December 22, 2017
CapitalPress.com
11
Washington adopts pesticide safety rules
State follows
EPA’s standards
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
New rules for using pesti-
cides, modeled after federal
worker-protection standards,
will take effect in Washing-
ton on Jan. 13.
Agriculture Director Der-
ek Sandison signed the rules
Wednesday. They will bring
state regulations in line with
rules that are being phased in
by the Environmental Protec-
tion Agency.
The regulations cover
such subjects as training ap-
plicators, posting safety in-
formation, decontaminating
workers and providing med-
ical care.
“The worker-protection
standards cover a lot of ar-
eas,” Sandison said in a writ-
ten statement. “It’s critical
that agricultural employees
learn and understand what’s
being required to comply
and protect their workers and
their communities.”
The EPA adopted new
standards in 2015. Most went
effect last year, while more
are scheduled to take effect
next year. States can adopt
more stringent standards, but
must at least meet federal
rules.
Washington State Department of Agriculture
Ofelio Borges of the Washington State Department of Agriculture
trains farmworkers to handle pesticides in 2014. The department
on Dec. 13 finalized new worker-protection standards for handling
pesticides. The rules, which match federal regulations, go into
affect Jan. 13.
In some ways, the new
EPA rules will bring the
federal standards to those
already followed in Wash-
ington, according to WSDA.
The state and federal rules
will now be essentially iden-
tical, according to the depart-
ment.
WSDA says it will work
with growers to understand
the new rules and won’t en-
force them until EPA-ap-
proved training materials
are available.
The EPA has issued a
manual on complying with
the regulations.
The new requirements in-
clude:
• Workers must undergo
annual training in handling
pesticides. Previously, train-
ing was required every five
years. Also, employers must
keep training records for two
years.
• Information about pes-
ticide safety and current
applications must be posted
for workers to see. The rules
provide specific instructions
on what must be posted, and
when and where.
• Employers must keep
everyone except trained
workers out of the area while
pesticides are applied. The
distances range from 100
feet to 25 feet depending on
the type of equipment used
to spray the pesticide.
WSDA received three
written comments on the
rules. The most extensive
comments were from Co-
lumbia Legal Services, a
nonprofit law firm, and
Community To Commu-
nity Development, a Bell-
ingham-based organization
whose stated goals include
ending capitalism.
WSDA rejected several
proposals by both groups.
Columbia Legal Services
advocated barring applica-
tions within a quarter-mile of
housing. Community to Com-
munity proposed prohibiting
pesticide applications within
1.5 miles of a school or farm-
worker housing.
WSDA said the proposals
were outside the purpose of
the rules, which are to protect
workers and pesticide appli-
cators. WSDA noted that it in-
vestigates pesticides drifting
off farms and issues fines.
Company adding two barges to transport wheat
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
PORTLAND — One of
the two companies that haul
grain on the Columbia and
Snake rivers will add two new
barges to its fleet next year.
That will bring Shaver
Transportation’s total number
of grain barges to 20, said Ken
Ritter, vice president of the
company’s grain division.
In August, the company
will tow the two 4,000-ton
barges from Indiana down the
Mississippi River system to
the Gulf of Mexico, through
the Panama Canal and up the
West Coast to Portland. The
cost of that operation is about
20 percent less than if the
barges were built in Portland,
said Rob Rich, vice president
of marine services for Shaver.
The barges are 300 feet
long and each carry 4,200 tons
of wheat, or 140,000 bushels.
The company is adding the
barges because a customer has
more grain coming in, and in
anticipation of a rail-to-barge
transfer station at the Port of
Morrow in Boardman, Ore.
“When that comes online,
that will be a new source of
wheat coming to the river from
the Midwest transferring from
rail to barge,” Rich said. “It just
makes sense to have equipment
in place for not only the addi-
tional customer need, but the
additional wheat coming to the
river.”
Unit trains of wheat nor-
mally destined for the Port-
land market will instead go to
Boardman, where the wheat
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Rob Rich, vice president of marine services at Shaver Transportation, addresses a Washington Grain
Commission export tour on board a tugboat Nov. 30 in Portland.
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
Rob Rich, center, addresses a tour before boarding a tugboat in
Portland. The company is adding two new barges to its fleet on the
Columbia-Snake River system.
will be loaded onto barges.
Shaver’s barges vary in size.
The average tonnage is 3,400
tons, Rich said.
The company averages 110
tows a year, but this year it has
had 125 to 130 tows in eight
months. That’s a record for
the company, Ritter said, even
though the river system was
closed for lock maintenance
until March.
Farmers send their grain
from the field to grain el-
evators. Barges then bring
the grain down the Colum-
bia-Snake River system to
one of seven export grain el-
evators, which ship the grain
overseas.
Producers use trucking for
short-haul shipping to Portland,
or rail or barge for long-haul
shipping.
Ritter said 13 barge lines
used to operate on the river sys-
tem. Today, only two remain,
Shaver and Tidewater.
The two companies move
150 million bushels of wheat
down the river system each
year, Ritter said. Tidewater
used to move 100 million and
Shaver 50 million, but more re-
cently Shaver has increased to
60 million and Tidewater was
down to 90 million, he said.
Tidewater has 63 barges,
Rich said.
While the two companies
are competitors, they work to-
gether occasionally, Rich said.
“The goal is to get the
barged wheat down the river,
not to create an issue for barged
wheat to not get down the riv-
er,” he said.
About 40 percent of wheat
exported from the Columbia
River Basin is moved by barge,
with railroads hauling 60 per-
cent.
Rich and Ritter spoke to a
Washington Grain Commission
wheat export tour Nov. 30.
Washington state delegation meets with
White House about Columbia Basin Project
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
A delegation of officials,
farmers and lawmakers from
Washington state met with
White House and Department
of Interior officials last week
to educate them about the
need for funding to replace
shrinking groundwater sup-
plies in the Odessa subarea
with Columbia River water.
Meeting with Ray Starling,
special assistant to President
Donald Trump on agriculture
and agricultural trade, were
farmers Randy and Michele
Kiesz of Ritzville and Clark
Kagele of Odessa, state De-
partment of Agriculture direc-
tor Derek Sandison, state Rep.
Mary Dye, state Sen. Mark
Schoesler and U.S. Rep. Dan
Newhouse.
They also met with repre-
sentatives of the U.S. Depart-
ment of the Interior.
Michele Kiesz is a land-
owner near the first pumping
station in the Odessa ground-
water replacement project
slated to receive river water.
Courtesy of ZimmComm New Media
Ray Starling, President Trump’s
special assistant on agriculture,
met last week with a contingent
of officials and farmers about
the Columbia Basin Project.
She estimates the total cost to
her farm would be more than
$300 per acre per year for 30
years.
“We can’t afford to grow
anything to come close to
that,” she said.
Kiesz and other landown-
ers spoke to Schoesler, Dye
and state Sen. Judy Warnick
seeking assistance in filling
the gap between what they
can afford and what’s needed.
“We told them the pump-
ing plants are being put onto
the shoulders of the landown-
ers, and we just can’t afford
it,” Kiesz said. “Unless we
get help, we’re going to go
away. We’re not going to be
out there any more. The big
companies are going to come
in and they’re going to take
over this, or farming will go
completely away in Eastern
Washington. It’s going to be
horrific if this area goes dry,
and we’re headed that way.”
The legislature put $15
million in the state capi-
tal budget to help fund the
project, which would reduce
pumping station construction
costs by $8 per acre, Kiesz
said.
Every little bit helps, she
said.
That budget is being held
up by Senate Republicans,
who refuse to pass it until the
Legislature passes a fix to the
state Supreme Court’s Hirst
decision, which limits the de-
velopment of rural wells.
Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press
Bruce Huffaker, left, president of North American Potato
Market News, talks with American Falls grower Greg Paul
during the University of Idaho Ag Outlook seminar in Burley
on Dec. 6.
Russet potato
supplies shrink
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
BURLEY, Idaho – While
potato production nation-
wide in 2017 fell less than
1 percent, things were dif-
ferent in the Pacific North-
west.
Combined production in
Idaho, Washington and Or-
egon this year fell 6.3 per-
cent on 21,000 fewer plant-
ed acres, according to the
December crop production
report by USDA National
Agricultural Statistics Ser-
vice.
In 2016, PNW produc-
tion accounted for 60.9 per-
cent of national production.
That dropped to 57.5 per-
cent in 2017, Bruce Huffak-
er, a potato market analyst,
told growers attending the
University of Idaho’s annu-
al Idaho Ag Outlook.
The decline is signifi-
cant as the region produces
78 percent of all potatoes
processed in the U.S. and
61 percent of fresh russets
produced in the U.S. While
there’s no hard data, Huf-
faker would guess russets
make up about 85 percent
of the PNW crop.
“I think we’re coming
up to a situation with russet
potatoes where we’re going
to run into crunch time on
supply,” he said.
PNW stocks on Dec. 1
are estimated to be down 9
percent year over year. Pro-
cessing usage June through
November was up slightly
and fresh usage was down
only 0.8 percent – meaning
the crunch is ahead.
“We did not cut back on
usage during the first six
months; all that (shortfall)
has to come in the next six
months,” he said
Processors and fresh
buyers are going to be com-
peting with each other for
supply. Fryers have locked
in most of what they need,
so the competition will be
between fresh buyers and
dehydrators, he said.
He’s expecting PNW
stocks to be 31.4 million on
May 31, down 16.7 percent
year over year. There could
be as much as a 22 percent
decline in fresh shipments
December through June
but with processing flat,
he’s expecting fresh buyers
to pull some supply out of
processing channels.
But there’s no way to
make up for all of the short-
fall on table potatoes. Fresh
shipments aren’t going to
be anywhere near what
Idaho shipped last year, he
said.
Markets are already re-
acting to the tight supply,
boosting russet prices more
than 50 percent compared to
a year ago. Prices in Idaho
for Russet Burbanks for the
fresh market are averaging
$18.57 a hundredweight,
and Russet Norkotahs are
running $17.34. Prices to
growers are close to $9 a
hundredweight, compared
to about $4 this time last
year, he said.
Production is down
nearly 8 million hundred-
weight and 5.7 percent in
Idaho, 6.6 million hun-
dredweight and 6.3 percent
in Washington and 2.2 mil-
lion hundredweight and 9.4
percent in Oregon, NASS
reported.
Last spring, after five
years of prices below the
cost of production, grow-
ers — especially those who
produce table potatoes —
faced tough planting deci-
sions.
In Idaho, there was also
a lot of uncertainty with a
large processing operation
in eastern Idaho changing
hands, Huffaker said.
While prices on compet-
ing crops were weak, the
situation decreased planted
acreage. In addition, yields
weren’t as high as they had
been, he said.
Growers planted 15,000
fewer acres in Idaho, 5,000
fewer acres in Washing-
ton and 1,000 fewer acres
in Oregon. Yields per acre
were down 5 hundred-
weight in Idaho, 25 hun-
dredweight in Washington
and 40 hundredweight in
Oregon, NASS reported.
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