Friday, September 13, 2019
Oregon
joins lawsuit
challenging
EPA over
chlorpyrifos
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
SALEM — Oregon Attor-
ney General Ellen Rosenblum
is joining a lawsuit against the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency challenging the use of
chlorpyrifos, a widely used pes-
ticide, on food crops.
The case was filed Aug. 7
in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals by the state attor-
neys general of New York,
California, Washington, Mas-
sachusetts,
Maryland
and
Ver-
mont, argu-
ing chlorpy-
rifos is a
toxic chem-
ical that can
harm infant
Oregon
and
child
Attorney
neurological
General
development.
Ellen
Environ- Rosenblum
mental groups
including the Pesticide Action
Network North America and
Natural Resources Defense
Council originally petitioned
the EPA to ban chlorpyrifos in
2007. Former EPA Administra-
tor Scott Pruitt denied the peti-
tion in 2017.
A dozen groups fought the
decision to the appeals court,
which ordered the EPA to recon-
sider prohibiting the insecticide.
The agency, now led by Andrew
Wheeler, upheld its decision in
July, allowing farmers to con-
tinue using chlorpyrifos.
Rosenblum said it is “really
alarming that the Trump admin-
istration is disregarding the law
by allowing a toxic pesticide
that is dangerous to young chil-
dren and infants to be used in
our national food stream.”
“Every one of us eats food
that comes from around the
country, so until the EPA can
show this pesticide is safe,
there should be a national
ban,” Rosenblum said. “Farm-
workers, their families and
children living nearby are the
people to bear the dispropor-
tional brunt of this toxin.”
As of 2016, between 5 mil-
lion and 7.5 million pounds of
chlorpyrifos were applied to
food crops annually across the
country, according to the states’
lawsuit. Rosenblum said the
EPA’s own scientists have twice
been unable to identify a safe
level for the pesticide on food.
The EPA under the Obama
administration did consider
a rule to ban chlorpyrifos in
2015, but Pruitt later reversed
course, citing “serious scien-
tific concerns and substantive
process gaps in the proposal” in
his denial. The agency plans to
complete a review of the chem-
ical by Oct. 1, 2022.
Chlorpyrifos was patented
in 1966, and remains one of
the most widely used pesti-
cides in the U.S. It is regis-
tered for about 50 crops in Ore-
gon, including seed production
crops, vegetable crops, Christ-
mas trees and nursery plants.
Earlier this year, the Ore-
gon Legislature considered
bills that would ban chlorpyr-
ifos. House Bill 3058 and Sen-
ate Bill 853 died in committee.
Katie Fast, executive direc-
tor of Oregonians for Food and
Shelter, an agribusiness group
that advocates safe use of pes-
ticides and biotechnology, said
chlorpyrifos is an important tool
for farmers to fight pests like
aphids and roundworms.
While some growers of
tree fruits and specialty crops
have been able to phase out
chlorpyrifos, Fast said others
do not have registered alter-
natives. Without chlorpyrifos,
she said they could see signifi-
cant pest damage.
“The labeling process for
pesticides through the EPA is
very science-based, and takes
into account all environmen-
tal and human health exposure
that could happen through
application or food consump-
tion,” Fast said.
Lisa Arkin, executive direc-
tor of Beyond Toxics, an envi-
ronmental and human health
organization based in Eugene,
Ore., said chlorpyrifos is shown
to damage nerve cells and have
long-term effects on brain
development in children.
CapitalPress.com
3
Bonneville Dam lock to reopen Sept. 30
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
The Bonneville Dam navigation
lock will return to service at 10 a.m.
Sept. 30, according to the Portland
District of the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers.
A sill on the lock was found to be
cracked, causing it to leak as barges
and other vessels transited the dam.
The Corps shut down the lock, block-
ing all river traffic.
Barge and elevator operators rely
on the Columbia River to transport
millions of bushels of wheat to market.
“It’s important to recognize the
patience from our Columbia River
users, who depend on this critical
piece of infrastructure to run their busi-
nesses,” said Col. Aaron Dorf, Port-
land District commander for the Corps.
“Between now and Sept. 30, our teams
will be working around-the-clock to
construct the new sill to restore Colum-
bia River traffic.”
“One nice thing is we’re 95% done
harvesting, so I think we’ve all put the
crop away,” said Damon Filan, man-
ager of Tri-Cities Grain and a member
of the Washington Grain Commission.
Fourteen commercial vessels are
impacted by the lock closure, accord-
ing to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Colum-
bia River Waterways Management
Division — seven from Tidewater
Barge, four from Shaver Transporta-
tion and three from American Cruise
Line.
Shaver Transportation operates a
fleet of 20 grain barges between Lew-
iston, Idaho, and export terminals on
Megan Innes/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
This Sept. 8 photo provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
shows a crack in a concrete sill on a lock on the Bonneville Dam on
the Columbia River. The critical lock has been shut down for repairs,
meaning barges that shuttle millions of tons of wheat, wood and
other goods to the Pacific Ocean for transport to Asia can’t move.
the lower Columbia River.
“This, of course, is a busy time of
year post-harvest,” Rob Rich, vice pres-
ident of marine services at Shaver, said.
Three Shaver barge tows are
above Bonneville Dam 40 miles
upstream from Portland and waiting
to go through the locks. Ten barges are
loaded. They are tied off at the Fort
Raines barge storage area above Bon-
neville Dam, awaiting transit through
the locks when they reopen, Rich said.
“All that wheat is going to move”
despite the delay, Rich said.
The barges are closed-hatch and
weather is moderate, so Rich doesn’t
expect the delay to harm the grain.
“It is not uncommon for wheat to be
in barges three or four weeks or more,”
he said. “There isn’t a concern about
quality degradation.”
Wheat exports have been relatively
slow due to trade wars and global com-
petition, Filan said.
Overseas customers tend to purchase
wheat several months out, he said.
“If it was a very long-term deal,
then we’d have some challenges,
because I’m not sure the rail could han-
dle the demand,” he said.
Railroad tracks line the river gorge,
but they have much smaller capacity
than barges. A four-barge tow carries
480,000 bushels of wheat, roughly the
equivalent of 120 to 130 rail cars, Filan
said.
About $2 billion in commercial
cargo travels the entire system annu-
ally, according to the Corps. It’s the
No. 1 export gateway in the U.S. for
wheat and barley and the No. 2 export
gateway for corn.
Navigation locks allow the large
barges to pass through the massive
concrete dams that were built across
the Columbia and Snake rivers decades
ago to generate hydroelectricity for the
U.S. West.
A boat enters a sealed chamber
filled with water — essentially like
a giant concrete bathtub — and then
the water level is lowered or raised to
match the level of the river on the other
side of the dam. Then the lock opens on
the other side and the boat exits.
The concrete sill that is cracked in
the Bonneville Dam is similar to a rub-
ber threshold on the bottom of a door.
Just as that rubber strip creates a seal to
keep cold air and moisture from leak-
ing in under the door, the concrete sill
meets up with the lock’s gate and cre-
ates a seal to keep water in the lock.
The cracked concrete is on the
downstream lock gate, but the dam-
age was causing significant leaking in
the whole system — so much so that
water levels were falling when the lock
was in operation, said Chris Gaylord, a
spokesman for the Corps.
The Associated Press contributed
to this story.
Southeast Washington wolfpack crosses threshold
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The Grouse Flats wolfpack killed
a calf in Garfield County, Washing-
ton Fish and Wildlife said Monday,
becoming the first pack in southeast
Washington to attack enough live-
stock to be a candidate for lethal
removal.
A range-rider found the dead
450-pound calf in a fenced pasture
on private land Aug. 30. The pack
killed two calves in July and killed
or injured three cattle last year.
Fish and Wildlife’s policy calls
for it to consider lethal control
after four attacks on livestock in
10 months. The most recent depre-
dation was the fourth in 10 months
and two days, but the department
will count it, a spokeswoman said.
Fish and Wildlife Director Kelly
Susewind has not decided what
the department will do, she said.
The department retains flexibil-
ity in choosing to use lethal con-
trol, ramp-up non-lethal measures
or hope wolves and livestock move
apart.
The department has shot wolves
in northeast Washington to pro-
tect cattle and sheep, but has never
used lethal control in southeast
Washington.
The department’s use of lethal
control in places with many more
attacks on cattle has been chal-
lenged, sometimes successfully,
in Western Washington courts in
counties without wolves.
The Grouse Flats pack’s terri-
tory extends into northeast Ore-
gon. The pack had eight wolves at
the end of 2018, according to Fish
and Wildlife, making it the sec-
ond-largest of Washington’s 27
packs.
The rear half of the calf found
Aug. 30 had been mostly eaten,
according to Fish and Wildlife.
Investigators found wolf tracks.
A radio collar worn by one wolf
showed that at least one member of
the pack had been in the area, the
department said.
The rancher watches the herd
with range-riders five days a week,
has people regularly in the area, puts
lights in the pasture and disposes of
livestock carcasses, according to
the department.
The department also will con-
sider lethal removal after three
attacks in 30 days. The Grouse Flats
pack has not crossed that threshold.
Fish and Wildlife confirmed July
8 and July 22 that the pack attacked
calves. One calf was attacked on
private land. The other was on a
grazing allotment in the state 4-0
Ranch Wildlife Area.
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