REGION
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
ECHO
Spring Fling fundraiser offers full evening
East Oregonian
Live music, a barbecue
dinner, wine and a live auc-
tion will help raise money
for the Oregon East Sym-
phony.
The Spring Fling pro-
vides a full evening of fun,
including a chance to go
home with some great auc-
tion items. In addition, the
event helps raise money to
support the symphony.
Auction items include
vacation getaways, works
by local artists and even a
seat on stage during an Or-
egon East Symphony con-
cert. Money raised will be
used towards maintaining a
strong community orchestra
and Playing For Keeps, the
symphony’s kindergarten
through high school clas-
sical music education pro-
gram.
The Spring Fling is Fri-
day, April 10 from 6-9 p.m.
at Sno Road Winery, 111 W.
Main St., Echo. Tickets are
$40 and can be purchased
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Contributed photo
Local artist Tammy Burnett works in her studio. The
glass mosaic violin is included in the auction during
the Oregon East Symphony Spring Fling fundraiser
April 10 at Sno Road Winery in Echo.
S.W. Fourth St., Pendleton;
Armchair Books, 39 S.W.
Dorion Ave., Pendleton; or
www.brownpapertickets.
com/event/1387205.
For more information,
contact
541-276-0320,
oesprograms@gmail.
com or visit www.orego-
neastsymphony.org.
STANFIELD — An
evening of fun will raise
money to help support the
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celebration.
The event is Friday,
featuring a spaghetti feed
and bingo from 6-8 p.m.
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School, 1120 Main St.
Tickets are $7 if purchased
by Thursday at Main Street
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Library or Bare Necessities.
Tickets are $10 at the door.
Also, free Easter egg
hunts are planned for three
age groups, including kids
under 4, ages 4-8 and those
9 and older. Don’t forget
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an Easter basket. The egg
hunts start at 7:45 p.m.
For more information,
call Cecili Longhorn at
541-571-3812 or 541-449-
1254.
Umatilla gets
ready to slam
dunk the junk
UMATILLA — Slam
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Umatilla coincides with
Shred Day for the Umatilla
Chamber of Commerce &
Visitor Center.
The community-wide
cleanup day encourages
volunteers to sign up to
help discard trash and
old appliances. The city
will provide dumpsters
for local residents to use
free of charge. For more
information or to volunteer,
call 541-922-3226.
CI Shred’s truck will be
available Saturday from
noon to 2 p.m. at H Street
across from the Umatilla
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St., to shred documents
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and the surrounding area.
People are encouraged to
make a donation for the
shredding service. For more
information, call 541-922-
4825.
Rotary Club to
distribute trees
HERMISTON — In
celebration of Arbor Day,
free trees will be given
away to all who are willing
to plant them.
Sponsored by the
Hermiston Rotary Club, the
event is Saturday beginning
at 9 a.m. in the parking lot
at Smitty’s Ace Hardware,
1845 N. First St.,
Hermiston. The event will
continue until all trees are
given away. Trees available
include red maple, river
birch, green ash and Peking
lilac and a conifer.
Umatilla chamber
plans annual
Easter egg hunt
UMATILLA —
Personnel and volunteers
with the Umatilla Chamber
of Commerce & Visitor
Center are gearing up for
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Hunt.
The event is Saturday
at 10 a.m. at West McNary
Park, located near the
dam. Kids ages 0 to 10
are welcome to come and
participate in the egg hunt.
A pair of lucky winners in
each age group will win an
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kinds of goodies.
For more information,
call 541-922-4825.
Discover China
orientation set
HERMISTON — Have
you ever wanted to visit the
Great Wall of China, tour
the Bund in Shanghai or
take a boat ride on the West
Lake?
-RLQWKH+HUPLVWRQ
and Umatilla chambers
of commerce Tuesday,
April 7 at 4:30 p.m. at the
Hermiston Conference
Center boardroom, 415
S. Highway 395, for an
orientation meeting about
an all-inclusive, 10-day
trip to China for $2,399 per
person.
The price includes
round-trip airfare from
Seattle, accommodations in
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three meals a day, all
in-country transportation,
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GHOX[HEXVWRXUVDQG
professional English
speaking tour guides. The
trip will tour seven of
China’s ten wonders of the
world.
Tour dates are Oct.
19-28, 2015. Hermiston
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Debbie Pedro will share a
power point presentation of
the trip she took in October
2014 and answer any
questions.
For more information,
contact 541-567-6151,
debbie@hermistonchamber.
com or visit www.
hermistonchamber.com.
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Hermiston Conference Center
5 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Our Annual Meeting theme “Homegrown”
will recognize an array of products grown
and processed in our local area.
Learn about UEC accomplishments in the
past year, and what we expect in the year ahead.
As always, attendance is free to UEC members.
We hope your will join us!
Featured Speaker
J Judy Hill Lovins of
Aspen Colorado, a
A
fine art photographer
and “homegrown”
native of Hermiston,
will share her life story.
Page 3A
County worries bill would give
veto power to irrigation districts
control districts in Umatilla
County,” the board wrote in
its testimony. “Our planning
The Umatilla County department provides notice
Board of Commissioners is to those entities for land use
opposing a bill in the legis- decisions and incorporates
lature they say would essen- recommendations shared by
tially give veto power to irri- those districts. In our view,
gation districts over proposed there is not a problem with
land division and develop- that process.”
$SULO 6QHOO H[HFXWLYH GL-
ment.
Under House Bill 2894, rector of the water resources
cities and counties would not congress — a Salem-based
be able to approve a devel- QRQSUR¿W RUJDQL]DWLRQ UHS-
opment until they have de- resenting agricultural water
termined the project does not suppliers statewide — ac-
interfere with or threaten local knowledged the positive
irrigation districts and their working relationship in Uma-
tilla County. However, she
operations.
If the project does interfere said not all areas enjoy that
with irrigation facilities, such VDPHOX[XU\
The subdivision review
as pipelines or canals, the dis-
trict would have 30 days to process varies from city to
suggest further conditions for city and from county to coun-
ty, and some districts are giv-
approval.
Building without the dis- en no ability to weigh in on
trict’s input can lead to serious development until after it has
unintended
consequences, EHHQ¿QDOL]HG6QHOOVDLG
Irrigation districts used to
according to the bill’s chief
backer, the Oregon Water Re- have the authority in state law
sources Congress. Past issues to review and approve subdi-
have included canal breaches, vision plats until 1993, when
ÀRRGLQJ RI SURSHUW\ DQG LP- the statute was removed with-
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pacts to water quality.
But Umatilla County of- said. Since then, she said dis-
¿FLDOV DUJXH H[LVWLQJ ODZV tricts have faced a number of
already guarantee districts a costly lawsuits and insurance
voice in the subdivision re- claims from developers who
view process. Commissioners built too close to irrigation ca-
said HB 2894 would create a nals and other infrastructure.
HB 2894 would once again
second, parallel review pro-
cess with no obvious venue establish a consistent process
for the districts to commu-
for developers to appeal.
A public hearing for the nicate with city and county
bill was March 19 in the planners, Snell said. The bill
House Committee on Rural is not meant to give districts a
Communities, Land Use and veto stamp over plats, just en-
Water. A second hearing has sure the review process does
not bypass critical informa-
not been scheduled.
“There are more than 30 tion about irrigation facilities.
“We don’t want to get in
irrigation districts, water im-
provement districts and water the way of development, but
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
BRIEFLY
Easter fun
supports Fourth
of July event
East Oregonian
we want to make sure de-
velopment is going to be in-
formed by the district,” she
said.
Umatilla County Planning
Director Tamra Mabbott said
she believes the OWRC’s
intentions are good, but the
planning department can’t de-
fer permit decisions to a third
party.
“We have this great work-
ing relationship with our (ir-
rigation) districts, but I can’t
hold up a permit based on the
standards or desires of a dis-
trict,” Mabbott said. “I just
think the irrigation districts
have gotten a bit ahead of
themselves on this thing.”
The county already no-
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proposed or amended, a pro-
cess Mabbott said has been
tried and true for more than 40
years. Rather than pass a new
law, she said it would be more
productive for the OWRC to
provide training materials to
city and county planners if
there are ongoing disputes in
other parts of the state.
5D\ .RSDF] PDQDJHU RI
WKH 6WDQ¿HOG ,UULJDWLRQ 'LV-
trict, said the bill is nothing
new. In order to remain in
high-population areas, he said
there must be something on
the books that makes devel-
opers contact their neighbor-
ing irrigation district before
they build.
“We can’t stop the de-
velopment, but we can help
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D SUREOHP´ .RSDF] VDLG
“There has to be some kind of
safety net in there.”
———
Contact George Plaven at
gplaven@eastoregonian.com
or 541-564-4547.
BOARDMAN
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By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
The Oregon Department
of Environmental Quality
says a proposed coal shipping
terminal on the Columbia
River near Boardman will
meet state and federal water
quality standards, so long as
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a lengthy set of conditions.
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what is known as a 401 Water
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to the Coyote Island Termi-
nal, part of Ambre Energy’s
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tons of coal per year to Asia.
The embattled proposal
already received air quality,
water quality and construc-
tion storm water permits
from DEQ, but faces more
legal challenges to breaking
ground. Ambre has appealed
a decision by the Oregon
Department of State Lands
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needed for construction of a
dock at the Port of Morrow.
That hearing won’t take place
until December.
Critics also question
whether Ambre could break
even on its $242 million in-
vestment, given slumping
coal markets overseas. Last
year, the Australia-based
company sold its entire North
American coal assets to Re-
source Capital Funds, a pri-
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after failing to draw other
investors.
At the time, Ambre
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the project’s leadership team
would remain intact.
The company received
another potential boost from
the Wyoming Legislature,
which approved a bill allow-
ing the Wyoming Infrastruc-
ture Authority to issue up to
$1 billion in bonds to support
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shipped out of Boardman
would come in by rail from
the Powder River Basin re-
gion of Wyoming and Mon-
tana.
Both states are partici-
pating as limited parties in
Ambre’s appeal against the
Oregon Department of State
Lands. The agency ruled in
September 2014 the terminal
would interfere with tribal
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If the appeal is successful,
Ambre says the project would
add 25-30 jobs and 2,000
construction jobs. Mean-
while, DEQ imposed near-
ly eight pages of conditions
in order for the terminal to
maintain its 401 Water Qual-
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spill prevention, water quality
monitoring and handling of
waste materials.
Ambre would be required
to immediately shut down
operations at the terminal and
notify the appropriate agen-
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quality problem that leads to
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More information about
the DEQ permit can be found
online at www.oregon.gov/
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