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8 CapitalPress.com January 5, 2018 E. Washington farm receives scaled-down biosolids permit Ecology: No risk to health, environment when applied properly By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press The Washington De- partment of Ecology has approved the scaled-down application of biosolids on an Eastern Washington farm after activists protested. Ecology approved Fire Mountain Farms’ request to apply treated solid waste on 158 acres at Rosman Farms near Davenport, Wash. The farm’s original ap- plication sought permission to apply biosolids on 1,045 acres. “Those who opposed the recycling of this valuable re- source could not present a single valid argument indicat- ing that this was not an envi- ronmentally beneficial activ- ity,” Robert Thode, president of Fire Mountain Farms, said. “So they resorted to a cam- paign of harassment, intimi- dation and threats. It reached the point that the land owner could not justify continuing Matthew Weaver/Capital Press File Members of the Protect Mill Canyon Watershed group, including Jim Green, Morton Alexander and Deanne Burdine, protest a permit to apply biosolids on an Eastern Washington farm Sept. 6 outside the state Department of Ecology office in Spokane. The group is claiming victory after the farmer reduced the acreage in his request, which the department has approved. and dropped most of the farm from the proposal.” The Protect Mill Can- yon Watershed group cam- paigned against the proposal in September, claiming it is impossible to know what is in the biosolids applied to the soil. Biosolids are commonly applied as fertilizer on farm land. The committee includes members of Tolstoy Farms, which describes itself as an “intentional community” that grows organic produce on 4 acres and has a community supported agriculture pro- gram, according to its web- site. In a press release, the group called the permit for reduced acreage a victory and credited “one-on-one nego- tiations between neighbors” with the farmer. “The farmer ultimately decided that being a good neighbor was most important and agreed to withdraw from applying sludge close to Mill Canyon,” the press release states. With the approved permit, the nearest application of biosolids will be more than 5 miles from the canyon, the press release states. The group advocates a statewide moratorium on fu- ture biosolid permits. A demonstration outside Ecology offices in Spokane last September did not im- pact the department’s de- cision, said Brook Beeler, communications manager for Ecology. “As long as biosolids are applied according to state and federal rules there is no threat to people and the en- vironment,” Beeler said. “It’s our responsibility to ensure that Fire Mountain Farms complies with the require- ments for safely applying biosolids.” Thode said his company is pursuing other options for biosolid application in the region. He said the public is not getting the true message about biosolids as an envi- ronmentally beneficial activ- ity. “It is truly a sad day for all agriculture when vigilantes are allowed to dictate farm- ing practices,” Thode said. “These types of issues should be confronted by a unified farming community or they will pick off one at a time.” NCBA takes stock of progress in 2017 By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press It was a busy year for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, work- ing with the Trump administration and Congress to further the interest of cattle producers. It’s been “a year that’s provided a lot of opportunity for us, a significant num- ber of wins, but at the same time many challenges we’ve had to think through and will continue to think through,” Colin Woodall, NCBA senior vice pres- ident of government affairs, said during a year-end webinar. Those wins include gaining access for U.S. beef to China, relief from some onerous regulations and progress on still other unresolved issues, he and other staff members said. “One of the bright spots in our rela- tionship with the Trump administration has been our improved relationship with Environmental Protection Agency. For the first time in many years and span- ning several different administrations, we find ourselves with an opportunity to work with the EPA rather than just al- ways working against the EPA,” Wood- all said. Scott Yager, NCBA environmental counsel, said the cattle industry has a lot Colin Woodall to be happy about with the administration’s po- sition on environmental issues. Scott Pruitt, the EPA administrator, “is all about getting indus- try stakeholders in the room and hearing their perspective on issues,” Yager said. Nowhere has that been clearer than with the Waters of the United States rule, which went way beyond federal jurisdiction in claiming water and land features for regulation. The rule is now on the path to repeal, he said. The next step will be a new WOTUS definition, and NCBA has been fully in- volved in the effort to develop replace- ment language, he said. “Keep in mind there has to be a juris- dictional limit on where the Clean Water Act applies,” he said. NCBA also scored a win in getting the Bureau of Land Management’s Planning 2.0 rule repealed using the Congressional Review Act. The rule would have radically changed the way BLM does its land use planning, removing local input from the process, said Ethan Lane, executive di- rector of the Public Lands Council and NCBA federal lands. Efforts to prevent BLM from cur- tailing grazing in its land use planning amendments for greater sage grouse have also paid off, with both BLM and the Forest Service working on new planning processes, he said. There’s also been progress on fight- ing the abuses of the Antiquities Act, with President Trump reducing the size of national monuments by 2 million acres thus far. Those monuments reduce grazing and destroy local economies, and more designation reductions and re- strictions are expected, he said. NCBA and PLC will continue to fo- cus on changing the way the Antiquities Act works to prevent future designa- tions without local input, he said. There is also good movement on comprehensive modernization of the Endangered Species Act. NCBA and PLC have been working with the West- ern Governors’ Association, which has developed bipartisan recommendations to reform ESA and there’s positive feedback on the recommendations from Congress, he said. Other wins in 2017 include securing a 90-day waiver from the Department of Transportation on electronic log devices for livestock haulers, an issue NCBA will continue to pursue. EU-Japan trade deal worrisome for U.S. farm exports By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press A recent trade deal between the Euro- pean Union and Japan will have mixed impacts for American farm exports but is part of a discouraging trend, experts say. Some European products, such as cheese, are more likely to win market share in Japan from U.S. producers than others, such as wheat, according to trade specialists from several agricultural or- ganizations. Overall, though, the agreement is an- other example of foreign countries im- proving their trade relationships while the U.S. is left behind, they said. “If our competitors have a much low- er tariff rate, that’s not a level playing field,” said Kent Bacus, international trade director for the National Cattle- men’s Beef Association. Tariffs will be eliminated in Japan over 15 years for certain EU cheeses — including cheddar, parmesan and gouda — while volume limits will be raised and eventually eliminated for other cheeses, such as mozzarella, brie and feta, accord- ing to a USDA analysis. “Europeans are going to take us to the cleaners if we do not catch up and catch up soon,” said Jaime Castaneda, senior vice president of trade policy for the U.S. Dairy Export Council. U.S. dairy product exports to Ja- pan most recently peaked in 2014, with more than $400 million worth of goods shipped, but fell to about $200 million last year, according to USDA. It will be extremely difficult for U.S. producers to compete in Japan if they’re saddled with tariffs of up to 40 percent on some cheeses while the Europeans pay progressively lower rates and ulti- mately none, Castaneda said. Courtesy of Melodie Putnam/OSU A leafy gall caused by the rhodococcus bacteria grows at the base of a butterfly bush. OSU researchers developing tools to track harmful bacteria Rhodococcus can cause unusual growth in ornamentals By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press The change can happen overnight, a mutation at the microscopic level, causing otherwise healthy ornamen- tals such as daisies and chry- santhemums to sprout damag- ing growth defects. Rhodococcus, a type of soil-borne bacteria, is to blame for the deformity, in- fecting mostly herbaceous perennial plants with leafy galls, a disease that burdens Oregon’s $900 million green- house and nursery industry. But not all strains of rhodo- coccus are harmful, according to researchers with Oregon State University. In fact, some may be beneficial, helping to grow more root hairs and improve uptake of water and nutrients. The transformation of rhodococcus from good to bad lies in tiny DNA mole- cules known as plasmids, ac- cording to OSU. Researchers are now developing tools that will allow nurseries to identi- fy bad rhodococcus before it spreads, avoiding potentially serious losses. Jeff Chang, associate pro- fessor in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, led a recent study published Dec. 12 in the journal eLife. He said plasmids are the switch that turns rhodococcus from beneficial to completely pathogenic, morphing from Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde. “You can see how very subtle changes in a bacterial genome can change it from being benign to pathogen- ic,” Chang said. “The ease to which this transition occurs is rather unusual, and it presents SPONSORED BY: TRAC Center, Pasco, WA • Visit us at: www.easternwaagexpo.com • C&E Trenching $6.00 at the door to attend, $5.00 with a donated can of food Featuring the 2nd Annual Cattleman’s Connection: “Where Cattlemen Connect with Industry Leaders” • Over 100 exhibitors • Franklin PUD • Pesticide recertification credits (English & Spanish) • Irrigation Specialists • 6th Installment of the Baker Boyer Series: “Family Legacies Grown Locally” • Baker Boyer Bank • Rascal Rodeo: Monday, January 8th, 4:00PM-6:00PM • Hands on livestock handling demonstrations • Follow the Food: Showcasing samples of locally grown food. • Precision Ag Day: Wednesday, January 10th: Focus on the latest & greatest in Precision Agriculture 8th Annual Lyle Holt Scholarship Competition • Townsquare Media Group • Signs by Sue • Capital Press • Agri NW • Basin Business Journal ROP-51-3-2/101 a difficult challenge for nurs- eries.” Nurseries are the leader in Oregon agricultural produc- tion, with most sales going out of state. Not only are or- namental plants produced for aesthetics and beauty, but they also need to be free of disease before they ship out, Chang said. Otherwise, they must be destroyed. It was Alexandra Weis- berg, a postdoctoral fellow in Chang’s lab, who observed plasmids moving between strains of rhodococcus. Plas- mids are molecules within bacterial DNA that replicate independently of the cell cycle, giving bacteria new advantages in their environ- ment. Chang said the intensive hands-on management of plants in nurseries may en- courage the rhodococcus bacteria to get together and transfer the disease-causing plasmid. “So obviously, the key is to keep the nursery site as clean as possible,” he said. “They could have rhodococcus as a persistent pathogen-causing organism on their site.” Vigilance is crucial, Chang said, since there is no spray known to control rhodococcus. OSU is work- ing to develop a test kit, he added, that will help nurs- ery managers distinguish between the good and bad bacteria and avoid destroying non-infected plants. The product is still under development, though Chang described it as resembling a pregnancy stick test. “The hard part is extract- ing DNA from the bacteria,” he said. Melodie Putnam, director and chief diagnostician at the OSU Plant Clinic, said the difference between benign and harmful rhodococcus has led to some misdiagnoses of pistachio trees, which were submitted to the university in 2014. The trees were short and bushy, had knobby stems and would not properly graft, Putnam said. After testing, however, she found only non-pathogenic rhodococcus in the samples. She hopes the university’s study and testing tools will help growers to accurately identify and diagnose rhodo- coccus themselves. “Education is the primary thing that I’m hoping for,” Putnam said. The project may also lead to better management tools for the harmful strains of rhodococcus, she added. “Right now, there aren’t any good options,” she said. Chang said his lab has pre-applied to the USDA for additional funding to continue the research, and possibly fig- ure out what conditions cause plasmids to transfer in the first place. “This is a huge problem in the nursery industry, which produces plants for their beauty and aesthetic values,” he said.
