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CapitalPress.com
Friday, April 15, 2022
Washington farm to fight fine by Ecology
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Skagit Valley Farm, a
northwest Washington veg-
etable producer, has been
fined $267,000 by the Wash-
ington Department of Ecol-
ogy, which says the farm ille-
gally irrigated 348 acres last
summer.
The farm’s CEO and
founder, Tony Wisdom, said
Wednesday that the farm
will appeal the penalty to the
Pollution Control Hearings
Board.
He said the farm has been
meeting regularly with Ecol-
ogy for months to work
through complicated water-
right issues and that he was
surprised the department
decided to issue the fine.
“It’s just been so shock-
ing,” Wisdom said. “We are
committed to being in vol-
untary compliance with state
water rules. That’s been our
intention from day one.”
Ecology’s investigation
spanned thousands of acres
scattered in Skagit County
and farmed by Skagit Valley
Farm.
The farm irrigated crops,
mostly Brussels sprouts and
potatoes, without adequate
water rights at eight sites
on land owned or leased
by Acme Properties LLC,
Junior Farms LLC and
Skagit Farmland LLC, Ecol-
ogy alleges.
Ecology did not docu-
ment environmental damage
or impairment to other water
users. The groundwater
withdrawals had the poten-
tial to harm fish in the lower
Skagit and Samish water-
sheds, Ecology’s Northwest
regional water resources
manager, Ria Berns, said.
“We’re talking about irri-
gating a significant num-
ber of acres in a basin
where stream flows are low-
est when fish need water
the most,” she said in a
statement.
Skagit Valley Farm
was founded in 2012 and
has water rights in Skagit
County. The company says
on its Linked In page that its
vision is to be the most effi-
cient, productive and profit-
able agricultural company in
the Skagit Valley.
According to Ecology
records, the department
received a complaint that a
large piece of ground was
being prepared for irrigated
crops. Skagit Water Master
Kellie Gillingham reported
driving by the property in
was investigating the farm.
He said he hired a water-
rights attorney and hydro-
geologist to sort through the
complaints, involving doz-
ens of pieces of property.
Wisdom said the farm
and Ecology might have
been able to work out the
issues if the department had
presented its concerns ear-
lier, rather than conducting
what he called a secretive
investigation.
Berns said in an inter-
view that Ecology waited
until it had written the let-
ter to give the farm clear and
detailed information about
the alleged violations.
Ecology did not calcu-
late how much water was
allegedly used. The depart-
ment based its fine on the
assumption that the different
sites cumulatively were irri-
April and seeing several cen-
ter pivots. Some of the land
didn’t have a water right,
according to Ecology.
Later that day, Gillingham
reported seeing a truck with a
Skagit Valley Farm logo and
a man apparently hooking
up a pump that could draw
water from Debay’s slough.
The farm has land there that
does not have a water right,
according to Ecology.
Ecology continued the
investigation into land owned
or leased by the farm and sent
a long letter to Skagit Valley
Farm detailing the alleged
violations July 14. The alle-
gations are largely based on
seeing sprinklers and other
signs of irrigation on land
without water rights, accord-
ing to Ecology records.
Wisdom said he didn’t
know until then that Ecology
gated for a total of 150 days.
The department then lev-
ied fines ranging from $1,000
to $4,000 a day depending on
the size of the site.
In the notice alerting the
farm to the penalty, Ecology
accused it of choosing “to
irrigate crops for financial
gain after receiving notice
that these activities were
unlawful.”
Wisdom disputed that
characterization. The farm
has moved as quickly as pos-
sible to resolve complicated
water-right issues, he said.
“These are absolutely incor-
rect and false claims and
assertions on their part,” he
said.
The farm likely will have
to reduce its acres and sea-
sonal workforce in 2022 to
come into compliance, Wis-
dom said.
Environmental groups fail to stop
Southern Oregon logging projects
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Environmental groups
have failed to convince a
federal judge to block two
logging and fuels reduction
projects on 8,000 acres of
public forestland in South-
ern Oregon.
U.S. District Judge Ann
Aiken has refused to issue
a preliminary injunction
against the U.S. Bureau of
Land Management’s Bear
Grub and Round Oak proj-
ects because the environ-
mental lawsuit against them
probably won’t succeed.
The Klamath Siskiyou
Wildlands Center, Ore-
gon Wild and Cascadia
Wildlands nonprofits are
unlikely to prevail on their
claims that federal wild-
life biologists improperly
considered the effects of
BLM’s forest treatments on
threatened spotted owls, the
judge said.
While the ruling doesn’t
end the lawsuit, Aiken
determined the environ-
mental plaintiffs “failed to
show serious questions”
regarding their allegations
that the U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service’s analysis vio-
lated the Endangered Spe-
cies Act.
“And on this prelimi-
nary review, FWS appears
to have considered the rel-
evant factors and articu-
lated a rational connection
between the facts found
and the decisions it made,”
as required by federal law,
the ruling said.
In consulting with BLM
on the projects, federal
wildlife biologists found
that the forest treatments
would probably downgrade
habitat in 37 of the spotted
owl’s home ranges within
the project areas, Aiken
said.
However, the projects
will require that logging
units be dropped from tim-
ber sales if they’re occu-
pied by spotted owls and
will include other design
criteria to avoid disturbing
the species, Aiken said.
The federal government
is unlikely to jeopardize the
owl’s continued existence
or otherwise “take” the
threatened species because
the vast majority of its nest-
ing, roosting and foraging
habitat won’t be negatively
affected by the forest proj-
ects, she said.
“Instead, it found that
the majority of (the hab-
itat) in the action area —
96% in Bear Grub and 83%
in Round Oak — would
remain untreated and avail-
able to support current and
future spotted owl popula-
tions,” the ruling said.
The judge said she can-
not substitute her judgment
for that of federal biologists
but will allow the environ-
mental plaintiffs to proceed
with the lawsuit because
they have standing to pur-
sue the allegations in fed-
eral court.
The
environmental
plaintiffs filed the law-
suit last year, claiming the
projects will further dis-
tress vulnerable spotted
owl populations. They also
alleged the federal govern-
ment relied on uncertain or
unenforceable conservation
measures in approving the
treatments.
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press File
Beef carcasses in a meat processing plant. Legislation introduced in the House of
Representatives would allow livestock auction companies to invest in small and re-
gional processing plants.
Cattle groups endorse
bill to expand processing
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
Cattle producers and live-
stock auction owners are ral-
lying behind legislation that
would allow livestock auc-
tion markets to invest in
small meatpacking facilities.
The bill would remove
a barrier in the Packers and
Stockyards Act that pro-
hibits livestock auctions
from owning, investing in
and managing processing
facilities.
The Amplifying Pro-
cessing of Livestock in the
United States (A-PLUS)
Act was introduced by Reps.
Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., and
Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif.
It would allow livestock
auctions to invest in small
and regional facilities with
slaughter capacity of less-
than 2,000 head per day or
700,000 head per year. The
bill aims to increase meat
processing capacity and
alleviate existing challenges
in cattle marketing.
In January, the Biden
administration announced
a $1 billion investment in
expanding meat and poul-
try processing through small
and medium-sized packing
facilities to increase compe-
tition in the packing indus-
try and address bottlenecks
in the supply chain.
The Livestock Market-
ing Association said the
A-PLUS legislation is essen-
tial in removing an unneces-
sary barrier to cattle industry
investment in the packing
sector.
“We greatly appreciate
Congresswoman Hartzler
and Congressman Panetta
introducing the A-PLUS Act
to reduce a regulatory bar-
rier that currently prohib-
its livestock auction owners
like myself from investing
in much-needed pack-
ing capacity expansion,”
said Larry Schnell, LMA
president.
“This is a great bill that
will spur additional capac-
ity and especially additional
packers to increase competi-
tion and improve profitabil-
ity for producers,” he said.
National
Cattlemen’s
Beef Association said the
legislation would secure
another tool in the toolbox
to boost processing capacity
and alleviate key challenges
in cattle marketing.
“The need for new pack-
ing facilities has become a
critical issue for the cattle
industry,” said Clint Berry,
chairman of NCBA’s live-
stock marketing council.
“The A-PLUS Act paves
the way for the marketing
segment of the cattle indus-
try to be included as inves-
tors in these facilities, help-
ing reduce dependence on
major packers and improv-
ing the competitiveness of
the live cattle market,” he
said.
Tanner Beymer, NCBA
senior director of govern-
ment affairs, said the meat-
packing sector continues to
be the bottleneck in the cat-
tle and beef supply chain.
“Opening more small and
medium-sized processing
facilities increases opportu-
nities for producers to mar-
ket their cattle and helps
balance leverage in pricing
negotiations,” he said.
The United States Cattle-
men’s Association is also on
board.
“The Packers & Stock-
yards Act is over one hun-
dred years old. It’s time to
modernize parts of this his-
toric legislation that no lon-
ger make sense in the mod-
ern world,” said Brooke
Miller, USCA president.
He said today’s live-
stock auctions are often
family-owned and region-
ally based. “If one of these
entities wanted to invest in
a local processing facility to
increase processing capac-
ity for producers in their
area, there shouldn’t be an
outdated regulation holding
them back from doing so,”
he said.
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