August 11, 2017
CapitalPress.com
Extended heat wave slowing crop growth
Water is plentiful,
but unrelenting
heat makes it hard
for farmers to keep
their crops wet
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
NAMPA, Idaho — Farm-
ers in the Treasure Valley of
Idaho and Oregon are strug-
gling to keep their plants wa-
tered and wet during a lengthy
heat wave that could threaten
a 142-year-old record.
“Trying to keep enough
water on everything is defi-
nitely a battle,” said Meridian
farmer Richard Durrant.
This July was the second
hottest on record in Boise
in southwestern Idaho and
across the border in Ontario,
Ore., it was even hotter. The
average high temperature for
the month was 99 degrees.
For this region, “That
is just scorching hot,” said
Jay Breidenbach, a National
Weather Service meteorolo-
gist.
The high temperature ex-
ceeded 100 degrees in Ontario
11 times in July and 10 times
in Boise and August hasn’t
brought any relief so far. The
high temperature for the first
five days of August is expect-
ed to exceed 100 degrees in
Ontario.
Thankfully, there’s plenty
of water for irrigators in the
region this year but the un-
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
A hay field is irrigated in Nampa, Idaho, Aug. 3. Farmers in the Treasure Valley of Idaho and Oregon are struggling to keep their crops wet
during a lengthy hot spell that is threatening a 142-year-old record.
relenting heat is making it a
struggle for farmers to keep
their crops wet, said Meridian
farmer Drew Eggers.
“It’s not like we don’t have
enough water but you wish
you could go faster across the
field,” he said.
“We’re trying to keep wa-
ter on them the best we can
but when you have this kind
of heat for this period of time,
it stresses the plants and hurts
yields,” Eggers said.
WSDA fines Davenport seed
company for pesticide release
Maximum fine
imposed after 11
men hospitalized
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
An Eastern Washington
seed company and an em-
ployee have received maxi-
mum penalties from the state
Department of Agriculture for
tossing fumigant tablets into
the garbage, exposing 11 men
to poisonous gas.
Rainier Seeds Inc. of Dav-
enport has agreed to a $7,500
fine, while warehouse man-
ager Eric Orvis agreed to
a $1,100 fine, according to
WSDA records.
Rainier Seeds President
Mike Ingham said in an email
Thursday that the company
accepts WSDA’s findings and
that company officials have
implemented changes to pre-
vent the incident from hap-
pening again.
The fines are due to be paid
Aug. 12.
The 11 men — including
a garbage truck driver, a Lin-
coln County sheriff’s deputy
and seven firefighters — were
kept in hospitals for 24 to 48
hours for observation. At least
one man had breathing prob-
lems that lasted into the fol-
lowing week, according to the
Washington State Department
of Agriculture.
According to WSDA, Or-
vis and another employee put
out 20 to 30 cloth bags, each
containing 20 to 30 Fumitoxin
tablets to fumigate two build-
ings on May 26, 2016.
Orvis opened the buildings
May 31, collected the bags
and put them into a trash bin,
which was emptied by the
garbage truck driver June 3,
according to WSDA. A cou-
ple of hours later, the driver
called 911 to report smoke
coming from the truck.
While waiting for firefight-
ers, the driver climbed on top
of the truck, looked inside and
breathed in smoke.
Later in the day, he re-
ported having a headache and
coughing up greenish phlegm,
according to WSDA.
Escorted by firefighters
and the sheriff’s deputy, the
driver continued on to a trans-
fer station and dumped the
smoking load. The cloth bags
were glowing red and when
sprayed with water popped
and sent up more smoke, ac-
cording to WSDA.
The tablets’ active ingredi-
ent, aluminum phosphide, re-
acts to moisture by releasing
potentially lethal phosphine
gas, according to WSDA.
Orvis did not have an ap-
plicator’s license and was un-
aware he needed one to apply
the fumigant, according to
WSDA.
Rainier Seeds grows and
processes seeds.
For first-time civil penal-
ties, WSDA can levy fines of
up to $1,100 per violation.
For the company, WSDA
multiplied the penalty for
each person exposed until
hitting a cap of $7,500 set by
state law.
Washington AG says state must dump
straight piece-rate pay for farmworkers
Supreme Court
to hear case in
September
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Washington Attorney Gen-
eral Bob Ferguson has urged
the state Supreme Court to
mandate that piece-rate farm-
workers be paid separately for
non-picking tasks.
The state’s minimum wage
law should apply to time spent
on non-picking tasks such as
moving ladders, traveling
between fields or attending
meetings, according to Fer-
guson.
“Farmworkers
do
back-breaking work, and they
deserve to be compensated
for all of the time they spend
working,” Ferguson said in a
written statement.
Ferguson’s office filed a
brief this week supporting
farmworkers in a lawsuit
against the Dovex Fruit Co.
of Wenatchee. The suit seeks
to expand a 2015 decision
in which the Supreme Court
ruled piece-rate farmworkers
must be paid separately for
10-minute rest breaks.
The Supreme Court is
scheduled to hear oral argu-
ments in Carranza v. Dovex
on Sept. 14 in Olympia.
Dovex’s attorneys argue
piece-rates benefit skilled
and industrious workers, but
would be impractical if the
court decides the pay struc-
ture violates Washington’s
minimum wage law.
The attorney general’s
brief, written by Assistant At-
torney General Julian Beattie,
argues that “non-picking time
is a distinct category of hourly
work during which the piece-
worker is not earning money.”
The attorney general’s
office said it filed the brief
because of significant public
interest in the case. Ferguson
also filed a brief two years ago
supporting separate rest-break
pay for farmworkers.
Dovex says it ensures
piece-rate workers are paid at
least minimum wage by track-
ing all hours an employee
spends on the job in a week. If
piece-rate earnings fall short
of minimum wage, the work-
er’s pay is increased, accord-
ing to court records.
The farmworkers’ attor-
ney, Marc Cote, argues that
the practice, known as “work-
week averaging,” allows the
company to use piece-rate pay
to finance work for which the
employee makes no money.
The attorney general of-
fice agrees that end-of-the
week calculations aren’t good
enough and that the court
should require growers to
compensate workers hour by
hour.
The company defends
work-week averaging as a
way to ensure non-hourly
farmworkers are paid at least
minimum wage. Without a
way to reward skilled pickers,
harvests will be less efficient
and harmful to the economy,
according to the company’s
brief.
The company also argues
that workers return year after
year to its orchards, drawn by
the chance to earn far more
than the minimum wage.
Breidenbach said the high
temperature in Boise had
reached at least 90 degrees for
35 straight days as of Aug. 3,
the fourth-longest stretch in
recorded history for the re-
gion.
12 month waiver
The longest such streak
is 50 days, recorded in 1875,
and there is a chance that
record could fall this year,
Breidenbach said.
The modern day record of
44 straight days above 90, set
3 years at 1.9%
7
in 1994, is certainly within
reach, Breidenbach said.
The heat has affected size
and yields for some crops in
the region such as onions,
said Stuart Reitz, an Oregon
State University Extension
cropping systems agent in
Ontario.
“When it stays this hot for
so long, plants like onions
shut down,” he said. “It’s not
doing a lot of the crops any
good.”
Nyssa, Ore., onion farmer
Paul Skeen some onion tops
in the region are starting to lie
down.
“That means they are start-
ing their final process and
they aren’t very big,” he said.
The biggest bulb onions
grown in this region, colos-
sals and super colossals, fetch
a premium price but the heat
wave could result in a short-
age of those sizes this year,
Skeen said.
“As of right now, it appears
that we could be down a little
in our biggest sizes because of
this heat,” he said.
Durrant, who also purchas-
es wheat from other growers,
said the heat is affecting wheat
yields but so far, test weights
haven’t been down as much as
he had feared.
The heat has been hard on
fruit crops in the area such as
apples and peaches, said Wil-
liamson Orchards manager
Michael Williamson.
“The heat really slows fruit
growth down,” Williamson
said.
“It almost puts fruit matu-
rity on pause.”
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