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CapitalPress.com
August 4, 2017
Washington
Conservation commission floats clean-water policy
Environmental
groups attack plan
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The Washington State
Conservation Commission is
floating a plan to revise the
state’s primary clean-water
policy by assigning conserva-
tion districts an official role in
working with farmers to keep
water clean.
Environmental groups are
attacking the idea, accusing
the commission of trying to
undercut the Department of
Ecology. Conservation com-
mission policy director Ron
Shultz said the goal would
be to help farmers, not dilute
Ecology’s authority.
“Over the years, we’ve
felt as though incentives need
to be considered on the same
plain as regulatory tools,”
Shultz said. “The proposal
would in no way undermine
or reduce the focus on regu-
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
The Washington State Conservation Commission tours farmland
Jan. 18 in Snohomish County. The commission is floating a plan
to give conservation districts a more prominent and official role in
carrying out the state’s primary clean-water law.
latory efforts.”
The commission has direct-
ed its staff members to talk to
interest groups, tribes and law-
makers about amending the
Washington Water Pollution
Control Act to stress “incen-
tive programs.” The conser-
vation commission would be
the lead agency in overseeing
those programs, which would
encourage commission-craft-
ed farming practices.
Ecology, at the direction of
the Environmental Protection
Agency, already is working
on compiling voluntary guide-
lines for farmers and ranchers
Drones, robots highlight WSU tech day
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
PROSSER, Wash. —
Drones increasingly collect
more data and can do more
things in vineyards, orchards
and other agricultural set-
tings, says Lav Khot, research
professor at the Washington
State University Center for
Precision and Automated Ag-
riculture Systems in Prosser.
Drones can carry more
sensors that can collect more
data that can be more easily
analyzed by advancements in
cloud-based analytics, Khot
said hours before the center’s
technology day, July 31.
More than 150 growers,
crop service providers and
consultants were scheduled to
attend the event to learn the
latest about center research
and provide their feedback.
to follow. The conservation
commission says the two sets
of practices would be comple-
mentary.
Ecology’s representative
on the conservation commis-
sion, Kelly Susewind, op-
posed pursing the policy and
said Thursday that he thought
the commission’s proposal
was too vague and that he
couldn’t support anything that
might lead to a weaker state
law.
Ecology already offers
technical assistance to farm-
ers before issuing fines as
a last resort, and two sets of
government
water-protec-
tion practices might confuse
landowners, said Susewind,
Ecology’s point man on water
quality.
“It would be totally unfair
to producers,” he said. “I want-
ed some assurances on how we
avoid that.”
The Washington Farm Bu-
reau has not taken a position
on the conservation commis-
sion proposal. The bureau’s
Lav Khot, Washington State University research professor, oper-
ates a drone over a vineyard.
Drones have more abilities
in crop water stress detection
for irrigation management,
chemical applications and
disease detection, Khot said.
Bird hazing is another use and
they are being used in tree
fruit, vineyards, mint and po-
tatoes, he said.
“Previously, no one was
talking about who would
handle the data. There was
not much clarity. Not many
options. Now there’s several
options on that,” he said.
While drone usage has been
commercialized in the last cou-
ple of years, robotics remains in
the research and development
stage, Khot said.
DID YOU KNOW?
vation commission has the
expertise to develop incen-
tive-based practices for farm-
ers, avoiding, for example,
mandatory and uniform-sized
buffers. “We think we have a
good mix of people at the ta-
ble,” he said.
In a separate but inter-
twined proposal, the conserva-
tion commission will pitch the
idea of taxing every parcel in
the state $20, raising up to $60
million a year for conserva-
tion and other unspecified land
projects.
“Farmers could engage
with conservation districts to
address their concerns and
conservation districts would
have the resources to help
them,” Shultz said.
A proposal in 2015 to en-
act a new parcel fee for water
projects received a rocky re-
ception in the Legislature and
sank.
The conservation commis-
sion argues its budget has been
flat, while the need for conser-
vation has been rising.
WSU scoops up top award with
Huckleberry Ripple ice cream
Big Scoop trophy
highlights dairy,
food science
students
Courtesy Washington State University
associate director for govern-
ment relations, Evan Sheffels,
said the organizaton, however,
supports incentives for farm-
ers.
“That, on its face, sounds
like a good idea,” Sheffels
said. “We value our conserva-
tion district folks. They have
the expertise and a level of
trust with producers from de-
cades of working together.”
Nine environmental groups
signed a letter urging the
commission to drop the idea
of developing its own set of
best-management practices.
The groups predicted the
conservation commission’s
guidelines “would ignore the
best available science in order
to accommodate agricultural
interests and therefore would
be insufficient to protect Wash-
ington’s streams and rivers.”
Puget Soundkeeper Alli-
ance Executive Director Chris
Wilke sent a separate letter
airing many of the same com-
plaints.
Shultz said the conser-
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Washington State Uni-
versity’s Huckleberry Ripple
flavor has won a national ice
cream contest for the third
year in a row.
The ice cream flavor, cre-
ated by students, won the Big
Scoop award at the American
Society of Animal Sciences
Ice Cream Competition July 9
in Baltimore, Md.
“We see people enjoy our
ice cream on a daily basis, but
it’s good to send it out in the
world and see it compete with
other universities,” said Dave
Soler, assistant creamery
manager at WSU. “Coming
out on top is always a good
feeling.”
WSU competed against
North Carolina State Uni-
versity and the University
of Connecticut. The animal
sciences department received
$1,000 in prize money, to be
spent on student activities,
and will host the traveling tro-
phy through 2018.
It’s the second time Huck-
leberry Ripple won, Soler
said. Last year, WSU’s Apple
Cup Crisp flavor took home
the big prize.
According to WSU, the
creamery uses 1,700 gallons
of milk per day from Knott
Dairy Farm, a 150-cow farm
near Pullman, Wash., which
includes a small herd owned
and managed by the Cooper-
ative University Dairy Stu-
dents, or CUDS.
A student production crew
maintains quality standards at
the creamery.
Kris Johnson, interim
chairwoman of WSU’s De-
partment of Animal Sciences,
said the award highlights the
students at the dairy and the
food science department who
make the ice cream and creat-
ed the winning flavor.
“It’s a really nice illustra-
tion of how two really great
undergraduate programs can
result in something we’re all
really proud of,” she said.
A commercial supplier
provides the huckleberries for
Huckleberry Ripple.
Soler credits the relation-
ship with the dairy, CUDS
and the student production
crew at the creamery with the
victory.
“We make cheese and ice
cream, but our goal is also to
produce high-quality, excep-
tional students who are going
to enter the industry and make
big impacts,” he said.
Several CUDS members
also work in the creamery.
“They’re on the dairy get-
ting the cow side of things
and then they’re in the
creamery getting the pro-
duction and processing side
of things, too,” Soler said.
“They’re leaving here with
just a fantastic education.
Our goal is to produce out-
standing students who are
going to go out, be successful
and impact agriculture in a
positive way.”
Johnson plans to compete
for the trophy again next year.
The next meeting will be in
Canada, she said, so “I’ve got
to figure out how to get Huck-
leberry Ripple across the bor-
der.”
Undergraduate students
create a summer flavor every
year. This year’s is lemon
chiffon with raspberry ripple,
Johnson said.
Lack of state capital budget delays water projects
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31-3/#6
YAKIMA, Wash. — The
absence of a state capital bud-
get will delay millions of dol-
lars worth of water projects
throughout Central Wash-
ington, including the Odessa
Subarea, the Yakima Basin
Integrated Plan and irrigation
canal maintenance, state and
irrigation district officials say.
More than $640 million
was requested in the capital
budget for state Department
of Ecology projects planned
for the 2017-2019 bienni-
um. The projects that will not
proceed ranged from grants to
local solid waste and landfill
programs to major construc-
tion projects, said Joye Red-
field-Wilder, DOE spokes-
woman in Yakima.
Department Director Maia
Bellon “worked tirelessly at
the direction of the governor”
to help the Legislature resolve
issues surrounding the Su-
preme Court’s Hirst decision
on rural water wells in an ef-
fort to get a capital budget
passed, but it didn’t happen,
Redfield-Wilder said.
DOE requested $15.5 mil-
lion for canal widening and
siphons to provide Columbia
River water through the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation’s Co-
lumbia Basin Project to farm-
ers, who now must continue to
rely on the declining Odessa
Subarea aquifer.
“Irrigation districts have
done their own contracting to
save money. It’s been a great
project for collaboration. It will
be a setback,” Redfield-Wilder
said of the Odessa work.
“Groups have been part-
nering for 12 to 13 years to get
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
The Columbia River flows
past a cherry orchard south of
Wenatchee, Wash. The river is
the lifeblood of irrigated farming
in Central Washington.
these projects underway. The
aquifer is declining rapidly
and having irrigators pump off
of it potentially impacts small
towns,” she said.
The Yakima Basin Integrat-
ed Plan projects that will be
impacted include:
• $5.4 million requested to
complete a second environ-
mental impact statement to
consider a temporary floating
drought relief pumping plant
on Kachess Lake and explo-
ration of new Wymer area and
Bumping Lake water storage.
• $3 million for shoreline
stabilization and permitting
related to raising Cle Elum
Lake three feet for more
storage and a potential pipe-
line between Kecheelus and
Kachees lakes.
• $10.5 million for contin-
ued fish passage construction at
Cle Elum Dam and exploration
of fish passage at Clear Lake
Dam.
• $5.4 million for habitat
restoration projects.
• $5.1 million for Yakima
Basin water conservation proj-
ects.
The Legislature could con-
vene a special session to pass
a capital budget if Hirst issues
are resolved but that appears
unlikely. Under the Hirst deci-
sion, anyone in a rural area who
wanted to build a house would
have to prove the new residen-
tial water well would not im-
pact stream volumes or senior
water right holders. Senate Re-
publicans withheld support for
the capital construction budget
until the issue is resolved.
If no capital budget is
passed until next April a whole
construction season will be
lost along with windows to
use matching funds, Red-
field-Wilder said.
Drought years may be in-
creasing, snowpack reliability
maybe decreasing and momen-
tum for creative solutions for
fish passage and irrigation is
threatened, she said.
Scott Revell, manager of the
Roza Irrigation District in Sun-
nyside, said the district is con-
cerned about delays and hopes
the Legislature still approves a
capital budget this year.
The $5.1 million in water
conservation includes seal-
ing cracks in irrigation canals
across the basin, Revell said.
“We have a canal sealing
we’d like to do this fall of about
1.5 miles and the cost is about
$300,000 per mile. Portions of
concrete canals are in worse
shape than others,” he said.
Cle Elum Lake gates have
already been raised three feet
and the shoreline stabilization
work is needed so the pool
raise can help with migrating
sockeye salmon smolt and ir-
rigation, he said.