February 9, 2018
CapitalPress.com
3
Dairy
Oregon ranch loses Rogue River lawsuit
slapped Plaintiffs feared loss
of grazing, water
with
and mining rights
$10,000
penalty
Area in
detail
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Oregon’s farm reg-
ulators have slapped a
$10,640 penalty on a major
new dairy near Boardman,
Ore., for allegedly dis-
charging waste in violation
of permit conditions.
The company, Lost
Valley Farm, is also fac-
ing two lawsuits filed by
contractors who claim
they haven’t been paid for
installing equipment and
providing construction ser-
vices.
A “confined animal
feeding operation” inspec-
tion by the Oregon De-
partment of Agriculture
found on Dec. 5, 2017,
that wastewater from the
dairy had overflowed into
a pit that’s not authorized
for storage, which wasn’t
reported to the agency as
required.
The dairy, which even-
tually plans to milk 30,000
cows, was also faulted for
maintaining
inadequate
lagoon storage capacity to
deal with runoff in case of
a storm.
Another inspection on
Dec. 15, 2017, found that
liquid and solid manure
had discharged from a
tank, flowing into areas un-
authorized for waste stor-
age, which again wasn’t
reported to ODA.
Civil penalties of
$10,640 were recently
imposed on the dairy for
these violations, but the
company may request an
administrative hearing on
the matter by mid-Febru-
ary.
Aside from these vio-
lations, the company was
issued three notices of
non-compliance with its
CAFO permit between late
June and late November of
last year, which required
corrective actions.
Capital Press was un-
able to reach a representa-
tive of Lost Valley Farm as
of press time.
The situation is con-
cerning to ODA because
the Lost Valley Farm facili-
ty is brand new, having just
begun operating last April,
said Wym Matthews, man-
ager of the agency’s CAFO
program.
“It’s like a new car, you
don’t expect to have trou-
ble with it,” he said.
In this case, though, the
problems don’t stem from
equipment malfunctions,
but rather from manage-
ment errors that weren’t
remedied quickly enough,
Matthews said.
It’s difficult to compare
the different circumstanc-
es under which dairies re-
ceive penalties, he said.
However, fewer than 1
percent of the 880 CAFO
inspections conducted by
ODA last year resulted in
fines, and $10,000 for a
first penalty is “a decent
amount of money,” Mat-
thews said.
“Hopefully, they will
get the message and oper-
ate according to the permit.
That’s our goal,” he said.
Aside from its inspec-
tion troubles, the Lost Val-
ley Farm was also recently
sued by Daritech, a dairy
equipment manufacturer,
in federal court for alleged-
ly failing to timely pay
more than $340,000 for the
installation of equipment.
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Capital Press
62
CRATER
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By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
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A federal judge has dis-
missed an Oregon ranch’s
lawsuit that sought to block
the possible “wild and scenic”
designation of a stretch of the
Rogue River.
In 2016, the U.S. Bureau
of Land Management decided
a 63-mile segment of the river
was “suitable” for protection
under the federal Wild and
Scenic Rivers Act.
The Double R Ranch,
which owns roughly 1,000
acres along the river, filed a
complaint against BLM last
year arguing the segment
wasn’t “free-flowing” as re-
quired by that statute.
The Oregon Cattlemen’s
Association and the Oregon
230
Bi
ue
Rog
Segment
proposed for
“Wild and
Scenic River”
designation
UMPQUA
NATIONAL
FOREST
River
5
Ore.
138
ROGUE RIVER
NAT’L. FOR.
5
66
Ore.
Calif.
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
Aggregate and Concrete Pro-
ducers Association joined the
lawsuit as plaintiffs because
they feared a designation would
restrict grazing and mining.
U.S. District Judge Chris-
topher Cooper in Washington,
D.C., has now thrown out the
complaint because the harms
allegedly suffered by the
plaintiffs are too hypothetical
to give them legal standing in
federal court.
While the local BLM dis-
trict has found the 63-mile
stretch suitable as a “wild and
scenic” river, the actual des-
ignation would still have to
be recommended by the U.S.
Secretary of the Interior, ap-
proved as a bill by Congress
and signed by the president,
he said.
“In any event, few things
are more hypothetical and
speculative than Congress
passing a specific act of leg-
islation,” the judge said.
Ranchers and miners
worry that “wild and sce-
nic” protection will prohib-
it streambank stabilization
projects and lead to the loss
of water rights, grazing
rights and mining rights.
Even if the designation
was finalized, the plaintiffs
could still seek permission
for various projects and ac-
tivities along that stretch of
the river, Cooper said.
“Plaintiffs do not explain
why it is certainly likely that
their permits would be denied
given that such actions or per-
mits can be approved. Thus,
even the last link in the caus-
al chain remains somewhat
speculative,” he said.
Jerome Rosa, executive
director of the Oregon Cat-
tlemen’s Association, said
the ruling was disappointing,
since the lawsuit was effec-
tively the last chance to pre-
vent the “wild and scenic”
designation.
Once a river segment is
deemed suitable, it’s likely
to receive federal protection
under the statute, which will
probably involve grazing cur-
tailments, Rosa said.
“We know our ranchers’
ability to do business would
definitely change,” he said.
Rogue Riverkeeper, a lo-
cal environmental group, had
urged the judge to dismiss
the case because the plaintiffs
didn’t face any imminent inju-
ry from the designation.
The 63-mile stretch is
unique because three dams
that once impounded its wa-
ter have been removed, and it
would connect two segments
of the Rogue River already
designated as “wild and sce-
nic,” the group said.
Senate panel strips down pesticide-alert bill
Focus shifts to safety
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — A pesti-
cide-notification bill that only
faintly resembles the one that
alarmed Washington farm-
ers was passed Tuesday by
the Senate Ways and Means
Committee.
The bill’s sole surviving
provision calls for appointing
a work group to study how to
make spraying on farms saf-
er. The legislation has been
so reworked that it has the
backing of the Washington
Potato and Onion Associa-
tion.
“We’re supporting the bill
as it is now,” the associa-
tion’s lobbyist, Jim Jesernig,
said. “We’d like to do every-
thing we can to reduce drift.”
As introduced, Senate
Bill 6529 provoked a back-
lash from growers and farm
groups. The bill’s key fea-
ture was to require farms to
inform the state Health De-
partment four business days
before spraying pesticides.
The department would give
nearby schools and residents
two-hour notice.
The bill also called for
fining farmers who failed to
provide the department with
detailed monthly reports of
Courtesy Washington State Department of Agriculture
A Washington State Department of Agriculture training manager drives an air-blast sprayer through a
pear orchard in Wenatchee. The Senate Ways and Means Committee advanced a bill Feb. 6 to form a
work group on pesticide safety.
pesticide applications. Co-
lumbia Legal Services, the
Washington State Labor
Council, the Washington Ed-
ucation Association and other
groups endorsed the bill.
The premise of the bill, in-
troduced by Seattle Democrat
Rebecca Saldana, was that
residents and school children
near farms are constantly ex-
posed to pesticides. The leg-
islation that passed the budget
committee on a 16-6 vote was
stripped of such accusations.
The bill makes no imme-
diate demand on farmers.
A panel of legislators and
state officials, including the
Department of Agriculture,
would be charged with devel-
oping recommendations by
Nov. 1 for improving the safe-
ty of pesticide applications.
The work group could ask
for advice from farmers, pes-
ticide applicators, labor lead-
ers, school officials and envi-
ronmentalists, but they would
not be on the panel.
Farm groups have been
lobbying legislators for sev-
eral years to budget more
money for training pesticide
applicators.
“You kind of don’t need
a bill, but if it’s something
people want we support it,”
Jesernig said. “The focus is
on the front end. An once of
prevention is worth a pound
of cure.”
A hearing on the original
proposal Jan. 25 drew dozens
of farmers and pesticide ap-
plicators. They told the Senate
Labor and Commerce Com-
mittee that they can’t wait
four business days to spray
for insects and plant diseases.
“Ag folks acted really
quickly, and the legislators to
their credit took note of it,”
Jesernig said.
Farmers, along with some
Republican legislators, also
made the point that allowing
pesticides to drift off target is
illegal and fined by the state
agriculture department.
The labor committee re-
moved the four-day notifica-
tion and monthly reports, and
proposed creating a “mod-
ernizing” work group made
up of public and private inter-
ests to develop a notification
system.
The budget committee
held a hearing on the bill
Monday. Heather Hansen, ex-
ecutive director of the Wash-
ington Friends of Farmers and
Forests, criticized the labor
committee’s bill for assuming
pesticide applicators regular-
ly break the law and that the
agriculture department can’t
stop it.
“We support a work
group, but let’s start with an
open-minded, even-handed
work group that can look at
ways to prevent drift from
happening in the first place,”
she said.
D.C. Circuit Court delays manure air rule until May 1
EPA wins time to
prep farms
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The D.C. Circuit Court of
Appeals today gave the Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency
until at least May 1 to prepare
farms to register their live-
stock as sources of hazardous
gases.
The order granting the stay
was signed by judges Stephen
Williams, a Reagan appoin-
tee, and Sri Srinivasan, an
Obama appointee.
The stay, the third granted
by the court at the EPA’s re-
quest, delays a mandate for
farmers to report emissions
from decaying manure under
the Comprehensive Environ-
mental Response, Compen-
sation and Liability Act, also
known as the Superfund law.
Factories and vessels cov-
ered by the act must report
chemical leaks and spills to
the Coast Guard’s National
Response Center. The EPA
sought to exempt livestock
emissions on the grounds that
decomposing manure isn’t
an emergency. Environmen-
tal groups sued, and the D.C.
court agreed in April that the
information could be useful to
emergency responders.
The EPA has repeated-
ly asked for time to inform
producers about the pending
mandate, provide guidance
on calculating emissions and
develop a reporting form tai-
lored for agriculture.
The court had previously
granted stays in August and
November. The National Pork
Producers Council and U.S.
Egg & Poultry Association
filed briefs supporting EPA’s
motion. The trade groups said
that farmers were still con-
fused about the mandate and
at risk of running afoul of the
law. Failing to report could
result in $50,000-a-day fines.
Don Jenkins/Capital Press File
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has delayed implementation of a
rule requiring farmers to report the hazardous gases that livestock
produce.
The law allows private groups
to file federal lawsuits alleg-
ing noncompliance.
Farms with livestock that
Weekly fieldwork report
Wash.
Idaho
• Snow water equivalent*
44.3%
99.4%
85.5%
37.7%
• Percent area in drought
87.8%
9.5%
39.5%
73.3%
33-40% above
Normal
Normal/
33% above
40-50% above
40-60% below
33-50% below
Normal/
50% below
33-60% below
Normal/
Below normal
Normal/
Above normal
Normal/
Above normal
Below normal
• Avg. temperature, 6-10 day outlook
(Percent chance deviation from normal)
(Percent chance deviation from normal)
• Soil moisture anomaly
(Monthly deviation from normal)
*Aggregate average percent of median as of Feb. 6. Medians calculated for the period from 1981-2010.
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• Precipitation, 6-10 day outlook
Since 1994 committed to
agriculture & farmers
worldwide
emit more than 100 pounds of
ammonia or hydrogen sulfide
in a 24-hour period will have
to report. The EPA, in an ef-
fort to ease the requirement,
says farmers will be able to
register their animals as con-
tinuously releasing gas, rather
than make daily reports.
There is no generally ac-
cepted way to estimate emis-
sions from manure, which
varies based on seasons, cli-
mate, geography and farm
operations.
The environmental groups
that sued the EPA to bring
farmers under the Superfund
law did not file a response to
EPA’s motion for more time.
According to the EPA, the
groups, led by the Waterkeep-
er Alliance, did not object to
the stay in a written statement
to the agency.
Sources: USDA, NRCS; NOAA, www.ca.gov/; www.drought.gov/