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CapitalPress.com
Friday, September 24, 2021
BLM moving back to D.C.,
reversing Trump-era decision
By MATTHEW DALY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Inte-
rior Secretary Deb Haaland
is moving the national head-
quarters of the Bureau of
Land Management, which
oversees 245 million acres
in Western states, back to
the nation’s capital after two
years in Colorado.
The land management
agency lost nearly 300 employ-
ees to retirement or resignation
Jennifer Wan/Getty Images
after President Donald Trump’s
administration moved its head- Grand Junction, Colo., and Mount Garfi eld as seen from the Colorado National Mon-
quarters to Grand Junction, ument.
Colo., in 2019.
The bureau has broad clean energy, outdoor recre- Management is critical to the tinue to grow, she added.
infl uence over energy devel- ation, conservation, and sci- nation’s eff orts to address the
“The past several years
opment and agriculture in the entifi c missions,’’ the Interior climate crisis, expand public have been incredibly dis-
West, managing public lands Department said in a news access to our public lands and ruptive to the organization,
for uses ranging from fos- release.
preserve our nation’s shared to our public servants and to
sil fuel extraction, renewable
The changes, which will outdoor heritage,’’ she said in their families,’’ Haaland said,
power development and graz- be done in coordination with a statement.
referring to actions by her
ing, to recreation and wilder- Congress, will improve the
“There’s no doubt that the predecessors, Ryan Zinke
ness. Its staffi ng has remained function of the land manage- BLM should have a leader- and David Bernhardt, to
in turmoil after four years ment agency, help provide ship presence in Washing- move the BLM to rural Col-
without a confi rmed director. clarity for the BLM’s 7,000 ton, D.C. — like all the other orado, sparking criticism that
The agency’s space in employees across the country land management agen- the Trump administration
Grand Junction will become and enable the bureau to bet- cies — to ensure that it has intended to gut the agency
its western headquarters, Haa- ter serve the American pub- access to the policy, budget that oversees vast tracts of
land said. The Grand Junction lic and fulfi ll its mission as the and decision-making levers public lands in the West. Hun-
offi ce will reinforce western steward of nearly one-fi fth of to best carry out its mis- dreds of longtime employees
perspectives in decision-mak- the nation’s public lands, Haa- sion,’’ Haaland said. BLM’s chose not to move to Col-
ing and “have an important land said.
presence in Colorado and orado. Only three workers
role to play in the bureau’s
“The Bureau of Land across the West will con- ultimately relocated.
SW Idaho irrigators adjust as deliveries end early
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Southwest Idaho farmers
juggled tighter water supplies
in an irrigation delivery sea-
son that ended in mid-Sep-
tember, about three weeks
early.
“It was a challenging
year. They all are,” said Dave
Reynolds, who farms about
2,000 mostly gravity-irrigated
acres spread across smallish
fi elds in the Kuna area. “We
shuffl ed volumes a little bit.”
“We’re still not as short of
water as we could have been,”
he said.
Matt Dorsey, who farms
in the Caldwell-Marsing
area, was among many who
planned rotations based on
nearly normal snowpack as
planting season arrived. His
irrigation district in July’s
second half cut allocations by
about one-third.
“We made it through,” he
said. “We took a hit this year
(on yield) just because of the
cold, slow spring and weed
pressure. Then it turned hot
and stayed hot.”
Alfalfa hay will continue
to grow when irrigated less,
Dorsey said. Cutting water
does not work well for corn or
seed crops that require fi lling
of kernels or seeds.
Reynolds said one of his
alfalfa seed crops “burned” a
bit, reducing yield, as he jug-
gled water supplies. The crop
doesn’t perform well if it gets
too wet, but getting it too dry
reduces pollination effi ciency
and can turn it to hay.
He and his crew at one
point chose not to irrigate a
wheat fi eld so they would
have more water for high-
er-value sweet corn.
“Some crops did get hurt,”
Reynolds said. “You’re on
a time frame. You can run
smaller amounts to make it
through. You had to kind of
choose between crops.” He
bought some water from oth-
ers and used supplemental
wells.
Dorsey harvested carrot
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seed and most of his bean
crop during the Sept. 12-18
week. He has started silage
corn harvest.
“That is what some will do
when they are short on water
— take it for silage and not
grain corn,” he said.
Sid Freeman, who farms
northwest of Caldwell, said
using drip irrigation on sugar
beets and onions nearly
halved his water usage com-
pared to a gravity system.
And it enabled him to use less
water than he was entitled to
even after his district cut allot-
ments by 20% at the end of
June.
Dorsey said farmers
“won’t be able to irrigate in
the fall, so if we don’t get
moisture in the winter, we will
really be behind in spring.”
Late-harvested crops often
are followed by a fall planting
of wheat or a cover crop to aid
soil. And many seed crops —
including carrot, turnip, rad-
ish, collard green and onion
— are planted in late sum-
mer or fall so they can ger-
minate and produce seed the
next year.
Brad McIntyre, whose
family raises crops, animals
and fowl in the Nampa-Cald-
well area, said the farm did
not water as much as normal,
but soil-health practices over
the years “defi nitely helped
stretch the water.”
The soil keeps improv-
ing, including in its ability to
hold water, and “every little
bit helps in a year like this,”
he said.
McIntyre said the heat
and reduced water supply
“caused a lot more work.
We were more intentional
in how we were doing
things.”
Capital Press File
Jersey cows feed at a dairy near Gooding, Idaho. The
dairy and cattle industries say a recent court ruling
on CAFOs in Idaho won’t impact them.
Idaho livestock
industry: CAFO ruling
won’t aff ect operations
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Environmental groups
are claiming a huge victory
in a court ruling last week
that vacated the Environ-
mental Protection Agen-
cy’s general pollution dis-
charge permit for Idaho
concentrated animal feed-
ing operations under the
Clean Water Act.
The 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals over-
turned the permit, citing a
lack of suffi cient monitor-
ing of effl uent discharges.
But dairy and beef cat-
tle producer groups say
the ruling won’t aff ect
Idaho livestock operations
because they don’t dis-
charge effl uent into waters
of the U.S. and don’t have
that permit.
“Right now, because
there are no permits,
there’s no impact to the
industry,” said Rick Naer-
ebout, CEO of the Idaho
Dairymen’s Association.
At issue is the National
Pollution Discharge Elim-
ination System permit,
which includes limits on
pollutants discharged into
waters of the U.S., along
with monitoring and report-
ing requirements.
Last year, EPA issued a
general NDPES permit for
CAFOs in Idaho, which
allows the agency to regu-
late numerous similar facil-
ities in one permit.
It would hold any pro-
ducers who want to apply
for the permit to the same
standard as anyone else —
rather than applying for a
costly individual permit,
which requires the appli-
cant to provide the exper-
tise, Naerebout said.
If an operation were dis-
charging into a water of the
U.S, EPA would make it get
a permit, he said.
To IDA’s knowledge
there are no dairy, feedlot
or beef operations in Idaho
that have an NDPES per-
mit, to which the ruling
applies, he said.
“It’s a pretty clear indi-
cation our dairy and beef
operations are already
adhering to a zero-dis-
charge standard,” he said.
Food & Water Watch
and Snake River Water-
keeper, which challenged
the CAFO permit, are hail-
ing the ruling as a “massive
win.”
“They’re making much
ado about not nothing, but
very little,” Naerebout said.
“The
environmen-
tal groups are holding out
there that this is a big win.
But from our perspective,
they’re just trying to use it
as publicity and fundrais-
ing,” he said.
Dairy and beef opera-
tions are already adhering
to a zero discharge standard
and don’t have NPDES
permits, he said.
“This decision doesn’t
change what our dairymen
do on a day-to-day basis
because they’re already
doing the right thing,” he
said.
Cameron
Mulroney,
executive vice president of
the Idaho Cattle Associa-
tion, said the court ruling
won’t have a drastic eff ect
on cattle producers.
“There’s no current
impact because we don’t
have anyone that has one of
those permits,” he said.
If for some reason a cat-
tle operation was found to
be discharging contami-
nated water, it would have
to apply for an NPDES per-
mit. But no beef cattle oper-
ation in the state has that
permit because they don’t
discharge, he said.
It’s an accolade to live-
stock producers’ waste
management systems that
utilize pen-designed ponds
and slope to keep water on
site as part of operators’
nutrient management plans,
he said.
Cattle producers are
monitored under state
nutrient management plans.
They have to write a plan,
update it annually and sub-
mit it to the Idaho State
Department of Agriculture
for approval, he said.
The
environmen-
tal groups are “trying to
applaud they had a big
win,” he said. “In reality
it doesn’t really have an
impact. Our guys have been
good operators, good stew-
ards and haven’t had to uti-
lize that (NPDES) permit.”
His understanding is
EPA Region 10 would
have to rewrite portions of
the permit related to what
the court didn’t feel was
adequate monitoring, he
said.
Mark MacIntyre, EPA
Region 10 senior public
information offi cer, told
Capital Press the agency
is not commenting on the
ruling.