September 8, 2017
CapitalPress.com
3
EPA scrambled to contain
What’s Upstream fallout
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Washington wildlife managers have killed another member of the
Sherman wolfpack, which has been responsible for five attacks on
livestock since June 12.
WDFW shoots Sherman
wolfpack member
Washington wildlife man-
agers reported killing a wolf
Sept. 1 in Ferry County, leav-
ing one known member in the
Sherman pack.
The dead wolf and the sur-
viving wolf, both adults, were
likely responsible for five at-
tacks on cattle between June
12 and Aug. 28, Department of
Fish and Wildlife wolf policy
coordinator Donny Martorello
said.
The most recent depreda-
tion, in the Colville National
Forest, was confirmed three
days after WDFW determined
the pack had apparently dwin-
dled to two wolves from five at
the beginning of the year.
“Of the five depredations,
we don’t have evidence of
more than two wolves,” Mar-
torello said.
WDFW said the pack ap-
parently produced no pups.
One wolf was hit and killed by
a vehicle, while the other two
are no longer with the pack for
unknown reasons, according
to WDFW.
The department said it like-
ly will not target the surviving
wolf, though it may if the ani-
mal attacks more livestock.
The department shot two
wolves in the Smackout pack
in Stevens County from July
20 to 30. WDFW reported
Aug. 31 that it has not docu-
mented any more depredations
by the pack since July 22.
The agency says it will
consider killing more wolves
if the pack resumes attacking
cattle.
Cows and calves in the
Smackout pack’s territory are
now in a fenced pasture, but
will have to move soon to
graze on unfenced portions of a
federal grazing allotment. That
will be a better test of whether
the pack has been warned off,
according to WDFW.
“I guess we’re in a wait-
and-see approach,” Cattle Pro-
ducers of Washington Presi-
dent Scott Nielsen said.
“I don’t believe the incre-
mental approach is going to
work,” he said. “I don’t think
the wolf realizes he’s been giv-
en a chance.”
WDFW officials say they
are withholding some details
of lethal-removal operations to
keep from inflaming the pub-
lic and to protect department
employees and ranchers from
harassment. The department
has declined to report where
wolves are attacking livestock,
except in broad terms.
Wolves began recolonizing
Washington a decade ago, but
have remained concentrated in
four northeast counties. Wolf-
packs there are overlapping.
The Sherman pack formed in
2016 when a female from the
Profanity Peak pack paired up
with a male wolf, according to
WDFW.
The department last sum-
mer shot seven wolves in the
Profanity Peak pack. WDFW
in June was initially unsure
whether to blame the Sherman
pack or the Profanity Peak pack
for a dead calf. The department
eventually marked the depreda-
tion down as a strike against the
Sherman pack.
WDFW has gotten bet-
ter recently at issuing regu-
lar updates, but the absence
of information makes it hard
to evaluate the extent of the
conflicts between wolves and
livestock, and the response by
ranchers and WDFW, said Tim
Coleman, executive director
of the Kettle Range Conserva-
tion Group and member of the
department’s Wolf Advisory
Group.
Judge: Regulators properly
shut down Klamath wells
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
An Oregon judge has
rejected claims by several
Klamath Basin irrigators that
state regulators wrongly shut
down their groundwater wells
based on faulty scientific
analysis.
Marion County Circuit
Court Judge Channing Ben-
nett has ruled the Oregon
Water Resources Department
properly relied on “substan-
tial evidence” to halt pumping
from the four wells because
they were interfering with
surface water rights in the
Sprague River.
Attorneys for the ground-
water irrigators say the case
is troubling because the
OWRD’s reasoning — which
was approved by the judge —
effectively expands the agen-
cy’s jurisdiction over wells
not only in the Klamath Basin
but elsewhere in Oregon.
The dispute also pits
groundwater irrigators against
Klamath Basin farmers who
use surface water and who
support the actions of water
regulators.
“We think this is the best
result to protect senior water
users,” said Richard Deitch-
man, attorney for the Tulelake
Irrigation District, which in-
tervened in the case.
The four groundwater
wells in question are with-
in less than one mile of the
Sprague River, which opens
them up to regulatory scru-
tiny for potentially affecting
surface water.
After OWRD ordered
pumping from the wells to
stop in 2015 and 2016, a
lawsuit against the agency
was brought by their owners,
Stanley and Dolores Stonier
and Larry and Joan Sees, as
well as Garrett and Cameron
Duncan, who lease property
from the Sees family.
The plaintiffs argued their
wells were drilled into a con-
fined aquifer that’s separated
from the Sprague River by
layers of rock and clay, as
well as a shallower alluvial
aquifer.
Shutting down the wells
isn’t allowed because OWRD
only has jurisdiction over
wells drilled into an aquifer
“adjacent” to the surface wa-
ter, the plaintiffs argued.
However, the judge said
he couldn’t determine that
those layers were of such low
permeability as to hinder wa-
ter flowing from the confined
aquifer into the River.
Effectively, the decision
accepts OWRD’s argument
that it can regulate a broad-
er “aquifer system,” even
if a well isn’t drilled into an
aquifer directly adjacent to a
river, said Laura Schroeder,
an attorney representing the
groundwater irrigators.
“There’s nothing to stop
Oregon Water Resources
from regulating every aquifer
in a basin (within a mile of
surface waters) and calling it
an aquifer system,” she said.
Gov. Jay Inslee recently ap-
pointed McLerran to serve in
an unpaid position on the Puget
Sound Leadership Council, a
state agency that coordinates
environmental projects.
In response to criticism
from U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts,
R-Kan., about the campaign,
McLerran wrote a statement
April 4, 2016, that for the first
time said EPA funds should
not have used for What’s Up-
stream. “We are in the process
of correcting that,” he wrote.
Purchia suggested editing
the statement to say the cam-
paign “was not approved by
the agency.” The statement was
released saying the campaign
didn’t reflect EPA’s views.
“Let’s add the word ‘out-
side’ before ‘campaign’ and
get this out,” McLerran wrote
April 5.
The statement didn’t dis-
close that the tribe and its hired
lobbying firm, Strategies 360,
had regularly submitted written
updates and yearly work plans
for EPA’s approval since 2011.
As criticism of the cam-
paign increased, EPA adopted
a policy of not answering ques-
tions.
McLerran, however, was
sending emails to other public
officials seeking to explain his
side of the controversy. “We
are clearly in damage-control
mode,” he wrote to Washington
State Conservation Commis-
sion officials.
Said McLerran: “From my
perspective, I wanted for them
to know facts, as I knew them.”
The newly released emails
reinforce that the tribe’s envi-
ronmental director, Larry Was-
serman, was forthright about
his goal to pass a state law and
eager to get approval to spend
EPA money on billboards and
radio ads to rally grass-roots
support during the 2016 legis-
lative session, capping years of
preparation and collaboration
with environmental groups.
“I am concerned that ad-
ditional delays will make our
effort less effective because we
have a short legislative session
and we are hoping for some
impact while the legislators are
in Olympia,” Wasserman wrote
Jan. 26, 2016, to a manager in
the Puget Sound recovery pro-
gram.
The records also affirm that
mid-level EPA officials had
misgivings about the cam-
paign, but their concerns were
rejected as having no legal
grounding.
A few weeks before the
agency disavowed the cam-
paign under congressional
criticism, EPA Puget Sound
program specialist Gina Bon-
ifacino wrote an email to a
colleague referring to an EPA
document prohibiting spend-
ing funds on political activi-
ties, including raising public
support to introduce state-lev-
el legislation.
Ag DACA damage could be minimal
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
The Trump administra-
tion’s decision to end the
Deferred Action for Child-
hood Arrivals program in six
months may have little impact
on agriculture and “quite pos-
sibly may be a blessing in dis-
guise,” says a Pasco, Wash.,
immigration attorney.
Probably only 5 to 10 per-
cent of the 800,000 people
benefiting from DACA de-
portation deferrals work in
agriculture and the rest are in
other occupations, said Tom
Roach, a Pasco attorney who
has helped 440 people get
DACA deferrals.
“Most of them are in their
mid-20s and have been here
since before they were 15
years old. They grew up here,
speak English and a lot of
them have finished college.
Their parents urged them into
other occupations. They are
mainstream America,” Roach
said of DACA deferral recipi-
ents, also known as Dreamers.
The administration’s ac-
tion, announced by Attorney
General Jeff Sessions on Sept.
5, may be a blessing because
it may force Congress to save
DACA, Roach said, noting
that 80 percent of Americans
favor DACA. It passed the
Senate in 2013 as part of com-
prehensive immigration re-
form that failed in the House,
he said.
DACA is a two-year re-
newable deferral of deporta-
tion with work authorization
granted to children of illegal
immigrants who came to the
U.S. under 15 years of age.
DACA was granted by execu-
tive order by President Barack
Obama in 2012.
The executive order was
an “unconstitutional exercise
of authority” into congressio-
nal domain that contributed to
a surge of children at the bor-
der, Sessions said.
The program will end
March 5 which gives Con-
gress six months to address
the situation, he said.
Texas leads 10 states
Associated Press/Matt York
DACA supporters march to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Phoenix to protest
shortly after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Sept. 5 that the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals will be suspended with a six-month delay. The impact of the program’s termination
on agriculture is difficult to assess.
threatening to
sue if President
Donald Trump
doesn’t end the
program. New
York and Wash-
ington
state
Tom Roach have threatened
to sue if the program is ended.
In
November
2014,
Obama expanded DACA to
more people and to their par-
ents by executive order that
was struck down in courts and
rescinded by Trump in June.
Frank Gasperini Jr., ex-
ecutive vice president of the
National Council for Agricul-
tural Employers, told Capital
Press he’s never been able to
get a good number on how
many Dreamers are in agri-
culture. Any loss of ag work-
ers in “this era of short ag la-
bor supply is significant,” he
said.
Some Dreamers are in uni-
versities and technical and
service jobs supportive of ag-
riculture, he said.
Mace Thornton, Ameri-
can Farm Bureau Federation
spokesman, said the bureau
is not sure there is an accurate
way to assess the impact of
DACA on agricultural labor,
but that the bureau does not
view DACA as a significant
ag labor issue in comparison
Grass
Expertise.
to legislation that specifical-
ly addresses labor needs of
farmers and ranchers.
The bureau supports safe
harbor provisions for employ-
ers hiring DACA recipients,
he said.
United Farm Workers
President Arturo S. Rodriguez
issued a statement saying he
“condemns this appalling and
counterproductive action.” He
said Trump is “scapegoating
immigrants” and that deport-
ing Dreamers is “heartless
and immoral.
Mike Gempler, executive
director of Washington Grow-
ers League, Yakima, Wash.,
called the action “a blow to
our rural communities” and
said many are in school or in
parts of rural society support-
ing agriculture. He said he’s
hopeful DACA legislation
will have broad congressional
support.
“It should be an easy de-
cision to give legal status to
young people who grew up
here, have been educated here
and who are productive and
want to stay and make their
lives here. This is a matter of
basic fairness. If any bill has
a chance in Congress, this
should be it,” Gempler said.
Dan Fazio, executive di-
rector of the farm labor asso-
ciation WAFLA, said DACA
has very little impact on la-
bor-intensive
agriculture.
WAFLA doesn’t have a posi-
tion on DACA but generally
supports any efforts to legal-
ize workers with its priority
being a workable guestworker
program, he said.
Shortly after Sessions
spoke, Rep. Cathy McMor-
ris Rodgers, R-Wash. and
third-ranking in House GOP
leadership as conference
chairman, issued a statement
taking issue with how DACA
was enacted but saying Con-
gress needs to protect DACA
recipients.
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By DON JENKINS
Environmental Protection
Agency officials reacted to
the wrath of federal lawmak-
ers over What’s Upstream by
going into “damage-control
mode,” simultaneously saying
they couldn’t have controlled
the anti-agriculture campaign
but nevertheless promising to
fix it, according to newly re-
leased EPA records.
The records, mostly emails
between EPA employees, show
an agency caught between
looking impotent or complicit
in an advertising and lobbying
campaign waged at taxpayer
expense by a Puget Sound tribe
to mandate 100-foot buffers
between farm fields and water-
ways in Washington.
In response to criticism
from a U.S. senator, Liz Pur-
chia, then EPA’s head of com-
munications, urged colleagues
to “acknowledge” that “we are
not associated with it.”
“Anytime EPA and ‘cam-
paign’ is used together it is not
helpful,” she wrote in an email
April 5, 2016.
The email, made public
Aug. 31, is among the final
batch of records released by the
EPA in response to a Freedom
of Information Act request by
Save Family Farming, a group
formed to counter What’s Up-
stream.
The group filed its FOIA
request 16 months ago and has
received more than 1,000 doc-
uments detailing EPA’s part
in funding and monitoring the
half-million-dollar lobbying
campaign.
Since the group asked for
the records, the EPA’s inspec-
tor general, the Washington
Public Disclosure Commission
and state Attorney General
Bob Ferguson have cleared the
EPA, tribe and Northwest In-
dian Fisheries Commission of
any illegal lobbying.
“Much has been accom-
plished by simply exposing this
activity,” Save Family Farm-
ing Executive Director Gerald
Baron said Sept. 5. “It would
have gone on. That’s the les-
son. If farmers don’t stand up
for themselves, they’ll get run
over.”
Dennis McLerran, EPA
Northwest’s
administrator
during the five years the agen-
cy funded What’s Upstream,
said Sept. 5 that he tried to tone
down the campaign, but didn’t
have the authority to dictate its
contents.
“I do recall the lawyers at
the very top level of the EPA
didn’t consider it lobbying
and a violation of any federal
requirement,” he said. “Like I
said all along, this is an unfor-
tunate situation. I tried to get
the tribe to take down the bill-
boards and change the content
of the website, but it was not
something under EPA control.”