Capital press., June 22, 2018, Page 5, Image 5

June 22, 2018
CapitalPress.com
5
Ecology curtails water rights California expects
as Western Washington dries lighter pear crop
West half of state
‘abnormally dry’
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Irrigation rights have been
curtailed in two Western
Washington basins as the re-
gion’s once-robust summer
water outlook has dimmed to
the possibility of drought.
The Department of Ecol-
ogy has notified 93 irriga-
tors in the Chehalis basin in
southwest Washington and
nine in the Nooksack basin
in northwest Washington that
their water rights are on hold
until streams and rivers rise.
Flows in the basins’ rain-fed
waterways were well above
average in April, but dropped
to between 50 percent and 75
percent of normal in May,
according to Ecology calcu-
lations.
“It’s definitely an example
of how quickly conditions
can change and how variable
they can be,” said Jeff Marti,
Ecology’s drought coordina-
tor.
Washington’s water sup-
ply was swelled by the state’s
third-wettest April on record.
That was followed by the sec-
ond-warmest and 12th-driest
May on record, according to
National Oceanic and Atmo-
spheric Administration re-
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
A sprinkler waters a field in the Chehalis basin in southwest Wash-
ington. The state Department of Ecology sent curtailment notices to
93 irrigators in the basin, one sign Western Washington is rapidly
drying out after a wet April.
cords that date back to 1895.
The far western part of Wash-
ington had its driest May on
record, according to NOAA.
Rapidly melting snow
caused stream flows state-
wide to be 129 percent of
average in May, according
to Ecology. Stream flows
are projected to vary widely
in June, but average only 73
percent statewide. The state
considers declaring droughts
in basins where water sup-
plies are projected to fall be-
low 75 percent of normal and
cause hardships.
“Streams on the west side
of the mountains have been
much below normal.” Wash-
ington State Assistant Cli-
matologist Karin Bumbaco
said. “It all turned around on
a dime,”
The U.S. Drought Moni-
tor reported June 14 that the
western one-half of Wash-
ington was abnormally dry,
up from 27 percent the week
before. The federal Cli-
mate Prediction Center said
Wednesday that chances are
high that all of Washington
will be unusually hot and dry
for the following two weeks.
The center previously pre-
dicted Washington will have
a warm and dry summer.
The dry conditions have
not yet deepened into long-
term moisture deficients and
could be reversed as quickly
as they came on, Bumbaco
said,
“I think it could go either
way in the next four weeks,”
she said. “It is worrisome that
the Climate Prediction Center
expects it to be warm and dry
for the rest of the summer.”
Ecology’s water supply
committee met in April and
didn’t plan to meet again un-
til October. That has changed.
The committee will meet
June 29 to assess whether
drought conditions exist in
some basins, Marti said.
A drought declaration
gives Ecology additional au-
thority to speed-up approving
water-right transfers.
The curtailment notices in
the Chehalis and Nooksack
basins apply to irrigators
with water-rights junior to
minimum-stream levels set
by Ecology to protect fish.
This is the fourth straight
year that the junior wa-
ter-right holders in the Che-
halis basin have received cur-
tailment notices. The basin,
the state’s second-largest wa-
tershed, relies mostly on rain,
with a minor contribution
from snow melting off the
Olympic Mountains, accord-
ing to Ecology. The Olympic
snowpack on June 14 was
only 28 percent of normal for
the date, according to the Nat-
ural Resources Conservation
Service.
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
California is expecting a
lighter fresh pear crop this
year, down 16.6 percent
from last year’s final count.
On June 14, the Califor-
nia Pear Advisory Board
in Sacramento forecast a
2018 crop of 2.5 million,
36-pound boxes, down from
3 million last year, said
Kyle Persky, sales manager
of Rivermaid Trading Co.,
Lodi, Calif., that packs more
than half the state’s fresh
pears.
“We were over cropped
on the (Sacramento) River
last year and we had strange
bloom weather this year,”
Persky said.
More specifically, he
said, Walnut Grove and
Courtland, the pear region of
the Sacramento River Delta,
had an abundance last year
and are lighter this year due
to insufficient winter chill
and then a freeze and hot
weather right before bloom,
impeding pollination.
Fire blight, a tree-killing
disease, also is more prolif-
ic again, particularly on the
Starkrimson variety, he said.
Tree removal to combat
fire blight held down crops
in 2016 and 2015, Chris Za-
nobini, executive director of
the advisory board, has said.
This year’s forecast is
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Young pears in an East
Wenatchee, Wash., orchard
on June 2. Washington grow-
ers will be helped by Califor-
nia’s pear crop being smaller
than last year.
for 2 million Bartlett. Most-
ly Bosc will make up the
remaining 500,000 boxes,
followed by Red Starkrim-
son, Red Bartlett, Seckel,
Forelle, Comice, Sunsprite
and Taylor’s Gold.
Harvest will start July 9
in Walnut Grove with Sun-
sprite. Rivermaid is the only
grower of Sunsprite. Bartlett
and red pears will begin har-
vest the following week.
Picking will end with
Comice in Mendocino
County in mid-September,
Persky said. The crop will
be sold out before the end of
October, he said.
Ecology official to be WDFW chief
FDA’s advice to footnote
‘added sugars’ gets tart replies
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Ocean Spray
applauds ‘nuanced
approach’
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Capital Press
Ocean Spray Cranberries supports the Food and Drug Administra-
tion’s pending nutritional labeling requirements, which will require
cranberry products to have the word “added” in front of sugars.
honey footnote could say: “All
these sugars are naturally oc-
curring in honey.”
Washington state bee-
keeper Tim Hiatt, a honey
producer, called the labeling
requirement, even qualified by
a footnote, “crazy.”
“It shouldn’t say ‘added
sugars’ at all,” he said. “The
only ingredient in honey is
honey.
“The whole industry is up
in arms about this,” Hiatt said.
“We’re struggling in the in-
dustry to protect the image of
honey.”
The FDA’s suggestion for
a cranberry footnote is longer:
“Sugar added to improve the
palatability of naturally tart
cranberries. The 2015-2020
Dietary Guidelines for Amer-
icans state that there is room
for limited amounts of Added
Sugars in the diet, especially
from nutrient dense food like
naturally tart cranberries.”
Ocean Spray spokeswom-
an Kellyanne Dignan said in
an email Friday that the farm-
ers’ cooperative supports the
footnote idea. The FDA has
recognized that cranberries
are nutrient-dense and must be
sweetened for consumers to
receive the fruit’s health ben-
efits, she said.
In written comments sub-
mitted Friday, Ocean Spray
said it “applauds FDA for its
nuanced approach.”
The rule, however, remains
a sticking point with the North
American Maple Syrup Coun-
cil. In comments to the FDA,
the council maintains that
“added sugars,” even with
an explanatory footnote, will
confuse consumers looking
for a “natural, minimally pro-
cessed, pure sweetener.”
Friday was the last day to
submit comments on FDA’s
attempt to inform consumers
without scaring them away
from honey, maple syrup and
cranberries. As the deadline
neared, opposition in maple
syrup-producing states in-
tensified. U.S. Sen. Angus
King, I-Maine, said in a floor
speech June 13 that the “add-
ed sugars” rule will undo ef-
forts by maple syrup farmers
to distinguish their product.
“It’s not funny to the indus-
try,” he said.
Don Jenkins/Capital Press File
Washington Department of Ecology environmental policy director
Kelly Susewind at a meeting Dec. 9, 2015, at Ecology headquar-
ters in Lacey. Susewind was appointed June 16 to be the new
director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
somebody that we’ve been able
to work with through difficult
issues at Ecology,” Nielsen
said.
“The other thing I like about
it is they went and got someone
from outside the department,”
Nielsen said. “I think a fresh
set of eyes can do nothing but
help.”
Efforts to reach Susewind
were unsuccessful.
“The public has high expec-
tations for WDFW, and I’m ex-
cited about being in a position
to deliver the results they de-
serve,” Susewind said in a Fish
and Wildlife press release.
Washington State Dairy
Federation policy director Jay
Gordon said Susewind trav-
eled the state to learn about the
concerns of dairy farmers as
Ecology crafted new rules for
managing manure.
“He’s been tough and firm
and very sharp,” Gordon said.
“We’ve had very positive deal-
ings. We don’t always agree,
but when we disagree he has
good logic.
“Clearly, he’s familiar with
a large bureaucracy,” Gordon.
“Large bureaucracies are like
battleships. They’re big and they
don’t turn easily. ... You have
to convince the team to come
along. That’s a learned art.”
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The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration has been
flooded this month with sour
comments about its plan to re-
quire honey, maple syrup and
cranberry products to include
“added sugars” on nutrition
labels.
Remarks from New
England maple syrup makers
have been particularly bitter.
They say they don’t “add”
sugar to their naturally sugary
product. “The only thing the
producers do is evaporate wa-
ter from the sap of this liquid
gold,” one commented.
The FDA counters that
consumers should know how
much “added sugar” maple
syrup adds to pancakes. Judg-
ing by the flavor of the 2,900
comments submitted online,
the reasoning has not been
persuasive. “You have to be
kidding,” a woman remarked.
“You think someone pouring
pure 100 percent maple syrup
from a jug onto a pile of pan-
cakes doesn’t know they are
adding sugar to their break-
fast?”
The acidic observations
stem from the FDA’s 2016
overhaul of nutrition labels.
The rules are scheduled to take
effect beginning in 2020, leav-
ing the agency time to revise
them. For now, the new rules
will require the word “added”
in front of “sugar” on honey
and maple syrup labels be-
cause the FDA deemed those
foods are not “nutrient rich,”
like other naturally sugary
foods.
Honey and maple syrup
trade associations complained
that the label will mislead con-
sumers into thinking sugar-
cane was added to pure honey
and maple syrup.
Ocean Spray Cranberries,
meanwhile, complained that
the sugar added to tart cran-
berry products is comparable
to the natural sugars in raisins,
and grape and apple juice.
Consumers glancing at the
nutrition label on cranberry
products, however, would see
“added sugars” and be de-
ceived into thinking cranber-
ry products had more sugar,
Ocean Spray argued.
In response, the FDA in
March suggested footnotes on
labels for honey, maple syrup
and cranberry products.
The FDA advised that the
The Washington Fish and
Wildlife Commission reached
outside the department for a
new director Saturday, picking
a Department of Ecology offi-
cial who’s been at the forefront
of policies to prevent farms and
ranches from polluting water.
Kelly Susewind, Ecology’s
director of environmental poli-
cy, was chosen by the commis-
sion at a meeting in Olympia.
Commission members said the
department needed new leader-
ship.
“I’m just looking at the fu-
ture, of where we should be
going, and having a different
personality and different vision
coming in, I viewed as some-
thing that is necessary at this
point in time,” commission
Chairman Brad Smith said.
Susewind will replace Jim
Unsworth, who resigned in
February after three years as
Fish and Wildlife director. The
other candidates included in-
terim director Joe Stohr, who
had been Unsworth’s deputy
director.
The commission formally
picked Susewind in public —
but not by name. He was iden-
tified only as “candidate P.”
The commission took a
break while Smith called the
unidentified hire. “I just went
and talked to candidate P, who
from this day forward shall be
known as Kelly Susewind,”
Smith said. “He’s very excited.
He said he’s very nervous and
he said that if he wasn’t ner-
vous, he wouldn’t be realizing
what he was getting into.”
Cattle Producers of Wash-
ington President Scott Nielsen
said that he hoped Susewind
will make the department more
willing to release information,
especially about wolf activities.
“I’ve found Kelly to be
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