February 23, 2018
CapitalPress.com
5
Washington mushroom grower seeks tax relief for new farm
Bill would cut taxes
on construction
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — A Western
Washington mushroom farm,
hemmed in by suburbia, is
seeking a tax break estimated
to be worth roughly $1.8 mil-
lion to help it move east of the
Cascades to the Port of Sun-
nyside in Yakima County.
Ostrom’s
Mushrooms
President David Knudsen
said the farm was started 50
years ago in a forest in Lac-
ey, near Olympia. Now it’s
surrounded by homes, stores
and a school. The mushrooms
are grown indoors, but mak-
ing the compost to grow the
mushrooms in leads to odors,
and complaints.
“It’s a fully developed sub-
urban landscape,” Knudsen
said. “It’s just not the right
place for a mushroom farm
anymore. We need to get out
of there.”
Ostrom’s, the state’s larg-
est mushroom grower, must
expand to remain competitive
with British Columbia farms,
Knudsen said. The company,
which also considered mov-
ing to Umatilla County in Or-
egon, has picked Sunnyside
for a $35 million farm.
The project, however, may
hinge on whether the Legis-
lature exempts most building
costs from the state’s sales
tax, the company’s lobbyist,
Brian Enslow, said.
Ostrom’s originally esti-
mated the Sunnyside farm
would cost $25 million.
Costs have risen, though. The
company is also concerned
that a weakening dollar will
continue to increase the cost
of buying the latest mush-
room-growing
technology
from the Netherlands.
“We are in a very tentative
TVW
Ostrom’s Mushrooms Farm President and CEO David Knudsen
testifies Feb. 16 before the House Finance Committee in Olympia.
The farm is seeking a sales tax exemption to help it move from
Lacey in Thurston County to Sunnyside in Yakima County.
situation. We believe it’s im-
perative to get this (tax) assis-
tance,” Enslow said.
Yakima County legislators
who represent Sunnyside,
Rep. Bruce Chandler and
Sen. Jim Honeyford, have in-
troduced the tax exemption.
Ostrom’s anticipates initially
creating about 230 jobs at the
port, with the room to expand
to 400 jobs.
“In Yakima County, we
still have space for the devel-
opment of agricultural enter-
prises,” Chandler said.
Enslow estimated the ex-
emption proposed by Chan-
dler and Honeyford would
apply to $29 million of the
construction costs. Since the
state sales tax is 6.5 percent,
the company projects saving
approximately $1.8 million.
The exact savings would de-
pend on how the Department
of Revenue interprets any tax
law passed by lawmakers.
If the finances line up, the
company could break ground
April 1, Knudsen said. Con-
struction would take about a
year, he said.
At a hearing Friday in
front of the House Finance
Committee, the Port of Sun-
nyside and the state Depart-
ment of Agriculture supported
the company.
A mushroom farm and
its year-round agricultural
jobs would be welcomed, the
port’s executive director, Jay
Hester, said.
Ostrom’s Mushrooms has
been operating in Washing-
ton since 1928. The company
closed a mushroom farm in
Whatcom County last year,
leaving it with the Lacey
operation. According to Os-
trom’s website, the company
produces 13 million pounds
of mushrooms a year.
“This farm has a long-
standing place in our state,”
said Laura Butler, a senior
adviser to the agriculture di-
rector. “Encroaching urban
growth in its current location
has prevented this farm from
modernizing and expanding
its current operations.”
Lawmakers have previ-
ously exempted or deferred
sales taxes to encourage
construction. The favored
projects have included ware-
houses, grain elevators, farm-
worker housing, anaerobic
digesters at dairies, an auto-
mobile museum and the foot-
ball and baseball stadiums in
Seattle.
Beekeeper calls pollinator
protection bill an overreaction
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
Idaho Department of Water Resources
Meters like this are being installed on groundwater wells in the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer.
Meter deadline approaches for
Idaho groundwater pumpers
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Groundwater irrigators on
the Eastern Snake Plain Aqui-
fer have until April 1 to install
flow meters approved by the
Idaho Department of Water
Resources under an order is-
sued in July of 2016.
A separate measurement
order and similar deadline ap-
plies to groundwater pumpers
in the Raft River Basin.
Groundwater pumpers who
don’t comply will have their
water curtailed until they in-
stall flow meters and could
also face a civil penalty of
$10,000.
The requirement does not
apply to domestic and stock-
water wells and small irriga-
tion wells servicing less than
5 acres, said Tim Luke, IDWR
water compliance bureau
chief.
The goal of the meter re-
quirement is to provide the
most accurate information on
groundwater consumption and
to help track groundwater use
reductions required in the 2015
agreement between the Surface
Water Coalition and the Idaho
Ground Water Association.
The ESPA order affects
about 5,400 wells, the majori-
ty of which are for agricultural
irrigation. About 60 percent of
those irrigators have already
complied, he said.
The department encourages
farmers to notify their ground-
water districts if they have
complied to ensure records are
accurate.
IDWR and water district
staff have been inspecting me-
ters since the fall of 2016, and
IDWR is narrowing down the
subset of wells that might not
be in compliance.
“We’re trying to inspect
as many as we can … adding
more staff through the effort,”
he said.
Staff are out there daily do-
ing inspections and updating
IDWR’s data base, he said.
“I believe a lot of people are
scrambling now to get these in-
stalled,” he said.
The department is in the
process of sending out notifi-
cations to entities for which it
has no record of meters being
installed. Those mostly repre-
sent individuals, and they are
encouraged to let the depart-
ment know if they installed a
meter or one is being installed,
he said.
Proper installation is im-
portant to meet compliance.
The meters need to be prop-
erly grounded and meet spac-
ing requirements. He advises
pumpers to either have meters
installed by a professional or
follow the manufacturer’s rec-
ommendations.
Several groundwater dis-
tricts have grants available to
help farmers with the cost of
installing meters.
Pumpers can also file a
variance request if they qual-
ify. Those variances apply to
such things as simple systems
with consistent flows. Since
the late 1990s, the department
has allowed those systems to
measure flows using a power
consumption coefficient, Luke
said.
But the meters must be op-
erable and accurate, and users
must file a variance request to
be in compliance, he said.
The measurement order
also applies to non-irrigation
groundwater users, such as
cities, manufacturing plants,
dairies and others. They were
required to install approved
flow meters by Jan. 1.
More than half of those us-
ers have complied, and most
of the remaining users in that
category likely have an older
allowed meter installed but
haven’t requested a variance,
he said.
EPHRATA, Wash. — One
of Washington state’s largest
beekeepers says the reintro-
duction of a bill to ban certain
pesticides to protect honey-
bees is an overreaction.
“Neonics are insecticides,
and bees are insects, so slop-
py or careless application
kills bees. But the majority
of applicators use caution and
don’t cause major acute kills,”
says Tim Hiatt, co-owner of
Hiatt Honey Co., in Ephrata.
U.S. Reps. Earl Blume-
nauer, D-Ore., and Jim Mc-
Govern, D-Mass., reintro-
duced the Saving America’s
Pollinators Act in the House
on Feb. 14. The bill would
suspend the registration of
certain neonicotinoid insecti-
cides until the EPA conducts
a full scientific review.
The congressmen and more
than a dozen environmen-
tal and conservation groups
Dan Wheat/Capital Press File
Annual beehive maintenance at
Hiatt Honey Co. near Ephra-
ta, Wash., in March 2012.
Beekeeper Tim Hiatt says a bee
protection bill is an overreaction.
say studies implicate the in-
secticides, called neonics, as
contributors to declining pop-
ulations of honeybees and but-
terflies and pose risks to birds
and aquatic invertebrates.
Some beekeeper groups
support the bill. But Hiatt says
while studies show sub-le-
thal effects on honeybees at
certain exposures, hives also
have superorganism defenses
and, aided by beekeepers, can
survive.
“More judicious use of
neonics would help beekeep-
ers combat sub-lethal effects,
which shorten the life of bees
and colonies. But an outright
federal ban is an overreaction
as it relates to honeybees.
States should assess the im-
pacts to honeybees in their
states and take appropriate
action,” Hiatt said.
On the other hand, native
pollinators usually don’t have
the advantages that honey-
bees have and a national ban
may be appropriate for them,
he said.
Mark Powers, president of
the Northwest Horticultural
Council in Yakima, said NHC
has no position on the bill. He
said some neonics are used in
tree fruit production and oth-
ers are not.
“In general, neonics are
an important tool for grow-
ing pears and controlling pear
psylla and are also sometimes
used in apple and cherry or-
chards for controlling specific
pests,” Powers said.
Wheat industry seeks to re-enter TPP
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
If the U.S. doesn’t re-enter
the Trans-Pacific Partnership,
Northwest wheat exports to
Japan could drop by half with-
in a few years, the leader of the
Washington Grain Commis-
sion says.
The Pacific Northwest cur-
rently exports roughly 800,000
metric tons of Western white
wheat, a popular blend of
soft white wheat and subclass
club wheat, to Japan each
year, commission CEO Glen
Squires said.
Hard red winter and hard
red spring wheat exports would
also be impacted, affecting
Montana and North Dakota.
Other states exporting to Pacif-
ic Rim customers would also
be impacted, Squires said.
Japan wants the U.S. in
TPP, and is not interested in
bilateral agreements, Squires
said.
Wheat industry representa-
tives met in Washington, D.C.,
last week. Many legislators are
aware of the concerns about
the Trans-Pacific Partnership
proceeding without the U.S.,
Squires said. It will essential-
ly amount to a tariff on U.S.
wheat, putting the country at
a price disadvantage in key
markets compared to compet-
ing wheat-producing countries
that remain in the trade pact.
Changes under TPP will
occur over nine years, but
Squires said the impact on
shipments could be much fast-
er.
“This is a massively big
deal,” he said.
Reduced demand would
result in lower wheat prices,
Squires said.
A national coalition of agri-
cultural commodities is form-
ing to address the situation,
Squires said.
The industry will appeal to
the Trump administration to
rejoin the trade deal.
“President Trump is the
guy who can negotiate, and
get us back involved,” Squires
said. “It’s clearly a big impact:
It’s the equivalent of handing
our competitors a $500 million
check per year.”
“It’s the administration
that’s got to determine how
important this trade relation-
ship is,” said Blaine Jacobson,
executive director of the Idaho
Wheat Commission.
The industry is working to
educate people who have con-
tact with the administration,
he said, in hopes of reaching
“critical mass,” recognizing
TPP as a beneficial trade ar-
rangement for the U.S.
“There’s widespread sup-
port for getting back into it,
but whether or not we have
reached the right people yet is
still unknown,” Jacobson said.
Asian customers want soft
white wheat from the Pacific
Northwest, Jacobson said.
“They might be willing
to pay a minor premium,” he
said. “As time goes on, those
customers will probably find
a way to make use of wheat
other than PNW wheat. In the
short-term, a modest impact,
but in the long-term, probably
a major impact on markets.”
Squires warned of “ripple
effects” throughout the indus-
try, which could happen as
soon as U.S. wheat becomes
uncompetitive in overseas
markets, he said.
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