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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
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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.