Friday, January 8, 2021
CapitalPress.com 3
Winter storms expected to boost Oregon snowpack
Statewide precipitation
ahead of last year
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
PORTLAND — Heading into
2021, Oregon’s snowpack and over-
all precipitation levels are faring
much better than they were a year
ago, though there is still room for
improvement as river basins across
the state rebound from drought.
As of Dec. 30, snowpack is 80%
of average for the water year that
began Oct. 1, and precipitation is
85% of average. That compares to
45% of average snowpack and 49%
of average precipitation at the same
time last year.
Scott Oviatt, snow survey
supervisor for the USDA Natu-
ral Resources Conservation Ser-
vice in Portland, said parts of south-
west and central Oregon remain in
EO Media Group File
Heading into 2021, Oregon’s snowpack and precipitation levels are
faring much better than last year.
severe to extreme drought, and the
coming months will be crucial for
replenishing streams and reservoirs.
“We’re very early in the winter,”
Oviatt said. “There is still work to
be done.”
A pair of winter storms this week
are expected to help, dumping as
much as 12-15 inches of fresh snow
on the Oregon Cascades from Port-
land to Medford.
Rebecca Muessle, meteorologist
for the National Weather Service in
Portland, said the storms will bring
heavy rain to the Oregon coast and
Willamette Valley before turning
into snow at around the 4,500 feet
of elevation in the Cascades.
The heaviest snowfall is
expected in the southern Washing-
ton and central Oregon mountains,
especially over Santiam and Wil-
lamette passes east of Salem and
Eugene, Muessle said.
Charles Smith, meteorologist
for the Weather Service in Med-
ford, said much-needed snow is
also coming to Southern Oregon,
with the storms bringing as much as
19-20 inches in some areas.
“Snow is on the way, for sure,”
Smith said. “We’ll definitely make
up some of the ground we lost in
December.”
That is good news for farms
that struggled with water shortages
and devastating wildfires in 2020.
The U.S. Drought Monitor still
lists 91% of Oregon in some stage
of drought — including 29% in
“extreme drought,” mostly centered
on the Rogue, Umpqua, Klamath
and Upper Deschutes basins.
As a result, Klamath Basin irri-
gators received just a fraction of
Oregon rail-to-trail project blocked for third time
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
The farm impacts of a recreational
trail in Oregon’s Yamhill County
weren’t properly analyzed, so the proj-
ect must be reconsidered for a third
time, according to a state land use
board.
County officials failed to comply
with a previous order to “make specific
factual findings” whether the 3-mile
trail Yamhelas-Westsider trail will
“force a significant change in farming
practices” in regard to pesticide spray-
ing, the Land Use Board of Appeals
has ruled.
“The farmers are not obligated to
accommodate the trail by changing
their accepted farm practices, even if
that change is ‘reasonable, prudent and
feasible,’” according to LUBA.
Yamhill County bought a 12.5-mile
stretch of rail corridor for $1.4 million
in 2017 and approved converting three
of those miles between Yamhill and
Carlton into a recreational trail the fol-
lowing year.
However, LUBA overturned that
decision on procedural grounds in
2018 and then again due to farm impact
concerns in 2019.
In the most recent ruling, LUBA has
again found that county officials came
up short in their analysis of the trail.
Farmers and the Oregon Depart-
ment of Agriculture testified that spray-
ing of gramoxone and parazone herbi-
cides near the trail would be prohibited,
which weighs heavily in the favor of
the project’s opponents, the ruling said.
Meanwhile, Yamhill County’s
conclusion that the trail wouldn’t
affect use of these chemicals “is not
supported by substantial evidence”
or “countervailing expert testimony,”
Analysts: Big
milk supply can’t
support prices
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Capital Press File
Opponents of a trail across farmland in Oregon’s Yamhill County protest
against the project in this file photo. The state Land Use Board of Appeals
has blocked the project and ordered the county to reconsider its approval
for the third time.
according to LUBA.
Likewise, farmers should not be
required to impose a 10-foot setback
for spraying the pesticides Lorsban and
Yuma 4E on their own property, since
it’s up to Yamhill County to accom-
modate farm use — not the other way
around, the ruling said.
The county wrongly didn’t evalu-
ate if the trail will change how farms
are regulated under the federal govern-
ment’s “application exclusion zone”
for pesticides, the ruling said.
Even if no law prevents aerial
spraying next to the trail, the county
must still consider whether the project
will adversely affect such applications,
LUBA said. “The burden is on the
county to demonstrate that its nonfarm
use will not force a significant change.
The county has not done so.”
Aside from the trail’s potential
effects on pesticide usage, the county
also failed to consider whether the
project will “result in new drainage
patterns and how the stormwater will
be managed to avoid contamination
of adjacent farmland,” the ruling said.
“The findings simply dismiss the farm-
ers’ concerns.”
It’s unclear whether fencing around
the trail will prevent “trespass-related
concerns” about pesticide exposure,
“as well as weed seed, trash and feces
contamination,” according to LUBA.
The county’s analysis of fire risks,
meanwhile, was “inadequate and not
supported by substantial evidence.”
LUBA also agreed with the proj-
ect’s opponents that Yamhill County’s
process for authorizing the trail was
flawed.
The county didn’t allow opponents
to present oral testimony while dis-
counting their written testimony as
“not credible” based on its judgment of
their attorney, the ruling said.
“In these unique circumstances, we
agree with the petitioners that the coun-
ty’s procedure prohibiting petitioners
from testifying at the hearing preju-
diced their substantial rights to submit
their case and to receive a full and fair
hearing,” LUBA said.
Feds backpedal on $14K fee for distillers that made hand sanitizer
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
No good deed goes
unpunished.
That is how dozens of
Northwest distillers felt after
rushing to make hand sani-
tizer in the early days of the
coronavirus pandemic, only
to be slapped with unex-
pected fees by the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration for
their efforts.
The FDA announced
Dec. 29 it would charge dis-
tilleries across the coun-
try $14,060 under a newly
established fee program
for “monograph drug facil-
ities” producing over-the-
counter drugs, including
hand sanitizer.
Two days later, the
Department of Health and
Human Services, which
oversees the FDA, decided
to withdraw the fees for
distilleries after receiving
blowback from industry rep-
resentatives and lawmak-
ers. Payments for fiscal year
2021 had been due Feb. 11.
“We are incredibly grate-
ful to HHS for opening a
dialogue with us, and look
forward to working more
collaboratively together in
2021 with FDA to ensure our
members are treated fairly
for the challenges they face
to support their hometowns
via hand sanitizer produc-
tion in the wake of COVID-
19,” said Becky Harris, pres-
ident of the American Craft
Spirits Association.
According to the Distilled
Spirits Council of the United
States, 67 craft distilleries
in Oregon, Washington and
Idaho have produced hand
sanitizer in response to the
pandemic.
their normal water allocation, and
Wickiup Reservoir in Central Ore-
gon dropped to just 1% of capacity,
a historic low.
Wildfires also burned more
than 1.2 million acres statewide in
2020, headlined by a series of wind-
whipped blazes after Labor Day
that all but wiped several commu-
nities off the map.
Oviatt, with the NRCS Snow
Survey, said conditions appear to be
improving, but noted weather pat-
terns can change quickly.
“Our trend right now is slightly
below the historical values, but
there’s room for improvement,” he
said. “With that in mind, it’s going
to take us a little bit of time to get
out of (drought), if conditions war-
rant it.”
NRCS plans to release its
first 2021 Water Supply Outlook
Report for Oregon this month,
including updated streamflow and
reservoir forecasts. The reports are
issued monthly through June.
Dry Fly Distilling
Bottles of hand sanitizer made by Dry Fly Distilling in
Spokane. The FDA announced Dec. 29 it would impose
$14,000 in fees for distilleries that made hand sanitizer
amid the coronavirus pandemic. The fees were later re-
scinded.
In Spokane, demand for
hand sanitizer was so great
that hundreds of cars lined
up outside Dry Fly Distilling
at a time when store shelves
were virtually empty.
Terry Nichols, co-owner
and vice president of sales
for Dry Fly Distilling, said
the idea to make hand san-
itizer was spearheaded in
March by head distiller Pat-
rick Donovan. The distill-
ery switched one of its vodka
column stills over to mak-
ing 190-proof ethanol, which
was mixed with hydrogen
peroxide, glycerin and dis-
tilled water — a formulation
recommended by the World
Health Organization.
Nichols estimates they
made about 32,000 gallons
of hand sanitizer in total.
The first 5,000 gallons were
donated to first responders
and social service providers,
including hospitals, police
and nursing homes.
Dry Fly Distilling also
organized 10 community
distribution events, held
over a series of Saturdays,
which proved popular. Police
directed traffic to where vol-
unteers stood ready on both
sides of the street, handing
out 4- and 8-ounce bottles.
Nichols said they had as
many as 3,000 cars drive
through during the events.
“I never thought I’d see so
many people so thankful for
hand sanitizer,” Nichols said.
“People were scared. There
was a need, and they couldn’t
find it on the store shelves.
They were just grateful.”
Nichols described the
FDA fees as a slap in the face
for distillers who were just
trying to do the right thing in
a time of crisis.
John Ufford, CEO of
Rose City Distilling in south-
west Portland, said it was
actually the U.S. Alcohol
and Tobacco Tax and Trade
Bureau that put out the ini-
tial call for distillers to make
hand sanitizer, and even pro-
vided the recipe.
Rose City Distilling con-
tinues to make hand sani-
tizer as part of its operations,
albeit at a smaller scale. Had
the FDA fees gone forward,
Ufford said they were pre-
pared to fight in court, if
necessary.
“My initial reaction was
that we are not paying a
dime,” Ufford said. “We did
what we were asked to do.”
Thomas Mooney, founder
and CEO of Westward Whis-
key in Portland, said that
while his distillery ultimately
decided not to make hand
sanitizer, the fees would have
been a serious financial blow
for small producers.
“What I can definitely
tell you is that these fees are
a gut punch for a commu-
nity of small producers who
lost most of our business this
year and still found ways to
help our communities by
providing hand sanitizer
when nobody else would,”
Mooney said.
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The futures market
for Class III milk prices
is looking healthy with
prices near $17.50 per
hundredweight in Febru-
ary, March and April, but
analysts at the University
of Wisconsin are skepti-
cal those prices will play
out given surging milk
production.
U.S. milk production
was up 3% in Novem-
ber year over year and up
2.3% in September and
October.
“That’s more milk than
the market can handle to
keep the milk price up,”
Bob Cropp, a dairy econo-
mist at the university, said
in the latest “Dairy Situa-
tion and Outlook” podcast.
There’s expansion in
the industry, with cow
numbers up 62,000 head
year over year in Novem-
ber. And production per
cow was up 2.3% year
over year in November,
a large increase from the
trend of 1.4% to 1.5%, he
said.
“So that combination is
a lot of milk,” he said.
Futures prices for Class
III milk on Dec. 31 were at
$17.49 per hundredweight
for February, $17.46 for
March and $17.38 for
April.
But unless farmers are
planning to slow produc-
tion or there’s another
round of government food
box distributions, Cropp
doesn’t think those prices
will even be in the $16s,
he said.
Plugging in current
cheese and whey prices,
Class III would be in the
low $15s, he said.
“I think the markets,
futures, are over-optimis-
tic at least for the first
quarter and maybe the first
half of the year,” he said.
Fellow university econ-
omist Mark Stephenson
agreed, saying cheddar
cheese prices have settled
out at about $1.60 a pound
for blocks.
“That’s not moving
much of anywhere, but
that is essentially at world
market prices. So at that
kind of price, maybe with
a small discount, we can
sell some cheese on export
markets,” he said.
But cheese and whey
prices imply a Class III
price well below $17.50,
he said.
Milk production is
probably going to continue
to be pretty high in the first
quarter of 2021, Cropp
said.
A new cheese plant that
will process 6 million to
8 million pounds of milk
a day is coming online
in Michigan, and capac-
ity is being added to other
cheese plants, Stephenson
said.
“So perhaps we can
handle the milk,” he said.
The worrisome thing
is that it’ll take exports to
clear the market, and that
implies downward pres-
sure on prices, he said.
Domestic markets can’t
handle much more than a
1% increase in milk pro-
duction, Cropp said.
“Exports have been
strong but not enough to
handle the 2.3-3% growth
in milk production you
see right now,” he said.
The recent announce-
ment of Section 32 gov-
ernment purchases for
$50 million in butter
could help support prices.
That would be close to 2%
of butter production for
the year and could draw
down stocks if it doesn’t
cannibalize a lot of com-
mercial sales, Stephenson
said.
“So that could help pro-
vide some support for sure
for butter prices,” he said.
But it’s not the govern-
ment food boxes that have
been in place this year, and
they aren’t likely to con-
tinue under the new admin-
istration, he said.
His guess is the new
administration will use
more traditional food-in-
security measures, such as
the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program. But
that gives people discretion
about their purchases, and
they might not buy a block
of cheese — which was in
the food boxes, he said.
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