Friday, July 9, 2021
CapitalPress.com 3
Easterday Dairy application dealt setback
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
BOARDMAN, Ore. —
A proposal to reopen Ore-
gon’s second-largest dairy
farm has hit an administra-
tive snag.
Easterday Farms, based
in Pasco, Wash., purchased
the former Lost Valley Farm
near Boardman, Ore., in
2019, hoping to operate the
facility with up to 9,700
mature dairy cows, 8,600
dairy heifers and 10,000
non-dairy cattle.
Earlier this year, one of
the farm’s co-owners, Cody
Easterday, pleaded guilty
to defrauding Tyson Foods
of $233 million as part of a
“ghost cattle” scheme, sell-
ing more than 200,000 head
of cattle that existed only on
paper.
Sentencing for Easter-
day is scheduled for Aug. 4.
He faces up to 20 years in
prison for felony wire fraud.
However, Cody Easter-
day’s name is still listed as
the operator of Easterday
Farms Dairy on its Confi ned
Animal Feeding Operation,
or CAFO, permit, which
was previously submitted to
the Oregon Department of
Agriculture and Department
of Environmental Quality.
Cody Easterday’s son,
Cole Easterday, has since
taken over as manager of
Easterday Farms Dairy LLC
after purchasing his father’s
interest in the business. But
according to Oregon state
law, the name listed on the
CAFO application must be
the owner or operator of the
facility.
Accordingly, ODA and
DEQ announced they are
giving Cody Easterday
until July 15 to withdraw
the application or it will be
denied.
ODA
spokeswoman
EO Media Group File
The former Lost Valley Farm outside Boardman, Ore.,
now the proposed Easterday Dairy.
Andrea Cantu-Schomus said
the current application can-
not be transferred to another
individual or entity, meaning
Cole Easterday would have
to submit an entirely new
CAFO permit application.
That includes detailed
plans about how the farm
will manage an estimated
5.4 million cubic feet of
liquid manure, 5.9 million
cubic feet of solid manure
and 11.7 million cubic feet
of processed wastewater
annually.
Cole Easterday declined
comment when reached
July 2.
A coalition of environ-
mental groups that opposes
the dairy, called Stand Up
to Factory Farms, released a
statement supporting ODA’s
decision, while also urging
the agency to reject the proj-
ect outright.
“Oregon is in the throes
of a record-breaking, cli-
mate change-fueled heat
wave and drought that will
be worsened by a mega-
dairy’s massive greenhouse
gas emissions and water
waste,” said coalition orga-
nizer Kristina Beggen.
Beggen said Oregon
Gov. Kate Brown must step
in and deny the permit “no
matter who the applicant is.”
The dairy in question
began as Lost Valley Farm,
under the management of
California dairyman Greg te
Velde. Within a year of open-
ing in 2018, the dairy racked
up more than 200 violations
of its CAFO permit, includ-
ing open-air lagoons over-
fl owing with manure.
The 5,390-acre property
is in the Lower Umatilla
Basin Groundwater Man-
agement Area, designated
by DEQ in 1990 for ele-
vated levels of groundwater
nitrates.
Te Velde eventually
declared bankruptcy and
the dairy was taken over
by a trustee who sold it at
auction. Easterday Farms
bought the property for
$66.7 million, and promised
to invest $15 million upgrad-
ing the farm’s wastewater
facilities.
The sale did not include
Lost Valley Farm’s cattle,
and no animals are currently
allowed on site.
Farms and ranches owned
by the Easterday family in
southeast Washington were
auctioned to pay off the
company’s debts.
An investment group
with ties to the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints was the high bidder
for more than 33,000 acres
of Easterday land in Benton
County, Wash.
In a previous interview,
Cole Easterday said he and
his brothers, Clay and Cut-
ter, are now the sole own-
ers of Easterday Dairy LLC,
and are not involved in East-
erday Ranches.
Wildfi re offi cials: Peak risk
arrives early as drought expands
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
The Biden administration says it will propose new wa-
ter-quality standards for surface water in Washington.
Biden EPA to write
water-quality rules
for Washington
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The Biden administration
will set new limits on pol-
lutants in Washington riv-
ers, creeks and lakes, likely
embracing standards the
Washington Farm Bureau
and other trade groups say
will stifl e industries.
The Environmental Pro-
tection Agency pledged to
propose water-quality stan-
dards within nine months
and fi nalize the rule within
18 months. The announce-
ment
disowned
limits
adopted by the Trump EPA.
The standards aff ect dair-
ies, food processors and
other industries that have
permits to discharge waste-
water. The EPA said in a
statement Thursday that it
was committed to applying
“sound science.”
Farm Bureau CEO John
Stuhlmiller said he expects
the Biden EPA to revert to
standards imposed on the
state by the Obama EPA in
2016.
“In nine months, you’re
probably just rehashing
what’s been developed,” he
said.
“We’re not happy about
that, obviously,” Stuhlmiller
said. “The political winds
shift. That’s what we’re
experiencing.”
The Inslee adminis-
tration welcomed EPA’s
announcement.
“As our partner in clean
water, we are ready to work
with EPA to get the right
water-quality standards in
place and working for Wash-
ington,” Ecology Direc-
tor Laura Watson said in a
statement.
Ecology’s position on
water-quality standards has
changed with who occupies
the White House.
In 2016, Ecology pro-
posed standards that it said
were based on “the best
available science.” The
Obama EPA disagreed and
imposed stricter standards,
brushing aside Ecology and
using its power under the
Clean Water Act.
The Farm Bureau joined
other trade groups in peti-
tioning the Trump admin-
istration to restore the stan-
dards developed by Ecology.
The Trump EPA granted
the petition. Washington
Attorney General Bob Fer-
guson responded by fi l-
ing his 39th lawsuit against
Trump.
The suit sought to repeal
the water-quality standards
once championed by Ecol-
ogy, but now associated with
Trump.
The suit is still pending in
U.S. District Court for West-
ern Washington. On Wednes-
day, the Justice Department
moved to put the litigation
on hold, while the EPA sets
new water-quality standards.
The
Trump-approved
standards — written by
Ecology — “may not be
based on sound science,”
according to the motion.
Ecology neither admits
nor denies its science
was unsound. The agency
praised the EPA for mov-
ing to end “years of
uncertainty.”
“This is a step in the right
direction for protecting the
communities most vulner-
able to pollution, including
tribal members who rely on
fi shing for traditional diet
and work,” Watson said.
The Farm Bureau joined
a coalition, led by the
Northwest Pulp and Paper
Association, that intervened
in the lawsuit to defend
the Trump, or old Ecol-
ogy, standards. Coalition
members met Thursday by
phone and were discour-
aged by how the case has
turned, Stuhlmiller said.
“We were very unhappy
with what came out of the
process (in 2016). Why
would there be any diff er-
ence?” he asked. “Now we
have to face impossible
standards.”
Ecology’s old standards
— the ones called inade-
quate by the Biden EPA
— purported to protect the
health of a person who ate
6 ounces of fi sh caught in
Washington every day for
70 years.
The Quinault Indian
Nation and Sauk-Suiat-
tle Indian Tribe intervened
in the lawsuit, claiming the
Trump EPA was impair-
ing treaty-reserved rights to
catch and consume fi sh.
Widespread and worsen-
ing drought in much of the
West prompted the wildfi re
season’s high-risk period to
arrive at least a month early.
“We have active large
fi res in all Western regions,”
National Interagency Fire
Center meteorologist Nick
Nauslar said in a multi-
agency news conference
July 1.
Prolonged extreme heat
continues to bake built-up
grasses and other fi ne fuels
that dried early during an
unusually warm spring.
Some timber also dried
early.
Nauslar, who wrote
much of the National Sig-
nifi cant Wildfi re Potential
Outlook for July through
October, said the last few
days of June brought a
surge of monsoonal mois-
ture to the Southwest, Col-
orado and southern Great
Basin.
“We expect that shift
(of risk) west to north due
to the monsoon starting to
ramp up,” he said.
Meanwhile, more than
90% of the West is in
drought, including extreme
or exceptional classifi ca-
tions in over half the region,
Nauslar said. “And it has
intensifi ed in the last hand-
ful of months.”
He said in the NIFC
report that drought contin-
ues to intensify in Califor-
nia and parts of the Pacifi c
Northwest, as well as in the
Northern Rockies. It per-
U.S. Drought Monitor
The Western U.S. as of June 29.
sists in the Great Basin and
much of the Southwest.
The report assesses the
risk of large fi res. These
typically are at least 300
acres in rangeland, 100
acres in timber, or require
an incident-management
team.
Nearly all of the North-
west faces above-average
risk of large fi res into Sep-
tember before that like-
lihood drops in October,
NIFC reported.
But October risk likely
will stay above normal in
much of California, in the
south from the mountains
westward and in the north
except in the northeastern
area. In Southern Califor-
nia, drought continued to
worsen in June, and live
fuels continued to dry —
they are about a month and
a half ahead of schedule.
Climate outlooks call
for above-normal tem-
peratures through sum-
mer in much of the West,
the report said. Weather
that’s hotter and drier
than usual is expected
through September in the
Northwest and Northern
Rockies.
“We are currently facing
the most challenging wild-
fi re conditions we’ve seen
in Idaho in a long time,”
U.S. Bureau of Land Man-
agement State Fire Man-
JEWETT
agement Offi cer Dennis
Strange said.
NIFC on July 1 said
California reported eight
large fi res, Oregon two and
Idaho one. Nationally, acres
burned to date are just over
1% ahead of a year ago.
Big wildfi res July 1
included California’s Lava
and Salt fi res in the Shas-
ta-Trinity National Forest,
and the Tennant fi re in the
Klamath National Forest.
Burned acres totaled 19,680
for Lava, 9,439 for Tennant
and 3,800 for Lava.
Oregon fi res included
Wrentham Market near
Dufur at 7,222 acres, and
the new Sunset Valley fi re
initially reported at 650
acres southeast of The
Dalles.
The Fritzer Fire west of
Salmon, Idaho, stood at 139
acres.
Inciweb, which reports
wildfi res of all sizes, said
un-contained fi res as of
early July 2 totaled 11 in
California, seven in Ore-
gon excluding Sunset Val-
ley, one in Idaho and none
in Washington.
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