July 6, 2018
CapitalPress.com
7
Washington Ecology moves to raise air-quality fees
Public hearings set
for plan based on
emissions volume
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Cattle feedlots, fertilizer
plants, food processors and
mint distilleries are among the
530 businesses in 17 counties
in Central and Eastern Wash-
ington affected by a Depart-
ment of Ecology plan to col-
lect more money to monitor
air pollution.
Ecology says the new flat
fees — initially ranging from
$200 to $7,000 a year and
based on the volume of emis-
sions — would be fairer and
simpler than current rates.
A minority of businesses
would pay less for Ecology to
check pollution-control plans.
Most businesses would pay
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press File
Cattle at a feedlot in Pasco, Wash. The Washington Department of Ecology proposes to restructure
air-quality fees that some businesses, including feedlots, in 17 counties pay.
more, including 148 small
emitters that are currently
exempt from fees. The small
emitters include nine distill-
ers of mint oil in Adams and
Grant counties that operate a
few weeks a year.
“There are going to be
some businesses, not just in
ag, that will see substantial
increases, and some that get
lucky and see fee decreases,”
said Jack Field, Washington
Cattle Feeders Association
executive director. “Hopeful-
ly, it’s going to be something
simple and self-supporting.”
Ecology collects the fees
in counties that don’t have
a local air-pollution control
agency. The fees apply in
raise fees. In the future, Ecol-
ogy would be able to raise
fees across-the-board every
two years to keep up with de-
partment expenses. The fees
were last raised six years ago.
Other businesses that must
register emissions include
landfills, data centers, sewer
plants and rock crushers.
Ecology will have two
public hearings on the propos-
al. The hearings will be:
• 10 a.m. Wednesday, July
25, Red Lion Hotel, 1225 N.
Wenatchee Ave., Wenatchee.
• 10 a.m. Thursday, July
26, Best Western Plus Lake
Front Hotel, 3000 W. Marina
Drive, Moses Lake.
Written comments will
be accepted through Aug. 3.
Comments may be submitted
by online at ac.ecology.com-
mentinput.com or by mail to
Jean-Paul Huys, Department
of Ecology, P.O. Box 47600,
Olympia, WA 98504-7600.
counties east of the Cascades,
except for Benton, Spokane
and Yakima counties.
Ecology says the current
fees raised $285,000 in 2017,
while the department spent
$518,000. Ecology propos-
es to phase-in the new fees
to make the program nearly
self-supporting in three years.
Businesses would fall into
one of six tiers based on their
releases of particulate matter,
volatile organic compounds,
carbon monoxide, sulfur ox-
ides and nitrogen oxides.
Under the current fees, the
largest emitters pay a regis-
tration fee, plus fees for each
ton of pollutants released and
the complexity of their emis-
sions-control plans.
Ecology also proposes to
make future rate hikes eas-
ier so that fees don’t lag be-
hind rising government costs.
Ecology currently must go
through formal rule-writing to
Farms eyed as fast-growing cities seek water
High court ruling
spawns task force
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Chicken
buy raises
antitrust
concerns
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
The recent purchase of an
organic chicken producer by
a major meat company has
prompted an organic industry
watchdog to complain of un-
lawfully reduced competition.
The Cornucopia Institute,
an organic nonprofit, has
asked the U.S. Department of
Justice to investigate Tyson
Foods’ acquisition of Tecum-
seh Poultry of Waverly, Neb.,
which owns the Smart Chick-
en organic brand.
Tyson, based in Springda-
le, Ark., already owns the or-
ganic chicken brands Nature-
Raised Farms and Aidells.
Buying Smart Chicken
stamps out a major competitor
and makes Tyson one of only
three firms that dominate the
organic chicken market along
with Pilgrim’s Pride and Per-
due Farms, according to Cor-
nucopia’s complaint.
Organic poultry is a dis-
tinct and rapidly growing
sector but the supremacy of
major producers may “push
out” smaller, independent
companies from the market,
the complaint said.
“There’s no law against
being big, but there are laws
against using your econom-
ic prowess to eliminate your
competitors and dominate the
market,” said Mark Kastel,
Cornucopia’s senior farm pol-
icy analyst.
Worth Sparkman, senior
public relations manager
for Tyson, said the purchase
closed after a review by ma-
jor regulatory agencies and
would not comment on the
anti-competitive concerns.
Due to delayed USDA
regulations for organic meat,
the poultry sector was initial-
ly a “laggard” in the organic
industry but is quickly going
from “zero to 60,” Kastel said.
However, investment in
organics by major meat pro-
ducers has mostly centered
on exchanging organic feed
for conventional feed and not
using synthetic drugs, rather
than providing chickens with
“meaningful” outdoor access,
he said.
Smaller poultry producers
will have difficulty competing
with the “economy of scale”
of the largery companies,
such as their ability to buy
massive quantities of feed and
shelf space in grocery stores,
Kastel said.
The control of major
firms over organic meat is
having spillover effects on
organic grains, which are
often imported from dubious
sources in foreign countries,
he said.
OLYMPIA — Farms fig-
ure prominently as Washing-
ton policymakers talk about
how to create new water
rights in basins deemed to
have too little water for fish.
A legislative task force
met June 22 to begin talks
on the state Supreme Court’s
2015 Foster decision, The
ruling barred new permanent
water rights that impair fish
flows. The ban includes with-
drawals that the Department
of Ecology determines would
be in the public interest and
could be done in a way that
doesn’t harm fish.
The ruling stymied plans
by fast-growing cities to cre-
ate fish habitat to compen-
sate for drawing more water.
It also hindered Whatcom
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, and Rep. Steve Tharinger,
D-Sequim, listen June 22 in Olympia during a meeting of a task
force on water rights. Policies could increase pressure to convert
farmland into fish habitat. Warnick and Tharinger lead the task
force.
County farmers from getting
new groundwater rights in
exchange for pumping water
into a low-running creek in
the fall.
The task force’s co-chair-
woman, Moses Lake Sen.
Judy Warnick, said after the
meeting that she wants to find
a way for cities to get more
water, but without soaking up
agricultural water rights or
converting farmland into fish
habitat.
“We need to help cities
find water, while protecting
agriculture at the same time,”
said Warnick, the top-ranking
Republican on the Senate ag-
riculture committee.
The Foster decision is one
of several Supreme Court de-
cisions over the past two de-
cades protective of state-set
minimum flows for fish. The
court rejected the idea that
more fish habitat was a sub-
stitute for less water.
The court’s 2016 Hirst de-
cision prohibiting rural wells
was in line with those prec-
edents. Lawmakers this year
nullified Hirst in exchange
for setting up new layers of
government and pledging to
spend $300 million over 15
years on fish projects.
Legislators have not act-
ed on Foster, aside from ap-
pointing the task force and
authorizing five “pilot proj-
ects,” including one by Yelm,
whose original plan led to the
Foster decision. The other
projects include the one by
Whatcom County farmers to
increase flows in Bertrand
Creek. The other projects will
be in the Washington cities of
Port Orchard, Spanaway and
Sumner.
Ecology will supervise the
projects. Daryl Williams, the
natural resources liaison of
the Tulalip Tribes based in
Snohomish County, told the
task force the projects will
need tribal approval.
“We want to maintain ag-
ricultural production in our
areas as well, but in a lot of
areas we’re not using the
most efficient irrigation sys-
tems. And if cities can help
cover the cost of improving
the efficiencies of irrigation,
the farmers could relinquish a
portion of their water right to
the city,” Williams said.
The task force is made up
of lawmakers, state agency
officials, tribes and repre-
sentatives of interest groups,
including agricultural and
environmental organizations.
It’s expected to come up with
policy recommendations to
the Legislature.
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