143rd YEAR, No. 65
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2015
ONE DOLLAR
BEACH BREACH
Water ratings
could indicate
infrastructure
problems
By DANI PALMER
EO Media Group
La Grande man
pushes for eastern
counties to
join Idaho
Part 1 of two parts
C
ANNON
BEACH
— High bacteria read-
ings are leading the
Ecola Creek Watershed
Council and Surfrider
Foundation to believe something
is seriously wrong with Cannon
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The cause, and if there is even a
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this year’s high readings a result
of failing systems, human activity,
storms or something else?
Field coordinator for Surfrider’s
Blue Water Task Force Ryan Cruse
appeared before the City Council
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asked the city to conduct a complete
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The Surfrider Foundation has
documented a history of sporad-
ic high readings, mainly at Gower
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See WATER, Page 10A
By JADE McDOWELL
East Oregonian
Katherine Lacaze/EO Media Group
Surfrider Foundation’s Oregon Field Coordinator Ryan Cruse, right, shows Haystack Rock Aware-
ness Program Education Coordinator, and recent North Coast Blue Water Task Force volunteer,
Melissa Keyser how to record data while gathering ocean water samples during a training held in
Cannon Beach in June. The Blue Water Task Force tests water quality at six sites in four locations
on the Oregon North Coast and provides the data to the public.
Solutions to water Cities bear the rising cost of
woes are not cheap keeping water safe to drink
By JOHN SEEWER
Associated Press
The Associated Press
Part of an occasional
series
In most places across
the country, the promise of
clean, cheap, readily avail-
able water has been taken
for granted, but that has
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off has polluted municipal
water sources, drought has
taken its toll on reservoirs
and wells, and the aging
underground networks of
pipes that carry water to
homes and businesses rup-
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as with crumbling bridges
or congested highways, the
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Protection Agency projects
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20 years just to maintain
the nation’s existing drink-
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Replacing pipes, treatment
plants and other infrastruc-
ture as well as expanding
drinking water systems to
handle population growth
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ment, industry groups warn
of a future with more infra-
structure failures that will
disrupt service, transporta-
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Bye, bye,
Eastern
Oregon.
Hello,
New Idaho
Despite the need, the
largest federal aid program
for improving the nation’s
drinking water system has
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unspent in government ac-
counts, according to a re-
view of data by The Asso-
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largely the result of project
delays, poor management
by some states and structur-
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Adding to the concerns
over a lack of investment,
many parts of the country
simply don’t have enough
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and pockets of the South-
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now affected by drought,
according to federal calcu-
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50 state water managers said
they anticipate supply short-
ages in at least part of their
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TOLEDO, Ohio — Standing at the
edge of the Great Lakes, the world’s largest
surface source of fresh water, this city of
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ply problems that bedevil other parts of the
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Algae blooms in Lake Erie, fed by ag-
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have become so toxic that they shut down
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The city is considering spending millions of
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Similar concerns about water quality
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discarded pharmaceuticals, industrial chem-
icals and even saltwater from rising oceans
are seeping into many of the aquifers, reser-
voirs and rivers that supply Americans with
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Combating these growing threats means
cities and towns must tap new water sources,
upgrade aging treatment plants and install
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Consider tiny Pretty Prairie, Kansas, less
than an hour’s drive west of Wichita, where
the water tower and cast-iron pipes need to
be replaced and state regulators are calling
for a new treatment plant to remove nitrates
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Emily Webb never gave a second
thought to the town’s water until she
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That’s when she learned through a notice in
the mail that the water could cause what’s
known as “blue baby” syndrome, which
interferes with the blood’s ability to carry
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Instead, she and her husband stock up on
well water from her parents’ home and buy
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of a new treatment plant would drive people
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Across the country, small towns and big
cities alike are debating how much they can
afford to spend to make contaminated water
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Cash-strapped cities worry that an unfair
share of the costs are being pushed onto poor
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expect the few people they serve to pay for
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report released this summer, found spend-
ing by local governments on all water-sup-
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down in recent years, it remained at an
See COST, Page 7A
WHAT DOES AMERICA USE ITS WATER FOR?
Online interactive at http://bit.ly/1h4Rxbb
Gearhart’s Neacoxie Barn storm still brewing
Shannon Smith
slapped with
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By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
GEARHART — The owner of Nea-
coxie Barn in Gearhart is in more trouble
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While a decision awaits in Munici-
pal Court on Shannon Smith’s not guilty
plea for hosting special events without a
permit, Smith was slapped with a series
of civil administrative penalties from the
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Six $5,000 tickets have been issued
this summer by Jim Brien, the city’s
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barn without an occupancy permit were
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four tickets delivered this summer as
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Smith also received two zoning
code violations of $500 each for the
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delivered by Gearhart Police Chief Jeff
Bowman personally, City Manager Chad
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“Last year she only used tents, she
didn’t use the inside of the barn,” Sweet
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doesn’t have an occupancy permit, six
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‘She just carried on’
This year’s $30,000 worth of admin-
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her attorney stated barn functions were
all personal or family events, which
would be permitted for a private home-
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“This year she continued to have
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a document saying they were friends and
family, she just carried on, so we issued
her civil administrative penalties for us-
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Residents in Eastern Oregon and
Washington have discussed breaking
away from their more liberal neighbors
to form a new state for years, but a new
twist has been added to the conversa-
tion: Why form a new state when the
rural counties could just join Idaho in-
stead?
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er from La Grande, said the idea was
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a letter to the editor in the La Grande
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couple of months and discussing it with
friends, Parsons said he has decided to
try to get input from neighboring resi-
dents, including Umatilla and Morrowc
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As Parsons sees it, rural Oregon and
Washington residents who are tired of
being outvoted by the population cen-
ters in Portland and Seattle would be
better understood by politicians from
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Legislators born and raised in the most
urban parts of their state “don’t have
any idea,” he said, of how environ-
mental lobbyists often hurts farmers,
hunters and others in more rural parts
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“The environmental regulations that
come out of Salem make it almost im-
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professor at Eastern Oregon University,
called the logistics of trying to create a
new, larger Idaho “largely insurmount-
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“Given the inability of Puerto Rico
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type of large scale-change, disgruntled
citizens would be better off to get in-
volved with politics instead of com-
plaining about the state of affairs,” he
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Not since 1863
A state boundary hasn’t been re-
drawn in the United States since West
Virginia was carved out of Virginia in
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state to the other is hardly new, howev-
er, and various efforts have landed on
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Occasionally, those efforts have
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unanimously to allow state legislators
to adjust the Nevada-Utah state bound-
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nor one, but it would have allowed the
economically struggling city of Wen-
dover, Utah, to join the casino-rich city
of West Wendover, Nevada, and get rid
of what residents called an invisible
“Berlin Wall” in the community creat-
ing poor infrastructure and schools on
one side of the state line and abundant
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Shifts in population
Meanwhile, Judge John Orr is wait-
ing for legal briefs from both the city and
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ments from the city alleging Smith contin-
ues to host special events and gatherings
despite a lack of an active conditional use
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After Smith was ticketed for using her
barn for two weddings held this summer,
she contested the $500 citations, pleading
not guilty to the charges and bringing the
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counties east of Hood River County
and the 20 Washington counties east of
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Oregon, meanwhile, would go
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and Washington would drop from
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How that would affect each state’s
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would depend on how other states’
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years based on population counts in
See BARN, Page 7A
See NEW IDAHO, Page 7A
Legal briefs pending