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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 29, 2019)
WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2019 146TH YEAR, NO. 194 Waterfront bridge work could continue through May ONE DOLLAR Legalization of hemp creates a quandary A challenge for police By GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian The Astoria Riverfront Trolley stopped just before the bridge construction zone during the fi rst runs of the season this week. A stress on many local businesses By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian The state is evaluating a request from contractors that could delay the completion of major construction work on waterfront bridges in down- town Astoria. The request for an extra seven days of contract time from Legacy has not yet been approved by the Oregon Department of Transportation, which is managing the project. If approved, the request could extend work on the short structures at the bases of Sev- enth, Ninth and 11th s treets until May 31. The delay is due to unforeseen inclement weather that temporarily shut down one of Legacy’s supplier’s facilities, according to an update to stakeholders from Cindy Moore, the assistant city engineer. City engineers told the City Coun- cil at the start of the project that work would likely continue through the end of May. Replacement of the bridges has had a signifi cant impact on businesses that have been on the other side of road closures and cyclone fencing since construction began last fall. After complaints from tenants, business owners and property owners at a City Council meeting in Novem- ber, the city changed some of the sig- nage to try to better route pedestrians and customers around the construc- tion zone — to mixed results . Though contractors were working on several bridges at once, city engi- neers hoped work on the 11th Street bridge, in particular, would be com- pleted fi rst since it had the potential to disrupt businesses and traffi c along the Astoria Riverwalk the most. But emergency repairs to the street sur- faced after construction began and caused delays . The 11th Street pier is home to a mix of businesses — some that have years under their belts and others that are relatively new. Rich Ewing, of Inferno Lounge at the very end of the pier, has said See Bridge, Page A7 PORTLAND — Federal legalization of hemp arrived in the U.S. late last year and expanded an industry already boom- ing because of the skyrocketing popular- ity of CBDs, a compound in hemp that many see as a health aid. But now, just a few months after Con- gress placed the marijuana look-alike squarely in safe legal territory, the hemp industry has been unsettled by an unex- pected development. Truckers, now free to haul hemp from state to state, have been stopped and sometimes arrested by police who can’t tell whether they have intercepted ‘NOBODY a legal agricul- tural crop or the WANTS TO biggest mari- juana bust of their SEE SOME- careers. That’s ONE IN because the only way to distin- JAIL FOR guish hemp and A MONTH marijuana, which look and smell FOR THE alike, is by mea- suring their tetra- WRONG hydrocannabinol, THING.’ or THC, and offi - cers don’t have Barbara Carreno the testing tech- nology to do so DEA spokeswoman on the spot. Marijuana, illegal under federal law, has enough THC to get users high. Hemp has almost none — 0.3 percent or less under U.S. government standards — yet drug-sniff- ing dogs will alert on both. Field tests that offi cers now use can detect THC but aren’t sophisticated enough to spec- ify whether a shipment is legal hemp or low-grade illegal pot. In a sign of the signifi cance of the problem, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration earlier this month put out a request for information on private companies that might have the technol- ogy for fi eld tests sensitive enough to dis- tinguish between hemp and marijuana. “Nobody wants to see someone in jail for a month for the wrong thing,” DEA spokeswoman Barbara Carreno said. “To enable us to do our job, we have to have something that can help us distinguish.” It’s an unanticipated hiccup for the rapidly growing hemp industry, which relies on interstate trucking to transport hemp from farms to processing labs that extract the compound cannabidiol, or CBD, from the raw plant material. The pure CBD powder is then resold for use in everything from makeup to smoothies to pet food. Kentucky and Oregon are big pro- ducers of hemp, and much of what they grow is processed in Colorado. Compa- nies that transport the plant often drive through Oklahoma and Idaho, which is where some arrests have occurred. Hemp remains illegal under Idaho law, and lawmakers there are scram- bling to pass a legalization bill. Law enforcement agencies are urging them to include guidance on fi eld tests. To further complicate the issue, states Work to repair bridges along the Astoria riverfront could extend until the end of May. See Hemp, Page A8 Sturgeon fi shing to open on the river Season starts in May By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian Fishermen will get a brief shot at landing white sturgeon on the l ower Columbia River beginning in May. Oregon and Washington state fi shery managers announced Thurs- day that the river will be open for retention fi shing of white sturgeon on Mondays, Wednesdays and Sat- urdays from May 13 through June 5. The states approved a similar, limited season last year from the Wauna power lines downstream to the river’s mouth at Buoy 10. A cou- ple of additional fi shing days above Wauna later opened in September. Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Jake Erickson Jr. keeps a watchful eye on his fi shing pole as he and his father wait for a sturgeon to bite in Astoria in 2017. But fi shery managers have pro- ceeded cautiously with allowing retention fi shing on white sturgeon in the p ast two years. The number of legal-sized and adult-sized white sturgeon drasti- cally declined from 2008 through 2012 and the states closed reten- tion fi sheries below Bonneville Dam beginning in 2014. The fi shery did not reopen until 2017 after stocks began to rebuild. In 2017, anglers quickly hit the combined quota of around 3,000 fi sh. This year, the allowable catch rings in at 2,960 fi sh. The daily bag limit is one legal-sized white stur- geon with an annual limit of two fi sh. Legal-sized fi sh must measure a minimum of 44 inches from the tip of the nose to the fork in the tail fi n, or a maximum of 50 inches. Anglers cannot keep green sturgeon. Although fi shing will not be allowed between the Wauna power lines and Bonneville Dam at this time, fi shery managers say they plan to announce a fall season later this year. Sturgeon are the largest freshwa- ter fi sh and can be more than 10 feet long. They grow slowly and can live very long lives, reaching up to 80 or 100 years old. On the Columbia River, stur- geon were quickly overfi shed before the beginning of the 20th century. Restrictions on season, gear and the minimum size of fi sh that could be legally harvested went into place in 1950 and helped stocks partially recover. D ams have also fragmented and altered sturgeon habitat.
