Friday, June 4, 2021
CapitalPress.com 7
Washington
Grain
Commission
passes $7.3M
budget
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Washington Grain Commission board
members recently passed a $7.3 million
budget, up from $6.3 million last year.
The biggest funding increase was
in public relations and
transportation-related
activities, in the com-
mission’s own public
education spending and
through its contract with
the Washington Associa-
tion of Wheat Growers.
Glen
“Certainly there is
Squires
more pressure on the
transportation
system
— primarily the navigation system,” said
Glen Squires, commission CEO.
The commission expects assessment
income for the current year to be approx-
imately $7.6 million for wheat and barley
combined.
Growers are assessed .0075% for
wheat and 1% for barley net receipts col-
lected at fi rst point of sale.
COVID-19 pandemic impacts led to
reduced travel, conferences, trade teams
and consultants, Squires said.
“We have tried to compensate with vir-
tual meetings where feasible,” he said.
Research eff orts continued with adjust-
ment to account for COVID protocols.
All research projects proposed for
funding were supported and most included
slight increases due to increased wages.
Roughly 67% goes to breeding related
projects. Squires said.
“Even the Wheat Week education
eff orts had to adjust due to lack of class-
room in-person teaching,” Squires said.
The board voted to add $400,000 from
cash accounts to an assigned reserve fund
balance at the beginning of the 2022 fi s-
cal year, bringing the total to $5.4 mil-
lion. There is also an assigned mar-
keting reserve fund balance of $1.35
million, bringing total reserved fund bal-
ance accounts of $6.75 million for the fi s-
cal year.
Fiscal year 2022 programs are funded
by assessments collected during the 2021
crop year.
Silvia Rondon appointed director of
Oregon Integrated Pest Management Center
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
HERMISTON, Ore. — When
Silvia Rondon fi rst arrived in
Hermiston, Ore., in 2006, local
farmers were struggling with a
surge of potato tuber moths dam-
aging their crop.
Rondon, a professor and ento-
mologist at Oregon State Uni-
versity’s Hermiston Agricultural
Research and Extension Center,
was just establishing her program
focused on integrated pest man-
agement for irrigated row crops in
the Columbia Basin.
After studying the pernicious
insect, Rondon and her team
learned the moth’s larvae pre-
fer to feed on the leaves of young
potato plants. Rather than spray-
ing up to eight pesticide applica-
tions throughout the growing sea-
son, farmers could spray once or
twice closer to harvest before the
foliage shrivels and dies.
“That is the critical time,” Ron-
don said. “Once the foliage, which
is the preferred feeding host of the
pest, is gone, that’s when they start
attacking the tubers.”
Over
the
years, Rondon
has helped grow-
ers in north-
east Oregon and
southeast Wash-
ington battle a
Silvia
variety of infes-
Rondon
tations, includ-
ing potato psyllid,
potato beetle and lygus bugs.
Her experience has led Ron-
don to a new position as director
of OSU’s Integrated Pest Manage-
ment Center, helping farmers across
Oregon and the Pacifi c Northwest
improve their production.
The Integrated Pest Manage-
ment Center — formerly known
as the Integrated Plant Protec-
tion Center — is based at OSU’s
main campus in Corvallis, though
Rondon said she will remain in
Hermiston for the time being and
continue to oversee the station’s
entomology program.
Rondon was selected by an
11-person search committee con-
sisting of members from OSU, the
state Department of Agriculture
and industry groups. Her appoint-
ment is eff ective July 1.
The Idaho Department of
Water Resources has sent a
curtailment notice to about
129 water users represent-
ing approximately 136
ground water rights in the
Magic Valley and eastern
Idaho.
The notice warns water
users that IDWR will cur-
tail their water use if
they’re not members of
a water district with an
approved mitigation plan.
Water shutoff s were to
begin on June 3, according
to the notice.
The Upper Snake River
Basin, like much of south-
ern Idaho, experienced a
dry winter with below-nor-
mal snowpack. The Army
Corps of Engineers and
Bureau of Reclamation
May 1 coordinated stream-
fl ow runoff forecast pre-
dicted a 2.1 million acre-
foot runoff volume in the
Snake River from May
through July, which is
approximately 74% of
normal.
The curtailment notice
aff ects ground water users
whose water rights have a
priority date junior to May
30, 1989, and are within
the Eastern Snake Plain
Aquifer area.
The notices are related
to a 2011 water delivery
call by the Surface Water
Coalition. IDWR has
approved mitigation plans
in relation to this delivery
call submitted by the Idaho
Ground Water Appropri-
ators, the Southwest and
Goose Creek irrigation dis-
tricts, the Coalition of Cit-
ies and the A&B Irrigation
District.
Aff ected ground water
users can avoid curtail-
ment as long as the owners
of those rights are covered
by an approved mitiga-
tion plan or are members
in “good standing” with an
Idaho Ground Water Asso-
will help to strengthen the cen-
ter, “enhancing our strategic goal
to help our industries compete in
their markets, domestically and
globally.”
Being based in Hermiston has
given Rondon a broad ground-
ing. The Columbia Basin, with its
loamy soil and climate consisting
of hot days and cool nights, grows
more than 200 irrigated crops,
each of which poses its own chal-
lenges and opportunities.
Umatilla County leads the state
in production of vegetables, mel-
ons and potatoes, according to
the most recent USDA Census of
Agriculture, with sales topping
$111 million.
“My specifi c program here
in Hermiston will continue to
be driven by the needs of local
growers,” Rondon said. “I am
extremely appreciative for all the
support they have given me.”
While her background is in
entomology, Rondon knows she
has more to learn in her new role.
Integrated pest management
involves not only insects, but
plant pathology and weed and
livestock management, she said.
Anderson Ranch Dam expansion delayed
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
A plan to increase the capacity of Anderson
Ranch Dam will take long than anticipated.
A fi nal environmental impact statement
and record of decision initially expected to
be released this year will instead come out in
2023, following a detailed design analysis that
will outline any reservoir-restriction require-
ments during construction.
The Idaho Water Resource Board and U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation, which would share the
estimated $83.3 million cost equally, said the
new schedule provides more time for analy-
sis while keeping the project on track to meet
Water Infrastructure Improvements for the
Nation Act requirements. That federal law
requires initiation of a fi nal design by Dec. 16,
2021.
Raising the dam, which is on the South
Fork Boise River northeast of Mountain
Home, would provide southwest Idaho with
more water for irrigation and other uses while
increasing the fl exibility for managing the three
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Anderson Ranch Dam in Elmore County,
Idaho.
Boise River dams.
“This pause on the Environmental Impact
Statement allows our subject-matter experts to
complete further design on the dam and associ-
ated features so we can better identify impacts
and corresponding mitigation in the fi nal EIS,”
said Christine Schuldheisz, a Reclamation pub-
lic aff airs specialist in Boise.
The bureau will work with the Idaho Water
Resource Board on mitigation for irrigation dis-
tricts and other water users, according to Rec-
IDWR sends curtailment
notices to water users
Capital Press
“I am super excited about this
position, and the new challenge
ahead of me,” Rondon said. “I
think my expertise fi ts really well.”
Integrated pest management
is about more than pesticides. It
takes into account things like crop
selection, mechanical controls,
biological agents such as harness-
ing benefi cial insects and regular
fi eld monitoring. These practices
work in tandem to keep pest popu-
lations at manageable levels.
The center has four signature
projects, including pesticide risk
management and safety education
and pest and weather modeling.
The fourth project is working with
researchers and growers to put inte-
grated pest management plans into
action. Rondon said she is looking
forward to expanding the center’s
infl uence, and improving commu-
nication within those networks.
“A lot of people do fantastic
work within their own niches,”
she said. “Better communication
will really connect the dots.”
In an email announcing Ron-
don’s appointment, Alan Sams,
dean of the OSU College of
Agricultural Sciences, said she
ciation ground water dis-
trict or another party with
an approved mitigation
plan.
To stay in “good stand-
ing” with a ground water
district, water users must
be current in paying all
district assessments, which
the districts use to fund
their mitigation activities.
IDWR offi cials encour-
age junior ground water
users receiving curtailment
notices to join a ground
water district near them to
receive the benefi t of the
approved mitigation plan
and avoid curtailment.
Under the curtailment
order, water users have 15
days to join a ground water
district. Most, but not all,
junior ground water users
in the region have already
joined a district for mitiga-
tion purposes.
“If a ground water user
receives a notice of curtail-
ment, that means neither
IDWR nor the watermaster
has received notice from
IGWA that an approved
mitigation plan covers
the user’s water rights, or
that they’re a participant
in good standing with a
ground water district that
has an approved mitigation
plan in the ESPA region,”
said Mat Weaver, deputy
director of IDWR.
The curtailment notice
warns
recipients
that
IDWR’s watermasters will
curtail their ground water
rights unless the water users
send proof of participation
in a ground water district
and mitigation plan to the
watermasters of Water Dis-
tricts 100, 110, 120, 130 or
140.
Ground water rights for
single-family domestic and
small stockwater uses are
exempt from the curtailment
order.
For more information,
contact the IDWR water dis-
tribution staff at 208-287-
4800 or 208-736-3033.
lamation regional public aff airs offi cer Michael
Coff ey.
The reservoir can hold 413,000 acre-feet of
water. Raising the 456-foot dam by six feet as
proposed would add about 29,000 acre-feet of
storage capacity.
Treasure Valley Water Users Association
Executive Director Roger Batt said he met with
Reclamation offi cials May 25. The association
represents irrigation, canal and ditch districts
that provide water to about 300,000 acres from
Boise to Parma, where the Boise River fl ows
into the Snake River.
“Our folks basically said the sooner we
know of the mitigation plan, the better off
we’re going to be to do our risk-benefi t anal-
ysis so that we know how much water we can
deliver to our patrons,” he said. Association
members need time to put together their own
plans and work with customers.
The maximum shortfall could be as high as
97,000 acre-feet per year over three years as
the reservoir is drawn down for construction,
which could start in late 2024 or early 2025,
Batt said.
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