REGION
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 3A
Irrigation district accused of cheating farmers
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
EO Media Group
Several growers in North-
east Oregon are accusing the
Westland Irrigation District of
cheating them out of water to
beneit larger farms.
A federal complaint claims
the district unconstitutionally
deprived the plaintiffs of water
and seeks $2.9 million in
damages as well as an injunc-
tion requiring the Westland
Irrigation District to enforce
the plaintiff’s water rights and
properly deliver water.
Plaintiffs include ELH
LLC, Oregon Hereford Ranch
LLC, Paul Gelissen, Maurice
and Lucy Ziemer, Frank
Mueller, Craig and Cynthia
Parks and Richard and Kris-
tine Carpenter.
Mike Wick, the district’s
general manager, said it
would be premature for him to
discuss the lawsuit.
“Our board hasn’t had a
chance to meet to discuss the
complaint,” he said.
The Westland Irrigation
District will hold a special
executive session about the
litigation that’s scheduled for
July 5 in Echo.
According
to
the
complaint, the district “facil-
itated large scale theft” over
the past six years from 10
farms with senior water rights,
which own between 58 acres
and 837 acres each, to deliver
water to three operations with
more than 5,000 acres.
The lawsuit claims those
three farms with junior water
rights — L&L Farms, Eagle
Ranch and Amstad Farms —
diverted more water than they
were allowed.
The district used several
methods to make the over-
pumping possible, including
fraudulent accounting and
improper
contracts,
the
complaint said.
“Defendant’s misappropri-
ation of plaintiffs’ senior water
rights has deprived plaintiffs
of the opportunity to double
crop their farms and shifted
that lucrative opportunity to
junior water rights holders
in violation of Oregon water
rights law.”
Capital Press was unable to
reach a representative of L&L
Farms.
David Prior, whose family
owns of Eagle Ranch, said
he hadn’t heard about the
litigation.
“We don’t have any
information because we’re
not in the lawsuit, so I can’t
comment,” he said.
Skeeter Amstad, whose
family owns Amstad Farms,
said it’s too early for him to
comment on the lawsuit but
said his company is trans-
parent in its water use and has
done nothing wrong.
“We work extremely hard
to get water through all the
legal channels,” he said.
Dixie
Echeverria,
co-owner of plaintiff ELH
LLC, said she was alerted
to the problem when her
company didn’t receive all the
water to which it was entitled
during the spring.
Westland Irrigation District
didn’t provide answers to her
questions and the Oregon
Water Resources Depart-
ment’s local watermaster
refused to intervene in the
dispute, she said.
The lawsuit was iled to
ensure senior water rights
in the district are protected,
Echeverria said.
Litigation iled by farmers
against their own irrigation
district is rare, according to
an Oregon water law attorney
who didn’t want to be named.
MISSION
Powwow barbecue serves up
chow with helping of tradition
“I’m going
to show
hospitality for
the visitors, the
travelers, all
the people who
come to our
home land.”
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Toby Patrick has a few
rules for his annual barbecue.
Elders park up front,
servers make sure everyone
gets all the food they want,
and hamburgers or hot dogs
are a big “no.”
Patrick and his family put
on a free barbecue at their
home on Lavadour Lane
in Mission for drummers,
dancers and others coming
from the annual Wildhorse
Pow Wow. Saturday marked
the 10th year for the barbecue.
He said the event grew out of
his parents’ celebrations of
his July 5 birthday — this
year he turns 47. But he also
created this to involve family
and honor and respect the
tribal teachings his mother,
father and elders passed to
him.
“I’m going to show
hospitality for the visitors,
the travelers, all the people
who come to our home land,”
he said. “That’s all within
the teaching of who we are
and where we come from as
Indian people.”
Preparation
started
weeks before, with tough
work clearing off thistles
and weeds from around the
home. Patrick, his wife of
28 years, Julia Johnson,
their daughter, Susie Patrick,
14, and close relatives and
friends pitched in, from
grunt work to making food
to serving it. Without the
family, he said, there would
be no barbecue.
“The way my mom and
my dad and aunties were,”
Patrick said, “was keeping
family together.”
Come Saturday morning,
they have tables and chairs
set up inside a large awning
that casts shade, cases of
water and soda pop chilling in
coolers, and beef roasts, pork
shoulder and salmon ready to
grill. Sides also abound, with
macaroni and potato salads,
fruit and fry bread.
And not a hamburger or
hot dog in sight.
Patrick and his friend,
Brian Goatsen, the barbe-
cue’s pit master, used to
work the powwow circuit
together as drummers. Food
on the road often ended up
as bologna sandwiches, they
said, and when they were
invited to barbecues, there
was a certain, well, consis-
— Toby Patrick
Staff photo by Phil Wright
Toby Patrick and his family for a decade now have held a free barbecue at his home
in Mission for drummers, dancers and travelers attending the annual Wildhorse
Pow Wow. The event honors traditions of Indian people, he says, and provides some
good times and plenty of home cooking for the 200-plus who stop in Saturday.
Staff photo by Phil Wright
LEFT: Julia Johnson prepares fry bread Saturday for her family’s annual barbecue
in Mission. RIGHT: EllaMae Looney, 16, serves up fruit and fry bread Saturday at her
family’s annual barbecue. Her granduncle, Toby Patrick, has been hosting the barbe-
cue for 10 years.
book shows early diners
were mostly local, from
Mission and Pendleton, but
several were from central
Washington and a few from
Arizona. Folks have come
from as far as Minnesota and
Nebraska, Patrick said, but so
far the most distant travelers
were from Canada. They
drove 27 hours to get here, he
said.
The family also runs
plates full of food to friends
and family that have to work
and can’t make it.
The food is hearty, and
so is the camaraderie. Folks
keep coming, and Patrick
and his clan would have it no
other way. The whole thing,
he said, is no different than
anything else you learn in
life.
“What you put into it,” he
said, “is what you get out of
it.”
tency.
“Burgers and dogs,”
Patrick said. “That’s the
staple on the powwow trail.”
Thus, at this celebration,
he emphasized, “No burgers,
no dogs.”
The Wildhorse Pow Wow
is big on the circuit, he said,
and word of the meal has
spread. The irst year, he said,
82 souls ate at the event. Last
year, around 240.
They start trickling in
around 4 p.m., and about
90 minutes later car after
car pulls in. The guest
Sale In Progress
Saager’s Shoe Shop
Up to 50% Off
Milton-Freewater, OR
Fri. Aug 12 • Starts at 8pm
Also Featuring:
Tormenta De Durango
Domador De La Sierra
2012 NW Carden Ave.
541-276-1522
An irrigation district’s
board of directors is supposed
to ensure proper water allo-
cations, but these governing
bodies are often dominated
by the largest landowners, the
attorney said. “That’s poten-
tially a problem.”
If the board’s directors
refuse to take action or are
accused of wrongdoing
themselves, farmers have
few alternatives aside from
litigation, the attorney said.
State watermasters regu-
late at the point of diversion
from a public water source,
but they aren’t involved in
internal water distribution,
the attorney said. “They
leave that to the district to
manage.”
29-year-old
TRCI inmate
dies in local
hospital
UMATILLA — The
Oregon State Police are
investigating the death of
a 29-year-old inmate early
Sunday at Two Rivers
Correctional Institution in
Umatilla.
Rigoberto
Corona-
Avila, of Salem, was taken
to a nearby hospital at 3
p.m. Saturday where he
died at 6:32 a.m. Sunday.
Neither the hospital
where
Corona-
Avila
died nor
the cause
of death
were
listed in
a press
Corona-Avila
release
from
the Oregon Department
of Corrections, and a
call to the prison wasn’t
immediately returned.
Corona-Avila had been
in custody since December
9, 2010 on two counts of
sex abuse — one in the
irst degree and one in the
second — and one count of
fourth-degree felony assault.
His earliest release date was
January 3, 2017, exactly six
months after his death.
The press release stated
that next of kin had been
notiied but no other
details are available.
This is the sixth
inmate death reported by
TRCI since Feb. 27. The
other ive were natural
deaths, according to Rudy
Stefancik, the Umatilla
County medical examiner.
TRCI opened in 2000
and houses about 1,800
male inmates.