August 18, 2017
CapitalPress.com
California
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Congressman questions plans
to lower Lake Oroville for project
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
OROVILLE, Calif. — A
California congressman is
questioning the degree to
which state officials want to
draw down Lake Oroville this
winter, but the officials say it’s
necessary to accommodate
continued work on the dam.
Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Ca-
lif., whose district includes the
Oroville area, argues it would
be unnecessary for officials to
drain the lake to as low as 640
feet of elevation by Dec. 31, as
one Department of Water Re-
sources scenario outlines.
Draining the lake that low
would only leave 850,000
acre-feet in the lake with only
about 100 days left in the win-
ter to fill it, he contends. The
spillway gates aren’t touched
by water until it reaches 813
feet, which is 2.35 million
acre-feet of water, he said.
“Construction won’t be
affected by lake water if it’s
a dry winter, and if it’s wet,
they won’t be doing much
anyway,” said LaMalfa, a rice
farmer from nearby Richvale,
Calif.
DWR spokeswoman Erin
Mellon said the plan to lower
the lake’s surface is based on
federal “guidance” and weighs
Tim Hearden/Capital Press
U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., stands on a levee next to the
Feather River in Yuba City, Calif., downstream from Lake Oroville.
LaMalfa questions the state’s plan to draw down Lake Oroville this
fall and winter to accommodate work on the dam.
the need for adequate storage
space if a big storm comes ear-
ly with other uses of the lake.
“If weather hits there is
enough space” for rain and
runoff without interfering with
construction, Mellon said.
State water officials want to
bring the lake’s surface down
to 700 feet elevation to enable
crews to work past Nov. 1,
which was their self-imposed
deadline for getting the dam’s
spillways ready for next win-
ter’s rain and runoff. Officials
insist the project hasn’t fallen
behind schedule.
With guidance from the
9
Federal Energy Regulato-
ry Commission, the agency
has established a projection
schedule to draw down the
reservoir’s elevation to enable
late-season work and to pro-
vide some wiggle room if it
starts raining.
The schedule calls for the
lake to be taken down to 670
feet on Nov. 1 if inflows are
low and 700 feet if they are
high. By the end of December,
the plan calls for a surface ele-
vation of 640 feet to 680 feet.
Among the anticipated
winter projects is construction
of an underground cutoff wall
for the emergency spillway,
which has a targeted comple-
tion date of late December or
early January.
While it’s “highly unlike-
ly” the emergency spillway
will be needed by November,
lowering the surface “will al-
low us to keep a safe level” of
the lake, said Jeanne Kuttel, a
DWR chief engineer.
LaMalfa said that the lake’s
lowest elevation last year was
725 feet, in December. If it’s
dropped to 640 feet this win-
ter, that would be 600,000 few-
er acre-feet stored in the lake,
he said.
Asked if it’s possible the
DWR could stop at 700 feet
rather than draining the lake
further, Mellon said it “all de-
pends on downstream require-
ments. We are going to meet
all our requirements this year.”
Their remarks came during
an Aug. 9 update on the $275.4
million effort to repair and re-
build the nation’s tallest dam,
whose spillways nearly failed
in February.
Lake Oroville is the main
reservoir for the State Water
Project, which irrigates more
than 600,000 acres of Central
Valley farmland and serves 20
million urban customers in the
San Francisco Bay area and
Southern California.
New trial ordered in city’s
water contamination lawsuit
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
A new trial has been or-
dered in a lawsuit that seeks
to hold a fertilizer company
financially liable for contam-
inating a California city’s
groundwater.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals has ruled the case
should be retried because a
federal judge’s decision to
exclude certain expert testi-
mony was prejudicial to the
plaintiff, the City of Pomona.
Pomona’s problems came
to light in 2007, after Cali-
fornia established “maximum
contaminant levels” in water
for the chemical perchlorate,
which disrupts hormone pro-
duction.
Perchlorate levels were
found to be excessive in 14 of
the city’s groundwater wells,
which Pomona blamed on ap-
plications of sodium nitrate
fertilizer imported from Chile
by the SQM North America
Corp. from the 1920s until the
1960s.
The city filed a complaint
in 2010 seeking $32 million
from SQM to compensate for
investigative and remediation
costs. Last year, SQM report-
ed a profit of $278 million on
total revenues of $1.9 billion.
The lawsuit claimed that
chemical signatures from
perchlorate in Pomona’s
wells matched the perchlo-
rate found in Chile’s Atacama
Desert, where SQM’s fertiliz-
er was mined.
This conclusion was based
on studies by Neil Sturchio,
who heads the University of
Delaware’s geological scienc-
es department.
Before the case original-
ly came up for trial in 2012,
though, U.S. District Judge
Gary Klausner excluded Stur-
chio’s testimony for being
based on limited data and not
being substantiated by other
laboratories.
The 9th Circuit reversed
that decision in 2014, order-
ing Sturchio’s testimony to be
included in the trial.
However, when the law-
suit ultimately ended up be-
fore a jury, the judge did not
permit Sturchio to update his
testimony with information
gathered since the case was
originally filed.
After the jury ruled against
Pomona in 2015, the city
challenged the judge’s deci-
sion before the 9th Circuit.
The appeals court has
now again overturned Klaus-
ner’s decision to exclude
Sturchio’s testimony, deem-
ing it “illogical” because the
new findings refuted SQM’s
attacks on the scientist’s
conclusions.
Speakers lined up for Glenn County’s second growers’ conference
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
ORLAND, Calif. — A lo-
cal fair is lining up speakers
and taking registration for a
revamped November confer-
ence that will feature remarks
by state Food and Agriculture
Secretary Karen Ross.
North State Innovations
in Agriculture 2017 will be
Nov. 7-8 at the Glenn County
Fairgrounds and include talks
on cutting-edge technologies,
product demonstrations and a
trade show.
The conference has tak-
en on a new format after last
fall’s inaugural Precision
Ag Expo and Farm Business
Forum offered two tracks of
speakers and presentations
over two days.
This year’s event will have
a single schedule and cover
a wider array of innovations
“from the seed until it reach-
es the consumer,” fairgrounds
manager Ryann Newman
said.
“This is kind of a make-
or-break year for us, so we’re
trying really hard” to generate
interest, she said. “We’ve got
4,000 mailers going out.”
Newman started the con-
ference last year to engage
growers in the mid-Sacra-
mento Valley region, some of
whom told her they’d like to
learn more about all the new
ag-related technology in Cal-
ifornia.
Capping off the day-and-a-
half event will be comments
by Ross, who will discuss in-
novation in ag, Newman said.
Other speakers will in-
clude David Shabazian, pro-
gram manager for the Sac-
ramento-based Rural-Urban
Connections Strategy; Pam
Marrone, chief executive of-
ficer of the Davis-based Mar-
rone Bio Innovations; and Bill
Quincy FFA
Learns By Doing
And Serving
By Bethany Safe
Quincy FFA Chapter Reporter
“Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live,
Living to Serve.” Since 1928, this phrase has been
the motto for all FFA chapters throughout the
country.
The Quincy, Wash., FFA chapter is no exception!
Founded in 1954, the Quincy chapter from District
9 has had an active role in the local community.
From putting on baby animal fairs, to participating
in CDEs (Career Development Events), and
cleaning up portions of the highway, the Quincy
FFA chapter lives to fulfill this motto.
In the classroom, FFA members are taught skills
such as welding, taking apart and rebuilding small
engines and learning about food safety and quality.
These skills can later be used in CDEs such as Ag
Mechanics and Food Science. This information is
good to know and could even help in future jobs.
In the Quincy FFA chapter, many of the
members show animals at local events such as the
Adams and Grant County Fair. By learning how
to take care of and work with animals, students’
work ethics begin to grow and skills like patience,
leadership and teamwork are practiced and
learned. These essential skills are needed in any
and every aspect of life.
During the fall, the Quincy FFA chapter cleans
up the highway, which includes taking trash and
The Quincy, Wash., FFA sponsors community fairs, such as the Baby
Animal Fair, at which children can view farm animals upclose. The fairs are
among the many community-related activities the organization sponsors.
litter off the sides of the road and disposing of it
properly. This service project helps establish a
sense of respect and responsibility for the
members’ community along with making the roads
look nice and removing sometimes harmful debris
from the highway.
The Quincy FFA chapter is very involved in its
community. On the second Saturday of September,
the city of Quincy puts on an event known as
Farmer Consumer Awareness Day, or FCAD.
During FCAD, Quincy FFA puts on a Baby
Animal Fair, where little kids can come and look
at agriculture-related animals, such as pigs, cows,
horses, and rabbits. During the spring, another fair
is put on by the club. The kids come to look at
animals, tractors and the even get to plant flowers
to take home.
The Quincy chapter is a firm believer in the
FFA motto and shows that they can: Do, by
participating in CDEs, Learn, by retaining
information learned in school and using it in
possible careers, Live, by helping others and the
environment, and Serve, by being involved in their
community.
Reiman, West Coast represen-
tative for Gladstone Farms in
Camarillo, Calif.
The agenda also includes
panel discussions involving
technology experts and North-
ern California producers.
Registration is $74.99 for
the full conference or $49.99
for a single day. Visit www.
glenncountyfair.org.