates showing a significant decrease in the state’s planted spud acreage. Idaho growers planted 310,000 acres of spuds this season, down from 325,000 acres last season, according to a report released June 30 by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Another recent estimate released by United Potato Growers of Idaho, compiled by personnel who visited each LEGAL SECRETARY OF STATE NOTICE OF PROPOSED RULEMAKING Oregon Department of Agriculture, Market Access & Certification, Administrative Rules Chapter #603, Sue Gooch, Rules Coordinator, tel:(503) 986-4583 . Adopt: OAR 603-048-2300, 2305, 2310, 2315, 2320, 2330, 2340, 2350, 2380, 2450, 2480; Amend: 603-048-0010, 0500, 0650, 0800, 1000; Repeal: OAR 603-048-2300, 2305, 2310, 2315,2320, 2330, 2340, 2350, 2380, 2450, 2480, 0010, 0500, 0650, 0800, 1000. RULE SUMMARY: These rules make permanent the temporary rules effective March 15, 2017, set to expire on September 10, 2017, that set out requirements for testing of industrial hemp products and commodities intended for human consumption (consumables) mandated by Oregon Laws 2016, Chapter 71, Section 9. The proposed rules explain and provide procedures for registered handlers to obtain sampling and testing prior to sale to ensure consumables comply with requirements adopted by Oregon Health Authority (OHA) under ORS 475B.555 (1)(a) and (b) and (2) for testing marijuana items. The rulemaking also allows the department to recognize OHA’s most recent administrative rule amendments effective May 31, 2017. Adopting these rules will implement required testing by establishing: Standards for testing hemp consumables as their marijuana item equivalencies; minimum requirement for laboratories authorized to conduct sampling and testing; reporting and documentation requirements for handlers and laboratories; requirements for ordering tests; testing standards for usable hemp; hemp concentrates or extracts, and cannabinoid products; procedures for determining batch sizes and for sampling industrial hemp commodities and products; requirements for labeling, storing and securing consumables prior to successful testing; procedures for establishing a control study; handler options to request research or quality control testing of consumables; protocols for consumables that fail testing, including destruction; violations of testing requirements; and additional testing that may be required by the department. 27-2/#18 Hearing date: July 25, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. Location: Oregon Department of Agriculture, Hearings Room, 635 Capitol St NE, Salem, OR. Last day for public comment is August 11, 2017. 27-2/#4 potato field for better accu- racy, placed the state’s crop at 307,000 acres, down from 322,000 acres. The NASS report also shows a decrease in total U.S. fall acres, estimated at about 908,000 acres, down from about 921,000 acres. NASS estimated the No. 2 potato state, Washington, kept its po- tato acreage flat, at 170,000 acres. Oregon’s 38,000 plant- ed acres were down 1,000 acres from last season, and California planted 1,400 fewer acres, with a total fall crop of 6,500 acres. Though Idaho’s fresh ship- ments have been well ahead of the previous year’s pace, grower returns from a bumper 2016 crop have remained poor. “I was there with all of the potato guys when they got the news from Idaho. Every- body was pretty excited,” said Idaho Potato Commissioner Randy Hardy, an Oakley fresh grower who attended the re- cent National Potato Council summer meeting in Denver. Hardy, who heads Sun Val- ley Potatoes Inc., said the 18 fresh growers who supply his company cut their potato acres by about 6 percent. In his area, he’s seen a shift toward more dry beans and alfalfa. “Anything down was prob- ably good news, but I don’t think anybody thought it would be down this far,” Har- dy said.
