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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 10, 2015)
Fire crew frees two from car LOCALS HEAD TO NATIONALS RODEO/1B REGION/3A FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2015 139th Year, No. 191 Your Weekend WINNER OF THE 2013 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Walden optimistic for forests bill Legislation nearing vote in House • • • Athena Caledonian Games Saturday, Sunday Hermiston Funfest downtown Saturday Brews by the Blues Beer Fest, Milton-Freewater See Coming Events, 8A One dollar the Resilient Federal Forests Act, would also expedite forest thinning projects in an $VZLOG¿UHVHDVRQKHDWVXS effort to boost logging jobs across the West, lawmakers in while lowering the risk of Washington, D.C. are pursuing FDWDVWURSKLF¿UHV U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, disaster relief funding to help SD\IRUELJJHUFRVWOLHU¿UHVRQ R-Oregon, discussed his support of the bill Thursday, public land. House Bill 2647, known as which passed the House By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian handily and once again puts forest management reforms to the Senate. Last year, Walden promoted legislation that would have required the Secretary of Agriculture to designate land in every national forest suitable for commercial timber harvest, DQGUHGXFHKD]DUGRXVZLOG¿UH fuels in at-risk areas established by the governor. That bill passed the House two years in a row, but was never taken up by the Senate and was threatened with a veto from the White House. Envi- ronmental groups criticized the proposal, saying it would result in unprecedented and unsustainable timber harvest levels. This time around, Walden said the Resilient See BILL/10A Walden Weekend Weather Fri Sat Sun Biologists brace for high fi sh mortality before spawning 93/67 87/62 87/60 HELIX E. coli found in city’s water supply East Oregonian The Umatilla County Health Department issued a boil water advisory Thursday for Helix residents after a recent water sample tested positive for E. coli. According to a department press release, a repeat test FRQ¿UPHG WKH SUHVHQFH RIE. coli in Helix’s water supply after initial results indicated total coliform bacteria contamination. The department is advising the 190 residents of Helix to bring water to a full, rolling boil for one minute before use. Tasks that will require boiling are drinking, washing or adding water to uncooked food, ice making, cleaning surfaces that come into contact with food, gargling, eye washing, taking water with medications and brushing teeth. Boiling water isn’t required for showering, bathing, washing laundry, general cleaning, hand washing, bathing or serving water to pets and plants. Dishes can be washed without boiled water, but the health department recom- mends mixing each gallon of water with one tablespoon of bleach and allowing the dishes to air dry afterwards. Symptoms of E. coli poisoning include diarrhea, vomiting, severe cramps and fever. The county is working with the city of Helix to determine the source of the E. coli. Since 2009, Helix’s water supply has tested positive for E. coli 11 times, according to the Oregon Health Authority. Staff photo by E.J. Harris A dead carp lies tangled in the weeds on the shore of McKay Reservoir on Wednesday south of Pendleton. Due to low winter precipitation the reservoir is currently at 50 percent of capacity for this time of year. Fatally low flows for fish ¿QJHUVEHFDXVHWKH\GRQ¶WVSDZQIRU DQRWKHUPRQWK´ The tribes and Oregon Depart- ment of Fish & Wildlife already 'HDG¿VKDUHDSSHDULQJDORQJWKH — Gary James, fi sheries program manager with CTUIR trucked spring chinook from Three banks of creeks and rivers in Eastern Mile Falls Dam to their spawning Oregon, exhausted by a lethal combi- QDWLRQ RI ORZ ÀRZV DQG KLJK ZDWHU time of year, and water temperatures vation, said he expects higher-than- grounds upstream, which James said as high as 74 degrees in the Umatilla usual pre-spawn mortality. Under adds another element of stress on the temperatures. Mother Nature has not been kind River. Though the basin saw its normal conditions, maybe 10 percent ¿VK But with as many chinook as WRFROGZDWHU¿VKVRIDULQDIWHU second-highest run of spring chinook, RI ¿VK ZLOO GLH EHIRUH VSDZQLQJ LQ combining historically low winter the question now is how many will the basin. This year, it could be closer returned from the Columbia River to 30 or 40 percent. — more than 6,000 — James is snowpack with consecutive weeks survive through July to spawn. *DU\ -DPHV ¿VKHULHV SURJUDP “Obviously, there’s more stress to optimistic they will have enough of triple-digit heat in Eastern Oregon. That’s left McKay Reservoir at manager with the Confederated WKH¿VKLQWKLVNLQGRIHQYLURQPHQW´ See FISH/10A just half its normal volume for this Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reser- James said. “We have to cross our By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian “It’s a challenging year, but we’ll still get by. We just hope this doesn’t become the norm.” UMATILLA City e[pands de¿ nition for business license concerned, if people are earning income from a business activity in Umatilla, Umatilla landlords and they need a license. That out-of-town businesses doing means landlords renting out work in the city will pay $30 a few houses or Hermiston a year for a business license. FRQWUDFWRUV GRLQJ D URR¿QJ City Manager Bob Ward job in Umatilla are getting said the city’s business code QRWLFH IRU WKH ¿UVW WLPH WKDW hasn’t changed, but staff have they will need to go down to decided to expand their inter- city hall and obtain a license. Ward said people have pretation of what it means to accused the city of trying to ³GREXVLQHVV´LQWKHFLW\ “What we’re doing is make more money, but said WDNLQJWKDWPRUHOLWHUDOO\´KH the city’s real intent is to build a list of contact information said. As far as Ward is based on the licenses. By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian ³,I D KRPH LV RQ ¿UH DQG the tenant isn’t home, the ODQGORUG PLJKW ZDQW D FDOO´ Ward said. “We can go through the county property records to get a name and address but there’s no phone QXPEHUDWWDFKHG´ He said tracking busi- nesses through the licensing system will help the city be able to quickly contact business owners about every- thing from code enforcement issues to incidents involving See BUSINESS/10A Group claims BLM trying to breed special mustangs in Oregon GRANTS PASS (AP) — Wild horse advocates are challenging U.S. Bureau of Land Management plans this summer to round up the famous Kiger and Riddle Mountain mustang herds in eastern Oregon. The Colorado-based group Front Range Equine 5HVFXH¿OHGDQDSSHDORIWKHURXQGXSSODQ:HGQHVGD\ with the Interior Board of Land Appeals. It argues the roundup is designed to develop a ³PDVWHUEUHHG´RIZLOGKRUVHVH[KLELWLQJFKDUDFWHULVWLFV of old Spanish bloodlines that are popular with the public, rather than maintaining wild horses in natural conditions. The appeal argues that BLM returns to the range only horses exhibiting Kiger characteristics, depleting the gene pool. BLM spokesman Jeff Campbell says the bureau keeps close track of the herds’ genetic diversity, and returns horses less likely to be adopted.
