October 6, 2017
CapitalPress.com
17
Idaho water official set to
address Congress on recharge
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
POCATELLO, Idaho —
Idaho Water Resource Board
Chairman Roger Chase was
scheduled to address mem-
bers of a congressional sub-
committee on Oct. 4 about
the state’s proactive and
unique approach towards re-
versing decades of declining
groundwater levels in the
Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer.
Chase was to speak to the
Senate Energy and Natural
Resources
Subcommittee
on Water regarding Idaho’s
program of intentionally in-
jecting surplus surface water
into the aquifer, a practice
known as managed recharge.
The state has its own recharge
water right, which avoids the
need to buy water and keeps
costs down.
“Really as people have
looked at it, they’ve found our
recharge program is probably
one of the best in the nation,”
Chase said.
Chase, who will be among
a small group of Western
leaders presenting on their
recharge efforts, said he also
plans to suggest measures the
federal government should
take to help Idaho’s program
remain successful.
He’ll ask Congress to ap-
prove language that would
give the state greater flexi-
bility to waive a requirement
that Upper Snake canals re-
main closed for at least 150
days following the irrigation
Courtesy of Idaho Department of Water Resources
Aquifer recharge water spills into the Milepost 31 site along
Milner-Gooding Canal. Roger Chase, chairman of the Idaho Water
Resource Board, was scheduled this week to address a congres-
sional subcommittee on the state’s progressive aquifer recharge
program.
season to build up Palisades
Reservoir levels.
The change would help
accommodate upper val-
ley recharge using spring
flood-control releases.
Chase will also request
additional language facilitat-
ing recharge partnerships be-
tween the state, the Bureau of
Reclamation and the Bureau
of Land Management.
Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho,
serves on the subcommittee.
“Less federal regulation
and more common sense with
regards to state water rights
need to be pursued,” Risch
said via email.
Thanks to an especially
wet winter, Idaho recharged
more than 315,000 acre-feet
of water during the 2016-
2017 recharge season, under
the state’s water right.
Private entities recharged
140,000 acre-feet more.
Furthermore,
Idaho
groundwater users have
agreed to cut their well irriga-
tion by a combined 240,000
acre-feet per year to help
build the aquifer, under terms
of a water call settlement, and
the state has had a moratori-
um on new well development
within the aquifer for several
years.
Idaho, which recharges
mostly through unlined ca-
nals and adjacent spill basins,
is investing millions to build
up its recharge capacity but
has also capitalized on the ex-
isting infrastructure of canal
companies, who receive fees
to open their systems to the
state’s water.
“One of the things we’re
going to talk to Congress
about is the fact that we’re
using existing infrastructure,
which saves us millions and
millions of dollars,” Chase
said.
Chase is optimistic that
planned infrastructure up-
grades will allow the state to
increase its recharge capacity
by 50 to 100 percent within
the next year.
He said Idaho plans to
soon expand its recharge pro-
gram into the Treasure Valley
and Northern Idaho.
The state’s recharge co-
ordinator, Wes Hipke, was
involved for years in running
Arizona’s recharge program.
Hipke said Arizona and Ida-
ho have the two most signifi-
cant recharge programs in the
U.S., and Idaho is unique in
that its program aims to build
up the aquifer solely for the
public good, rather than to
mitigate for a specific impact
or as the basis for a private
credit system.
Jerry Rigby, chairman
of the Western States Water
Council, said members of his
organization are also close-
ly following Idaho’s efforts
and have invited Idaho De-
partment of Water Resources
Deputy Director Mat Weaver
to speak during their October
meeting in New Mexico.
“We’ve been telling them
what we’ve been doing with
recharge, and all of the West-
ern states are saying, ‘We’re
interested in that. Tell us
how you’re doing it,’” Rig-
by said.
Bill to ease Calif. water measuring
regulations awaits Brown’s signature
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — A bill
that could save money for ru-
ral ranchers who divert water
by easing a state regulation is
awaiting Gov. Jerry Brown’s
signature.
The California Cattlemen’s
Association-backed legisla-
tion by Assemblyman Frank
Bigelow, R-O’Neals, would
change a State Water Resourc-
es Control Board rule that
those who divert more than 10
acre-feet of water per year hire
a licensed engineer to install a
water-measuring device.
Assembly Bill 589 would
allow diverters to instead in-
stall their own devices or im-
plement their own measure-
ment method if they take a
course from the University of
California Cooperative Exten-
sion, CCA officials explain.
“We’ve been working with
the Cooperative Extension folks
in terms of getting the word out
on this legislation,” said Kirk
Wilbur, the CCA’s director of
legislative affairs. He said the
bill would be “one piece of re-
lief” for ranchers.
“A lot of work needs to be
Tim Hearden/Capital Press File
Billy Gatlin, left, and Kirk Wilbur of the California Cattlemen’s Association talk after giving a presentation
at a cattlemen’s lunch at the Bryan-Morris Ranch in Etna, Calif., in 2016. A CCA-sponsored bill that would
ease a regulatory burden for rural ranchers who divert water has been sent to Gov. Jerry Brown.
done moving forward to lessen
the financial impacts of regula-
tions on ranchers,” he said.
The governor has until Oct.
15 to sign or veto the bill, which
passed unanimously in both leg-
islative chambers. While the UC
typically doesn’t take positions
on legislation, it supported this
bill, said Larry Forero, a UCCE
adviser based in Redding.
Forero believes the course
would be helpful to ranchers.
He said a two-day UCCE irri-
gation course in Northeastern
California filled so quickly that
organizers scheduled additional
dates for the course.
“You can really talk about
ideas and talk about concepts,
and observationally I think
I’ve seen changes on the
ground just from what we’ve
done,” Forero said.
“I think education goes a lot
further than regulation on some
of this stuff,” he said.
The legislation comes after
the state’s water board in 2016
ramped up reporting require-
ments for California’s roughly
12,000 landowners and users
who have rights to divert water
from nearby streams.
The regulations require annu-
al reporting of water diversions
rather than reporting once every
three years, as previous law re-
quired of senior right holders.
Those who divert more than 10
acre-feet of water per year must
also measure their diversions.
ODFW confirms two more cattle attacks by Harl Butte wolfpack
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
The Harl Butte wolfpack
killed a calf and injured another
in attacks investigated by Or-
egon Department of Fish and
Wildlife Sept. 29 and Oct. 1.
ODFW shot four pack
members in August in what
it described as an incremental
response to repeated depreda-
tions.
Cattle ranchers in the area
predicted the department’s
response wouldn’t work and
now are likely to renew their
call to have the entire pack
killed. ODFW has confirmed
10 attacks on cattle by the
pack since July 2016, all
within nine miles of each oth-
er. As of Oct. 4, ODFW had
not announced how it will
respond to the latest attacks.
Even with four killed in Au-
gust, the pack is thought to
consist of six adults and three
pups, according to ODFW re-
ports.
On the morning of Sept.
29, a volunteer range rider
found a dead 425-pound calf
on private grazing land in the
Marr Flat area of Wallowa
County. An estimated 40 per-
cent of the carcass had been
consumed, according to an
ODFW report. Tracking col-
lar data showed a wolf des-
ignated OR-50, the only pack
member wearing a collar, was
at the carcass about 90 min-
utes before the range rider
found it.
The injured calf found Oct.
1 had a large open wound
on the inside of its upper left
rear leg, according to ODFW,
which estimated it had been
attacked Sept. 25. The calf
weighed 570 pounds.
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Mandatory annual reports accounting for money received and
spent in connection with the federal dairy checkoff have not
been filed with Congress.
Groups press USDA on
dairy checkoff oversight
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
The Organization for
Competitive Markets and
the National Dairy Producers
Organization are calling on
USDA to immediately pre-
pare and publish mandated
reports to Congress on the
dairy checkoff program —
after a five-year lapse under
former Secretary Tom Vil-
sack.
USDA’s failure to pro-
duce and submit the annual
reports came to light through
a blog by an economics pro-
fessor at Tufts University
Friedman School of Nutri-
tion Science and Policy.
That professor, Parke
Wilde, told Capital Press he
reads the reports for inter-
est and uses them as source
materials in teaching his stu-
dents about the effectiveness
of different strategies in food
advertising.
But the absence of the re-
ports struck a broader chord
with groups concerned with
a lack of accountability and
transparency in how check-
off dollars are spent.
Dairy checkoff assess-
ments collected in 2016
totaled $426.9 million. As-
sessments for all 22 research
and promotion commodity
programs totaled $885.5 mil-
lion, according to a spokes-
man for USDA’s Agricultur-
al Marketing Service, which
administers the checkoff
programs.
USDA’s recent response
to Wilde’s freedom of in-
formation request was that
“the annual (dairy checkoff)
reports to Congress for fiscal
years 2013 to 2017 have not
yet been published so AMS
currently has no records re-
sponsive to your request.”
Under federal law, the
secretary of agriculture is
responsible for submitting
annual reports to Congress
accounting for dairy check-
off activities and spending
— including an independent
analysis of the effectiveness
of the program.
That requirement only
exists for the dairy checkoff
program and not the other
commodity checkoff pro-
grams, an AMS spokesman
said.
Vilsack, who now serves
as the president and CEO of
the U.S. Dairy Export Coun-
cil, was responsible for the
missing reports.
OCM is asking USDA
Secretary Sonny Perdue
to correct the previous ad-
ministration’s lack of over-
sight, make sure the reports
get done and assure going
forward they get done in a
timely manner, said Angela
Huffman, OCM director of
communications.
National Dairy Producers
Organization is also calling
on Perdue to fulfill his stat-
utory obligation immediate-
ly “to correct Vilsack’s fail-
ings.”
Those reports describe
the activities of an account-
ing for the receipt and dis-
bursement of all dairy check-
off funds, said Bob Krucker,
an Idaho dairy farmer and
NDPO board member. Vil-
sack didn’t do that, so
“there’s been absolutely no
oversight on the spending of
money,” he said.
Many dairy farmers ques-
tion whether the money tak-
en from them, “and it’s a lot
of money,” is being spent
properly under the checkoff
rules and regulations. And
they don’t know because
those reports haven’t been
submitted, he said.
OCM contends the
checkoff issue is broader
than the dairy reports and
includes alleged improper
spending and illegal activi-
ties with the beef, pork and
egg checkoffs.
The missing reports fol-
low a history of documented
abuses of checkoff dollars
in commodity programs and
cover-up of those abuses by
USDA, OCM stated.
OCM is asking Perdue to
“start fresh and not let these
issues continue to fester
under his watch,” Huffman
said.
Krucker said checkoff
dollars are large sums of
money coming from farm-
ers, and there’s no supervi-
sion if they’re being spent
for the benefit of the farmers.
“All this money is not
spent according to what it’s
supposed to be used for. It’s
being used for the benefit of
processors and retailers but
not for the actual benefit of
the farmers from where it
came. … That’s the rub,” he
said.
Checkoff promotions ab-
solutely increase consump-
tion and sell more product
— providing more profits
for processors and retail-
ers — but it doesn’t trickle
down to the farmer, he said.
“Processors and retailers
are making money off the
backs of the farmers,” he
said.
As for the dairy check-
off reports, a USDA AMS
spokesman told Capital
Press the reports are “ex-
pected soon.”
A spokesman for Dairy
Management Inc. — which
manages dairy checkoff
money with state and re-
gional promotion groups —
said DMI annually provides
USDA with the necessary
information to file the re-
ports.
Vilsack has not replied
to Capital Press requests
for comment as to why the
reports weren’t produced
or submitted to Congress
during his time at USDA.
Capital Press has also not
received a reply to requests
for comment from National
Milk Producers Federation
as to how news of the miss-
ing reports is being received
by producers or to whether
the organization was aware
of the lapse in reporting.
Goodlatte bill aims at reliable guestworker program for agriculture
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
A much-anticipated pro-
posal to replace the H-2A
guestworker program will
have to wait a little longer for
review by the House Judiciary
Committee.
Markup of the bill was
set for Wednesday but was
postponed late Tuesday, with
a committee aide saying the
committee wants additional
time to work on the bill.
Committee Chairman Bob
Goodlatte, R-Va., introduced
the bill Monday, saying a re-
placement for the “outdated
and broken” H-2A program is
long overdue.
His Agricultural Guest-
worker Act (AG Act) creates
a new H-2C guestworker pro-
gram to provide farmers with
access to a legal, stable supply
of workers for year-round em-
ployment.
Under the proposal, foreign
workers would be allowed an
initial stay of 36 months. Sub-
sequent visas for year-round
agricultural jobs and all oth-
er H-2C visas would afford a
work period of 18 months.
It would allow current
undocumented workers in
agriculture to get an H-2C
visa and provides for 500,000
H-2C visas a year with allow-
ances to adjust that number
depending on agricultural la-
bor needs.
In addition, the program
would give employers the
option of providing housing
and transportation for their
workers — provisions that
are required under the H-2A
program. It would also put
administration under USDA.
“We are very, very pleased
after a long time of waiting,
the dairy industry can look
forward to utilizing a visa
program for full-time employ-
ment,” said Laurie Fischer,
CEO of the American Dairy
Coalition.
H-2A is for temporary and
seasonal workers, and the
dairy industry is not able to
utilize that program at all. If
passed, the bill will be the first
time the dairy industry will
have a visa program to ensure
a stable workforce, she said.
The bill would also
streamline the process and ex-
pedite the time between em-
ployers applying for workers
and receiving them. Because
of the bureaucratic red tape in
the H-2A program, harvest is
often already finished before
the process is completed. Put-
ting the new program under
USDA should also increase
understanding of agricultural
needs, she said.
National Milk Producers
Federation said Goodlatte’s
legislation is a rare opportu-
nity to resolve several of the
most challenging aspects of
how to create a legal means
of addressing the supply and
demand elements affecting
agriculture.
“America’s dairy farm-
ers and other employers who
have perennial and not just
seasonal labor needs des-
perately require a workable
program that allows them to
access a consistent, legal and
dependable workforce,” the
organization said in a written
statement.
NMPF stated the propos-
al recognizes the status quo
is unacceptable and that en-
forcement-only
measures
could prove disastrous for
the farm sector and cannot be
the first or only basis for fix-
ing the broken immigration
system.