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November 30, 2018 CapitalPress.com 3 Potential settlement reached in Oregon farmer’s Clean Water Act lawsuit Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press File In this March 30, 2016, photo, farmer Bill Case of Albany, Ore., points to the North Santiam River, which abuts a 50-acre field he owns. An potential settlement has been reached with the federal government, according to court documents. By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Attorneys for the federal gov- ernment and an Oregon farmer accused of Clean Water Act vio- lations have told a judge the dis- pute is “settled in principle.” While a court docket notice says the deal should be finalized by late February, farmer Bill Case of Linn County said he’s displeased with some recent de- mands from the U.S. Environ- mental Protection Agency. The agency filed a lawsuit against Case in 2016 claiming he’d violated the Clean Water Snake Basin reservoir levels near average entering winter Act by stabilizing the bank of the North Santiam River with large “rip rap” rocks and ex- panding two levees along the waterway. Case has long maintained that he completed the work with approval from state and federal officials but neglected to get the authorization in writing. Earlier this year, U.S. Mag- istrate Judge Thomas Coffin found that Case should be held liable for the Clean Water Act vi- olations without a jury trial and the ruling was soon affirmed by U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken. Case said he’s now agreed to move a dike 10 feet farther away from the river, remove anoth- er dike entirely and pay a civil penalty of $100,000, but he dis- agrees with the EPA’s request to impose more conservation ease- ments on farmland near the riv- er, which would restrict its use. Christmas tree supplies remain tight for the last three or four years. Snyder said prices will be up a little bit again this year, but there should still be plen- ty of trees available. “I don’t think there should be any issue with people find- ing a real tree,” Snyder said. Bob Schaefer, general manager of Noble Moun- tain Tree Farm in Salem, Ore., said quality this year is “exceptional,” despite a record-setting drought and heat over the summer. Dry conditions actual helped production during harvest, Schaefer said, while timely rains in October provided some much-needed relief. “The only thing that re- ally impacted us was the hot, dry summer, but that didn’t impact our crop trees. It impacted our seedlings,” Schaefer said. The weather-related im- pacts to seedlings is a con- cern for Landgren at OSU, since most of the region’s Christmas trees are grown without irrigation. Anecdot- ally, some farms reported up to 70 percent seedling mor- tality this summer, Landgren said, which is much higher than the average of 10-15 percent. Landgren said the univer- sity is experimenting with ways to reduce seedling mor- tality, such as shading and chemical sprays to reduce water transpiration. If young trees continue to die at a rap- id rate, he said it could result in another shortage five years down the road. “Trying to get these trees to survive has been a bit of a challenge,” Landgren said. McKenzie “Ken” Cook, of McKenzie Farms based in Estacada, Ore., said the in- dustry has dealt with a long, hard struggle to rebound from this latest shortage. He said the number of trees grown in Oregon has fallen from 90 million to fewer than 40 million. By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press By BRAD CARLSON Capital Press Snake River Basin reser- voirs are at normal levels de- spite a dry start to the snow-ac- cumulation year, Idaho Power Co. reported. Winter snowpack and the amount of water stored in the Snake system’s reservoirs largely determine how much water will be available for hydroelectric power genera- tion, irrigation and other uses through 2019. The 2016-17 winter left reservoirs flush with water that carried over to the summer of 2018. A warm, dry summer that increased irrigation de- mand, and a dry fall, dropped reservoirs to more typical levels, the Boise-based utility said. Southwest Idaho’s Boise and Payette reservoir systems, which flow into the Snake, are near their average levels for this time of year, while the Up- per Snake system in southeast Idaho and part of Wyoming is slightly above average, the company said. “We are doing OK in terms of storage,” Idaho Power spokesman Brad Bowlin said. “We just don’t have the abun- U.S. Bureau of Reclamation The American Falls Dam. Idaho Power reports that most reservoirs in the Snake River Basin are at normal levels for this time of year. Online https://www.idahopower.com/ energy/delivering-power/ energy-sources/ dance of water we’ve had in the past two years.” Water stored in reservoirs in the Boise River system was 104 percent of its long-term average compared to 143 per- cent a year ago, he said. Stor- age in the Upper Snake system was 120 percent of average, down from 183 percent. Water stored in Payette River system reservoirs stood at 97 percent, down from 118 percent. Snowpack “has been min- imal up to this point, and it’s still early,” Bowlin said. Cur- rently unknown is “how much of the storage water will be needed to compensate for a light snowpack versus how much we can hold onto be- cause we get a good snowpack. It just remains to be seen.” “We will see what these (storm) systems coming through this weekend will provide, he said Friday, Nov. 23. “We anticipate snowpack out of these systems. This is typically the time we start to see some of the snow start to accumulate up in the high country.” Darigold facility faces environmental lawsuit Capital Press A Darigold processing plant in Spokane, Wash., is accused by an environmental group of exceeding pollutant bench- marks in violation of the Clean Water Act. The lawsuit filed by Spo- kane Riverkeeper claims more than 20 samples of discharged water from the facility — one of 11 owned by Darigold — contained excess levels of zinc, phosphorous, turbidity, dis- solved oxygen, oil and grease as well as nitrate and nitrite since 2014. Spokane Riverkeeper’s complaint alleges Darigold has failed to implement adequate best management practices and stormwater pollution prevention plans at the facility and hasn’t responded to the problem with the right corrective actions. The complaint is seeking an injunction blocking Dari- gold from further violating its Clean Water Act permit, as well as civil penalties ranging from about $37,500 to $53,500 per day of violation. The environmental group has also requested reimburse- ment of its litigation expenses and two years of access to water quality documents submitted by Darigold to state and federal regulators, once the company’s in compliance with the permit. In a notice letter sent to Darigold before the lawsuit was filed, Spokane Riverkeeper said the threats to the Spokane Riv- er “are severe by any measure” because the waterway currently “does not meet water quality standards for several parame- ters.” “Such wastes can enter the environment and remain for long periods of time, contami- nating drinking water supplies, public beaches, private lands, and critical habitat for fish and wildlife, as well as expose peo- ple to serious health risks,” the letter said. “These risks are especially pronounced in the Spokane River, where there has been long-term and pervasive industrial pollution. Currently, fish caught in the Spokane River are not fit for human consump- tion due to toxic contamination.” Sarah Taydas, corporate communications director for Darigold, said the company is “disappointed” that Spokane Riverkeeper filed the complaint because it had been trying to resolve the environmental group’s concerns. While Darigold just recently received the complaint and is still reviewing it, the company takes environmental compliance seriously and has a good record in Spokane, she said in an email. Darigold is the marketing and processing subsidiary of the Northwest Dairy Associa- tion, a cooperative owned by nearly 500 farms that produce roughly 10 billion pounds of milk a year. “At Darigold, we pursue sustainable practices because they are the right thing to do. Sustainability is core to our values as a co-op,” Taydas said. “Our goal is to operate in a way that leaves the world and the people we touch in a better state.” Capital Press File The Darigold plant in Sunny- side, Wash. The dairy cooper- ative was sued by environmen- talists over alleged clean water violations at its Spokane plant. FLAT CARS- THE BETTER BRIDGE • Lower Cost • Custom Lengths up to 90’ • Certified Engineering Services Available • Steel Construction LET’S TALK! 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Chal Landgren, a Christ- mas tree specialist at Ore- gon State University, said tight supplies are the result of overproduction during the late 2000s that deflated pric- es and forced roughly one- third of farms to drop out of the business. Oregon is still the top pro- ducer of Christmas trees in the U.S., though Landgren said there are about 400 few- er growers now compared to just three years ago, turning what was a glut of cheap trees into a deficit. “It’s this sort of boom and bust (cycle) of agricul- ture,” Landgren said. “When people weren’t making any money, they just got out of the business.” While the USDA did not conduct a survey for Christ- mas trees in 2018, Landgren said Oregon growers will likely ship around 5.2 million trees to retailers nationwide — or about the same as 2017. Past years’ harvests had been as high as 7 million to 9 mil- lion trees, he said. It could take another six to 10 years for supply and demand to balance, Land- gren added, based on the time it takes to grow popular species such as Douglas fir and Noble fir from seedling to holiday height. “It takes a long time to go through the cycle of a Christ- mas tree,” he said. According to the National Christmas Tree Association, consumers reported spending an average of $75 per tree in 2017. Gary Snyder, president of the Kirk Co., a large tree grower with offices in Oregon City, Ore., said prices have risen 10-15 percent each year Wash. Idaho Calif. 4 1% 40% 0 48% 3.9 2% 32% 2% 45% 50% Below 33-50% Below 3.4 0 80% 0 75% Normal/ 40% Above 48-3/108 Farmer Bill Case said he remains unhappy with some federal demands
