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WINTER SERVICE GUIDE | PAGES 8-10
Friday, October 4, 2019
CapitalPress.com
Volume 92, Number 40
$2.00
MONEY
FROM
MANURE
Potential for generating fuel from waste grows
George Plaven/Capital Press
The remaining dry solids
from manure digestion are
similar in feel to sawdust, and
can be used for animal bedding
or as a soil amendment.
Anaerobic digesters explained
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
B
OARDMAN, Ore. — A thou-
sand miles separates Threemile
Canyon Farms in Eastern Ore-
gon, surrounded by high des-
ert and sagebrush, from the
crowded freeways of Los Angeles.
Though they might seem like distant
strangers, the mega-dairy and the mega-
lopolis are about to be connected by a most
unexpected resource — cow manure.
Threemile Canyon Farms is Oregon’s
largest dairy with 68,340 cattle, includ-
ing 33,000 milking cows. In 2012, the
farm built an anaerobic digester to cap-
ture methane emissions from all that
manure. It has since used the gas to gen-
erate electricity, which it sells to the
interstate utility PacifiCorp.
In June, state regulators approved an
expansion of the facility, and Threemile
Canyon installed new equipment to
purify the methane. Farm managers
now plan to inject it into a nearby nat-
ural gas pipeline, which will transport it
to Southern California to produce clean-
er-burning fuel for trucks.
See Manure, Page 13
Biogas is generated when microorganisms convert manure into methane in a closed space,
absent of oxygen. This process is known as anaerobic digestion and digesters can produce
hundreds of kilowatt-hours of electricity. Other useful by-products from this process
include fertilizer and solid bedding material.
Electricity
sold to
utility
Methane
handling
Digester
one
Manure
collection
Co-gen
Digester
two
Methane storage
Sources: Revolution Energy Solutions;
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Capital Press graphic
Separator
Generator
burns methane
to produce
electricity
Solids: liquid fertilizer and bedding
Marty Myers, left, general manager
of Threemile Canyon Farms, with
engineer Rick Morck at the dairy’s
digester facility, where gas is captured
from cow manure to generate
electricity and make renewable
natural gas for transportation fuel.
George Plaven/Capital Press
Judge overturns county’s aerial spray ban
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
An Oregon judge has
invalidated Lincoln Coun-
ty’s prohibition against
aerial pesticide spraying
because the ordinance is pre-
empted by state law.
Voters narrowly approved
the aerial spray ban in 2017
but two landowners filed a
lawsuit challenging the ordi-
nance for overstepping the
county’s authority.
Lincoln County Circuit
Court Judge Sheryl Bachart
has now ruled that Oregon’s
Pesticide Control Act disal-
lows local government reg-
ulation of pesticides, includ-
ing aerial spraying.
“Since the ordinance
seeks by its very terms to
regulate pesticide use, the
county is completely pre-
empted under state law from
adopting any ordinance
regarding pesticide use,” the
judge said.
The judge rejected argu-
ments by supporters of the
ban who argued the ordi-
nance’s legality was sup-
ported by the Declaration of
Independence, U.S. Consti-
tution and Oregon Consti-
tution, calling these claims
“misplaced and without
legal precedent.”
“There is simply no
authority for the proposi-
tion that the people of Lin-
coln County are granted an
inalienable right of local
self-government which pre-
empts any authority of the
state,” Baccarat said.
The plaintiffs in the
case, Rex Capri and Wake-
field Farms, rely on aerially
applied herbicides to con-
trol weeds on their land and
asked that the prohibition be
declared void.
The ordinance amounts
to an “attack on the rule of
law” because it claims the
“right of local community
self-government” overrides
Oregon’s overall system of
government, according to
the plaintiffs.
It’s beyond the coun-
ty’s power to adopt an ordi-
nance that supersedes state
and federal laws, and local
restrictions on spraying are
pre-empted by the state’s
Pesticide Control Act, For-
est Practices Act and “right
to farm and forest” law, the
plaintiffs said.
Supporters of the ordi-
nance argued that all power
is inherent in the people
See Ban, Page 13
First commercial picking of Cosmic Crisp underway
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
GRANDVIEW, Wash. —
Fresh snow blanketed the Rattle-
snake Hills 10 miles to the north,
and picking was delayed an hour
to let the new Cosmic Crisp
apples warm up and lessen the
chances of bruising.
One could say what’s believed
to be the first commercial picking
of Washington’s signature Cos-
mic Crisp apple got off to a chilly
start.
It was 8 a.m., Sept. 30, at Lyall
Orchards in Grandview.
A few days earlier, Tyler
Brandt, vice president of Pro-
prietary Variety Management in
Yakima, said as far as he knows
Lyall Orchards is the first to pick
the new variety, the first devel-
oped by Washington State Uni-
versity since 1997. They will
be headed to grocery stores in
December.
PVM is managing the com-
mercial development of Cosmic
Crisp for WSU.
Several weeks of controlled
atmosphere storage are needed
to lower starch and raise sugar
levels to provide the right sweet,
tangy taste the industry believes
consumers will like better than
Honeycrisp and that they hope
gives grower good returns.
Industry marketers call it their
$500 million gamble. Millions
See Apple, Page 13
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
From left, JimRay Lyall, 31, his uncle
Frank Lyall, 62, and grandmother Donna
Lyall, 86, at Lyall Orchards, Grandview,
Wash., on Sept. 30.
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