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THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020
IN BRIEF
Tornado causes minor damage
near Manzanita Tuesday
A tornado caused minor damage to two properties
along the Kahnie Trail Loop near Manzanita on Tues-
day morning.
Weather offi cials say the tornado traveled about
one-quarter mile in length and about 100 yards in
width. No injuries were reported.
Pedestrian injured after being
struck by a vehicle on Marine Drive
An 80-year-old Astoria man was struck by a vehi-
cle Tuesday while crossing W. Marine Drive in front
of Astoria High School.
Police say the man was going to the high school
to see a game and parked in a parking lot across the
street. As he was crossing the street from the lot to the
high school, he was struck by a vehicle. The driver
was not cited.
The man was taken to Columbia Memorial Hospi-
tal in Astoria with injuries.
Seaside rejects low offer on high school
SEASIDE — The school district has rejected a bid
for Seaside High School.
“We had an offer at the high school that was consid-
erably less than our asking price, and we declined to
accept that,” Jim Henry, the campus project manager,
said at a meeting of the district’s school construction
oversight committee last week.
The bid was about one-third the asking price of
$5.2 million, he said.
A MINIBOAT SUMMIT
ABOVE: Warrenton Grade School student Kaitlyn Gildner
christens her school’s Goonies-themed miniboat by breaking
a bottle of sparkling cider over it at the Miniboat Summit
held by the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria on
Tuesday morning. The students from Warrenton built the
unmanned boat that will head for Japan as part of a cultural
exchange with Japanese students. The GPS-equipped boat will
be tracked after it is released by the Columbia River Bar Pilots.
LEFT: Warrenton Grade School’s miniboat turns quickly with
the push of the wind during a test run on the Columbia River.
Scam caller pretending to be police
Astoria police have received reports that a scam
caller with a toll-free phone number has called a cou-
ple of bars pretending to be a police offi cer.
Police say if there is any doubt the phone call is
genuine, call the Astoria Police Department directly at
503-325-4411.
— The Astorian
DEATHS
Jan. 21, 2020
In BROWN,
Brief
Dennis Phil-
lip, 75, of Warrenton, died
in Warrenton. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
Jan. 17, 2020
HORTON,
Lynn
Alice, 79, of Astoria, died
in Portland. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
Dec. 16, 2019
OLSON, Brian Her-
bert, 49, of La Center,
Washington, formerly of
Astoria, died in La Cen-
ter. Cascadia Crema-
tion & Burial Services
in Vancouver, Washing-
ton, was in charge of the
arrangements.
MEMORIAL
Saturday, Jan. 25
HARVEY, Richard “Rick” — Celebration of life
service at 5 p.m., Hughes-Ransom Mortuary Chapel,
220 N. Holladay Drive in Seaside. Harvey, 69, of Port-
land, died in Portland on Jan. 13, 2020.
ON THE RECORD
Theft
• Corey Elizabeth
Jones, 25, was arrested
Monday at Walmart in
Warrenton for theft in the
second degree and crim-
inal trespass in the fi rst
degree.
Harassment
• Robert L. Parks, 39,
of Longview, Washing-
ton, was arrested Sunday
on E. Pine Lane in Gear-
hart for harassment.
• Kristian Erik Wil-
liamson, 59, of Astoria,
was arrested Sunday on
Bond Street in Astoria for
harassment.
Menacing
• Eliott Joseph Per-
nice, 36, of Seaside, was
arrested on Bear Road in
Seaside for menacing.
Contraband
• Bryan Thomas
Edwards, 32, was indicted
Tuesday for supply-
ing contraband tobacco
and unlawful manu-
facture or delivery of
Buprenorphine.
DUII
• Latoya V. Ndir, 35, of
Warrenton, was arrested
Monday on U.S. High-
way 101 in Warrenton for
driving under the infl u-
ence of intoxicants.
• Kelvin Rummell, 56,
of Seaside, was arrested
Monday on Avenue T in
Seaside for DUII.
• Kevin Micheal
Clark, 48, of Astoria,
was arrested Friday on
Svensen Market Road and
Simonsen Road for DUII.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
THURSDAY
Sunset Empire Transportation District Board, 9 a.m.,
Astoria Transit Center Conference Room, 900 Marine Drive.
Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce Council, noon,
818 Commercial St., Suite 203.
Astoria City Council, 2 p.m., work session, City Hall, 1095
Duane St.
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Photos by Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Wyoming, Montana
seek Supreme Court
ruling on coal project
Clash over a
Longview terminal
By MEAD GRUVER
Associated Press
CHEYENNE, Wyo. —
Wyoming and Montana asked
the U.S. Supreme Court on
Tuesday to rule on Washing-
ton state’s denial of a permit
for a port facility that could
boost coal exports.
The coal-producing Rocky
Mountain states argue the
denial violates the commerce
clause of the U.S. Constitu-
tion, which prohibits states
from impeding trade between
one another and with other
countries.
Montana and Wyoming
offi cials want South Jor-
dan, Utah-based Lighthouse
Resources to be able to open
its proposed $680 million Mil-
lennium Bulk Terminals proj-
ect in Longview, Washington.
At stake could poten-
tially be a good-sized chunk
of the coal industry. Domes-
tic coal-fi red power genera-
tion has declined 40% over
the past decade amid compe-
tition from cheaper and clean-
er-burning natural gas and
renewable energy, contribut-
ing to a steep decline in coal
mining and several bankrupt-
cies among the industry’s big-
gest players.
The Washington Depart-
ment of Ecology has imposed
a “de facto blockade” on the
coal-mining states by denying
a key permit for the coal port
facility in 2017, Wyoming
Gov. Mark Gordon said at a
news conference.
“This case is about the
right of states to conduct com-
merce, a question as old as
our Constitution,” said Gor-
don, a Republican.
The denial of the permit
under the federal Clean Water
Act provided no way for
Bill Wagner/The Daily News
The site of a proposed coal export facility in Longview.
Lighthouse subsidiary Mil-
lennium Bulk Terminals to
improve its permit application
to win approval, Gordon said.
“The state just didn’t want
to export commodities from
the interior West and was
willing to use any tactic it
could fi nd to make sure of it,”
Gordon said.
Montana’s access to over-
seas coal markets “shouldn’t
be dictated by the latest polit-
ical fads on the West Coast,”
Montana Attorney General
Tim Fox said in a release.
The case would bypass
lower courts should the
Supreme Court choose to
hear it. Washington would
continue to defend its deci-
sion and “right and obliga-
tion” to enforce clean water
laws, Mike Faulk, a spokes-
man for Washington Gov. Jay
Inslee, a Democrat, said in a
statement.
“This project was right-
fully denied under state and
federal authority because it
failed to meet water quality
and other environmental stan-
dards,” Faulk said.
Washington state offi cials
have said the denial wasn’t an
abuse of authority but based
on how the project would
disturb over 30 acres of wet-
lands, require dredging of 40
acres of the Columbia River
and contaminate stormwa-
ter by stockpiling 1.5 mil-
lion tons of coal on site, Faulk
said.
Chlorpyrifos ban proposed in Washington state
Restrictions also
possible in Oregon
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA, Wash. — The
pesticide chlorpyrifos would
be banned in Washington
state except for use on three
crops under a bill introduced
in the state Senate.
Mint, onion and sweet
corn growers would be able
to use the chemical. Other
farmers could apply for an
exemption, too, but they
would have to alert neighbors
prior to spraying and warn
that exposure to chlorpyri-
fos could harm young and
unborn children.
The bill’s prime sponsor,
state Sen. Christine Rolfes,
D-Bainbridge Island, said
the U.S. Environmental Pro-
tection Agency has punted
on deciding whether to ban
chlorpyrifos nationwide. “It
just appears to be a chemical
we should be weaning our-
selves off of,” she said.
The EPA concluded in
2016 that the current regis-
tered uses of chlorpyrifos
pose dietary and drinking
water risks and says it will
complete a review of those
uses by October 2022.
California, Hawaii and
New York have moved to
phase out chlorpyrifos in
those states before then.
Washington, Oregon, Cali-
fornia are among the eight
states seeking to force an
immediate national ban by
suing the EPA in the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals.
In Oregon, the pesticide
is mainly used on Christmas
trees, leafy greens and alfalfa.
The Chlorpyrifos Work
Group, an advisory com-
mittee, is considering lim-
its on its use. The committee
is made up of 12 members,
which include experts and
leaders
from
agricul-
ture, environmental jus-
tice groups, toxicologist and
farmworker health and safety
organizations.
“We have a really diverse
agricultural industry in Ore-
gon. So many sectors within
the industry use the product,
we have other land uses that
use the product and then we
have folks who represent par-
ticularly vulnerable popu-
lations that can be exposed
to the product,” the state
Department of Agriculture’s
Stephanie Page said.
“One really helpful thing
is that many of these folks
have worked together in the
past on other diffi cult issues,
they’re accustomed to work-
ing together.”
Page said the goal for this
work group is to look into the
critical uses and evaluate sci-
ence-based restrictions that
protect public health, safety
and limit exposure.
The committee will also
explore ways to reduce
bystander exposure to work-
ers, neighbors or people who
live near areas where the pes-
ticide has been used.
Farm groups and the U.S.
Department of Agriculture
defend chlorpyrifos as essen-
tial for crop protection and
safe if properly applied.
Washington Friends of
Farms and Forests execu-
tive director Heather Hansen
said the state should wait for
the EPA to fi nish its review.
“The entire bill is an end-run
around the existing process,”
she said.
A ban could hurt even
growers who rarely spray
chlorpyrifos, but use it to
supplement or back up other
chemicals, she said. “You
take a tool out of the toolbox,
you make it much more dif-
fi cult to protect crops,” she
said.
The EPA has been consid-
ering a ban for several years.
In comments submitted to
the federal agency, the Wash-
ington State Department of
Agriculture asked that any
ban exempt mint, onions
and sweet corn because
those crops lack alternative
pesticides.
For other crops, Rolfes’
legislation would ban prod-
ucts that have chlorpyrifos
as its active ingredient begin-
ning in 2021. Until Dec. 31,
2025, growers could seek
permission from the state
Department of Health to use
chlorpyrifos, but with limits.
The chemical couldn’t
be applied from the air or in
winds above 3 mph. Nearby
residents would have to be
told 48 hours in advance and
given a health warning.
The restrictions would
remain in place unless state
Health and Ecology offi cials
concluded the chemicals’ use
was not a health risk.
Washington Tree Fruit
Association President Jon
DeVaney said that orchards
typically use chlorpyrifos
once a year while the trees
are dormant.
A ban would not take into
account how the chemical is
used and whether every use
poses a health risk, he said.
“These are very compli-
cated, scientifi c questions
that don’t lend themselves to
a broad-brush, all-or-nothing
approach,” DeVaney said.
Ashley Chesser, com-
munications director of the
Northwest Center for Alter-
natives to Pesticides, said the
organization can support the
bill, even with the exemp-
tions and phase-in period.
“Ideally, we would end
use completely, but we’re
also sympathetic to growers
who have been using it,” she
said.
Monica Samayoa of Ore-
gon Public Broadcasting
contributed to this report.