Friday, April 29, 2022
CapitalPress.com 5
What $1 trillion building plan means for rural Oregon
By PETER WONG
and SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
PORTLAND — Presi-
dent Joe Biden led a political
pep rally April 21 at Portland
International Airport, a site he
called “a perfect example” of
what the $1 trillion legisla-
tion he signed last year can do
to overhaul the nation’s aging
infrastructure.
The airport is already
undergoing a $2 billion mod-
ernization project, including
a greatly expanded passenger
terminal and a new mass tim-
ber roof that will be its crown
jewel. The airport already has
benefited from $19 million in
federal funds for runway work.
Biden said the infrastructure
package earmarks another $25
billion for U.S. airports.
“There is a belief that we
can’t do big things anymore,”
Biden said. “But we can.
We have proven we can. We
must build a better America.
A good place to start is right
here in Portland.”
The president was speak-
ing to a crowd of elected offi-
cials and union workers inside
a hangar at the Air National
Guard base on the airport’s
southern edge.
During their speeches,
some members of Oregon’s
congressional
delegation
talked about other big proj-
ects besides airports that
could benefit from the new
federal money — including
replacement bridges across
the Columbia River connect-
ing Portland and Vancouver,
Wash., and widening Inter-
state 5 at the Rose Quarter
interchange with Interstate
84.
Biden made few specific
commitments, but Oregon is
expected bring in about $5 bil-
lion over the next five years in
infrastructure dollars.
What about outside Port-
land? What specific invest-
ments might rural communi-
ties see?
One potential area of
investment is at the Oregon
International Port of Coos Bay.
During the event, U.S. Sens.
Ron Wyden and Jeff Merk-
ley, along with U.S. Rep. Peter
DeFazio, said they are hope-
ful that federal infrastructure
dollars will turn the site into
a major international port to
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
President Joe Biden speaks about the infrastructure
law in Portland.
relieve long-term congestion
and boost trade.
The president made no
commitment but said he recog-
nized the congressmen “have
been fighting for (improving
the capacity of that port) for a
long time.”
“And, you know, the
investment all across Oregon
is going to continue, like was
mentioned earlier, by Coos
Bay. You know, we’ve deliv-
ered nearly $33 million in Jan-
uary to modernize the main
jetty, making it safer and more
efficient for ships, boaters and
fishermen,” said Biden.
On water projects, many
specifics are still to be deter-
mined as water managers and
governments apply for com-
petitive grants. A few projects,
however, have been named.
The law will provide $2.7
million in three major water
infrastructure projects in
Oregon.
The first investment is in
the East Fork Irrigation Dis-
trict Modernization Proj-
ect near Hood River. Funds
will go toward the design of
high-priority laterals and the
Dukes Valley Canal.
The second investment is
in the Tumalo Irrigation Dis-
trict Modernization Project
near Bend. It will modern-
ize up to 1.9 miles of Tumalo
Irrigation District’s canals and
66.9 miles of laterals by con-
verting open irrigation ditches
into closed pipe systems.
The third grant will be used
to modernize water convey-
ance systems in the Owyhee
Irrigation District in southeast-
ern Oregon.
The package, Biden said,
also includes dollars “to help
prevent and respond to fires
like the thousands that burned
… half a million acres across
Oregon last year.”
He didn’t name the dol-
lar amount Oregon will get
for fire mitigation efforts, but
USDA as a whole is slated to
receive $3 billion over the next
five years to reduce the risk of
wildland fires.
Biden said Oregon will
also see dollars go toward
helping rural communities
deal with floods, drought and
the strengthening of electrical
transmission lines.
At least $1.2 billion is for
road and bridge repairs, mass
transit and other alternatives to
reduce carbon emissions from
cars and increase infrastruc-
ture for electric vehicles. Most
of this money is channeled
through the state Department
of Transportation, but some
goes directly to local govern-
ments. The breakdown of how
much of that money will go to
rural versus urban projects is
yet to be determined.
Biden said the infrastruc-
ture law will also deliver $100
million to Oregon “to make
high-speed internet affordable
and available everywhere in
the state — urban, suburban,
and rural.”
The infrastructure pack-
age is so enormous that Biden
called this era the “Infrastruc-
ture Decade.”
In response to critics who
say the massive package will
intensify inflation, Biden
blamed rising prices on sup-
ply-chain problems exacer-
bated by the COVID-19 pan-
demic. He also linked gas
price increases to the Rus-
sian invasion of Ukraine and
worldwide sanctions against
Russia.
Peter Wong reports for
the Oregon Capital Bureau.
Sierra Dawn McClain reports
for the Capital Press.
Dairy groups want more action Yakima River Basin’s
on supply-chain disruptions
snowpacks rally like ‘crazy’
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
The National Milk Pro-
ducers Federation and U.S.
Dairy Export Council are
calling for better interagency
collaboration to increase
port capacity, incentivize
carriers to load export cargo
and strengthen transparency
throughout the supply chain.
In a letter to USDA Sec-
retary Tom Vilsack and
Department of Transporta-
tion Secretary Pete Butti-
gieg, the groups said they
are grateful for the agen-
cies’ efforts to address ocean
freight transportation issues
and recommended addi-
tional action be taken.
They
recommended
USDA resume the publi-
cation of the Ocean Ship-
ping Container Availabil-
ity Report — known by
the acronym OSCAR —
a weekly snapshot of the
availability and location of
containers at ports and other
intermodal facilities. USDA
discontinued the report a
few years ago.
“Container availability
has been one of the leading
challenges that American
agriculture producers have
faced with respect to the
export of their goods to for-
eign markets. The OSCAR
reports would be a valuable
resource that would have
significant benefits for ship-
pers of dairy and other agri-
culture producers, among
other stakeholders,” the
groups said.
They also suggested two
operational recommenda-
tions with respect to con-
tainer availability.
The first is real-time
tracking of containers as
a component of the new
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Getty Images
Two dairy organizations are suggesting ways the feder-
al government can expedite agricultural exports.
Freight Logistics Optimiza-
tion Works initiative, which
can allow more in-depth
awareness of the location and
availability of containers.
That would require coor-
dination with ocean carriers,
but tracking would enable the
resumption of the OSCAR
reports and better enable
access to containers for
export purposes, they said.
The other operational rec-
ommendation is to enable
“dual turns” of containers,
wherein containers deliver-
ing imports to an inland loca-
tion may be provided directly
to an export-focused shipper,
rather than being sent back
empty to the port.
“This can increase con-
tainer and supply chain effi-
ciency, enable greater access
to containers for exporters,
reduce fuel use and reduce
shipping costs for a variety of
stakeholders,” they said.
That effort could be
undertaken through pilot
projects with carriers and
could be supported through
USDA’s Commodity Credit
Corporation resources ded-
icated to supply-chain
challenges.
They also asked the agen-
cies to implement “fast
lanes” that incentivize the
flow of agricultural exports
into and from ports.
That would include truck-
ing lanes at port terminals
that are dedicated to the
expeditious delivery of per-
ishable agriculture goods to
ports and prevent those laden
trucks from getting delayed
in long port terminals truck-
ing lines.
“This should also include
incentives for ocean carriers
to load more export contain-
ers, instead of empty contain-
ers, and which could include
preferred or prioritized berth-
ing access to accelerate the
vessels’ exit from anchor-
age and a speedier departure
from the port,” they said.
They also asked for more
“pop-up” facilities like those
in Oakland and Seattle, which
have enabled greater access
to containers and improved
the ability to secure vessel
accommodations.
“As valuable as they have
been, these pop-up yards are
distant from many inland
food production locations,
requiring additional truck-
ing and trans-loading activ-
ities that can be costly and
extremely challenging to
secure,” they said.
Snowpacks that melt
into Yakima River reser-
voirs in Central Washing-
ton have gone from lack-
luster to stellar this month,
raising the possibility that
irrigators with junior rights
will receive full water sup-
plies after all.
The Upper Yakima
Basin snowpack was 104%
of normal Thursday, com-
pared to 81% two weeks
ago. The Naches Basin
snowpack was 93% of
average, compared to 83%
a fortnight ago.
“It’s been a real rally. It’s
crazy,” Bureau of Reclama-
tion river operations engi-
neer Chris Lynch said.
The bureau forecast in
early April that irrigators
with junior-water rights
would receive 94% of their
full allotments. With snow-
packs swelling, irriga-
tors may not even face that
small cutback. The bureau
will update its outlook in
May.
“The forecast probably
will go up,” Lynch said.
“That’s a pretty easy guess.
“Will it go up to 100%?
It very well could,” he said.
The bureau manages
five reservoirs and a sys-
tem that supplies water to
irrigate about 464,000 acres
in south-central Washing-
ton. Irrigators with junior
rights are cut back equally
in water-short years.
At the end of a dry
March, the trend was
toward tightening water
supplies. Then came April.
Getty Images
The Yakima River. The Upper Yakima Basin snowpack
was 104% of normal April 21.
By April 21, precipitation at
the five reservoirs already
was 122% of normal for the
entire month.
Lynch cautioned that if
temperatures warm up, the
bigger snowpacks could
melt too soon. “You can
lose it just as quick as you
gained it,” he said. “The
temperatures are very
important this time of year.”
The National Weather
Service’s Climate Predic-
tion Center on Wednes-
day predicted that Cen-
tral Washington will have
below-average
tempera-
tures and above-average
precipitation for the next
eight to 14 days.
Looking farther ahead,
the climate center predicted
equal chances for above-
or below-average tempera-
tures and precipitation for
all of Washington in May.
Snowpacks in most
basins in Washington have
gone from below normal
to above normal in the past
two weeks.
On Thursday, the U.S.
Drought Monitor decreased
the percentage of Washing-
ton in “extreme drought” to
about 7% from almost 10%
the week before. About half
the state — the eastern half
— is some some level of
drought.
The extreme drought
touches parts of Adams,
Benton,
Grant,
Kitti-
tas, Lincoln and Yakima
counties.
The region will need
three times its normal
rainfall over the next
three months to get com-
pletely out of a precipita-
tion deficit, according to
the National Centers for
Environmental Informa-
tion. The centers calculate
the odds of that happening
at less than 1%.
Washington State Assis-
tant Climatologist Karin
Bumbaco said soil mois-
ture, stream flows and tem-
peratures also will fig-
ure into the severity of the
region’s drought. “I still
think there can be some
improvement,” she said.
Farm to pay $125,000 to Ecology
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
A Franklin County, Wash.,
farm has agreed to pay the
state Department of Ecology
$125,000 to settle allegations
it illegally irrigated 250 acres
of sweet corn and peas last
summer.
Ecology initially fined
Frank Tiegs LLC $304,000.
The farm doesn’t admit any
wrongdoing, but doesn’t want
to spend more time or money
appealing, according to a set-
tlement filed April 20 with the
Pollution Control Hearings
Board.
In the settlement, Ecol-
ogy doesn’t take back any
of the allegations. Ecology
said in a statement April 21
that the farm cooperated with
the department and has been
authorized to irrigate the 250
acres in 2022.
Ecology alleged Tiegs ille-
gally irrigated from the Snake
River’s McNary Pool. The
department estimated the
farm illegally irrigated for a
total of 152 days.
In its appeal, the farm said
it had adequate water rights,
mostly because it fallowed
other ground and that it had
temporarily transferred water
rights to Ecology for stream
flows.
Tiegs reasserted April 21
that his farm was unfairly
penalized.
“Ecology refused to meet
and discuss any of these miti-
gating factors and instead just
hit us with an unjustifiably,
JEWETT
ridiculously high penalty,” he
said in a statement.
“So what Ecology is call-
ing ‘illegal irrigation’ and
irrigating ‘without a water
right,’ we think is more fairly
described as ‘irrigating with-
out advance approval to add
the acreage to existing rights
sufficient to cover the usage.’
“That being said, we are
glad to put this issue behind
us,” he said.
The fine will go to the state
general fund.
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