REGION
Friday, October 21, 2016
Salmon, steelhead ishing
closes early on Columbia
Endangered run tracking
below preseason forecast
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Recreational ishing for salmon
and steelhead will close early on the
Columbia River, beginning Saturday.
Fisheries managers for Oregon and
Washington made the announcement
Wednesday, based on a lower number of
wild fall chinook returning to the Snake
River than previously anticipated. Snake
River fall chinook have been listed as a
threatened species since 1992.
Preseason forecasts initially called
for a run of 579,600 chinook. However,
only 412,700 have made it back, or
about 71 percent. Forecasts have also
been downgraded for Columbia River
coho and steelhead.
Under federal law, harvest can’t
exceed 15 percent of the fall chinook
run. John North, who manages isheries
on the Columbia River for the Oregon
Department of Fish & Wildlife, said
they have already exceeded that mark,
based on the revised projections.
“Once you exceed that limit, the
expectation is you won’t impart any
further mortality,” North said.
The season typically runs through the
end of the year, North said. In addition,
ODFW is closing the seasons for coho
and steelhead to assure no chinook are
accidentally killed by catch-and-release.
The closure will run all the way from
Buoy 10 on the lower Columbia to the
Highway 395 Bridge between Kenne-
Anibal Ortiz/The Corvallis Gazette-Times via AP
In this Sept. 30 photo, a school of steelhead and Chinook salmon swim
in a pool on the mainstream of Oregon’s Siletz River. Steelhead are an
oceangoing variant of rainbow trout that, like salmon, return to their
native streams to spawn.
wick and Pasco.
“It was a disappointment,” North
said. “On the positive side, it was gener-
ally later in the season.”
Columbia River coho are currently
tracking at about 66 percent of the
preseason forecast, and just 53 percent
for steelhead. North said the runs tend
to be cyclical, based on river and ocean
conditions.
“Salmon are very cyclical,” he said.
“They tend not to be consistently stable.”
Fall chinook runs have been very
strong in recent years, with the number
of adults returning past McNary Dam
in 2014 and 2015 shattering the 10-year
average.
This year’s lower fall returns are
also relected on the Umatilla River at
Three Mile Falls Dam. According to
the most recent data, there have been
1,186 chinook, 824 coho and 54 steel-
head counted at the dam for 2016. That
compares to 1,630 chinook, 1,195 coho
and 159 steelhead at this time last year,
and 2,306 chinook, 3,415 coho and 852
steelhead in 2014.
———
Contact George Plaven at gplaven@
eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0825.
Umatilla County readies to take on septic inspections
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Umatilla County is all
but ready to take on the
state’s on-site septic system
inspection program.
The county board of
commissioners at its meeting
Wednesday morning in Pend-
leton voted 3-0 to adopt the
fee schedule and enforcement
ordinance for the program,
according to county records.
The fees and regulations are
essentially the same as what
the state used.
The Oregon Department
of Environmental Quality
had two employees to inspect
septic systems throughout
several counties in northeast
Oregon. Joe Fiumara, the
county’s
environmental
health supervisor, told the
board that the situation led to
waits of ive or six weeks for
site evaluations, at times.
“Our attempt is going to be
to reduce those times, and so
the contractors were excited
about that piece,” Fiumara
The county also plans to
streamline some of the paper-
work process, he said, such as
eliminating the state’s fees for
public records.
“I don’t like to charge
people to get free records,” he
said.
That could be unique in
county departments, which
can charge a minimum of
$1 for even a simple digital
record.
Commissioner
Bill
Elfering added the county
is moving toward online
applications and credit card
payments. Fiumara said some
of that online access will
happen right away and would
be a boon to residents who
don’t have quick access to
county ofices in Pendleton.
The transition from the
state to the county, though,
is not complete. Fiumara
said the county is waiting on
the agreement from the state
environmental department.
Fiumara also said he
initially will be handling
inspections alone, but the
intent is to train two other
staff. And he said growing
pains are likely as the county
takes this on, but the goal is to
make the change as smooth as
possible.
County counsel Doug
Olsen explained the septic
inspection program also
requires enforcement of
regulations and laws. While
the county adopted the state
statutes and DEQ regulations,
he said, the county can use its
own enforcement ordinance
to address violations.
WALDEN: Scheduling medical appointments an issue
Continued from 1A
the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs’ power to hire and
ire VA employees who are
performing poorly.
After veterans in atten-
dance complained that all
of that has not seemed to
ix the backlog of claims
and appeals at the VA,
Walden agreed with them
that Department of Veterans
Affairs administrators should
be doing more to ix the VA’s
ongoing problems on their
own instead of waiting for
mandates from Congress.
“We’re not managers,
we’re legislators,” Walden
said. “We’re supposed to set
policy, not do the day to day
management.”
He said there are still
improvements the legislature
is looking to make, however.
One complaint he said he has
heard from veterans during
his tour of the state is that they
are merely told when their
medical appointments will be
with no consideration of their
schedule and no negotiation
if the time and date conlict
with something important
like a college inal. If the
private industry can offer
people a choice in scheduling
just about anything, Walden
said, surely the VA could
come up with a system.
“It seems to me we could
get a bunch of 12-year-olds
and computers and they
could do it,” he said.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Rep. Greg Walden gestures while speaking to a group
of veterans on Thursday at the VFW post in Hermiston.
After the backlog of claims
and appeals for medical care
at the VA reached a peak,
Congress implemented the
Veterans Choice Program,
which gives some veterans
with immediate medical
needs a voucher for care
elsewhere if the VA can not
see them within 30 days.
Walden said legislators hope
to eventually expand that
into a program in which all
veterans can get their less
serious medical needs met
through a list of preferred
providers in their hometown.
Attendees at the Thursday
meeting said it seemed like
there was a pervasive attitude
problem with VA bureaucrats
that had led to many of the
problems the system faces,
another assertion Walden did
not dispute.
He recounted an expe-
rience when a homeless
veteran in Bend suffered
serious burns from a propane
tank explosion on Christmas.
Walden contacted the VA
after media reports that the
man had been at the top of
the list since summer for
one of the housing vouchers
for homeless veterans in
central Oregon that had been
sitting unused in an ofice for
months. He was told that the
rent vouchers hadn’t been
distributed yet because it
would be inconvenient for
a qualiied employee from
Portland to travel out to Bend
and stay in a hotel.
“This is the mentality,” he
said.
Veterans also brought
up compensation for Agent
Orange exposure, noting
that some people were
exposed to Agent Orange
while transporting it at sea
or handling it at airields in
Thailand, but only those who
were stationed in Vietnam
are compensated. Walden
said Congress is looking to
expand the deinition of who
qualiies for compensation.
He also noted that there
were ways Congress was
looking to support veterans
outside of the VA. Walden
said he hoped that the
government could work with
employers and colleges to
help veterans count certain
aspects of their military
training toward certiications.
As an example he refer-
enced a young veteran he
met recently who, while
deployed overseas, regularly
drove gasoline tanker trucks
on narrow roads along cliffs
in a war zone wearing night
goggles. But when the man
got home he discovered that
he would still have to go
through the same process
as a civilian to qualify for a
commercial driver’s license
to drive a semi truck in the
daylight on Interstate 84.
“It seems we need a better
partnership with higher
education to recognize what
military training is equivalent
to,” Walden said.
He thanked the veterans
for their service to their
country, and for their willing-
ness to meet with him and let
him know what is “working
and not working on the
ground.”
BMCC DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC AND FOUNDATION PRESENT:
FEATURING THE MUSIC OF ROGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN
OCT. 19 • 22, 7:15 PM & OCT. 23, 2:00 PM
TICKETS: $10 • $5, @ BOB CLAPP THEATRE
Tickets available at: Pendleton Art and Frame and at the door.
For info: 541-278-5174
BLUE MOUNTAIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE IS AN EQUAL OPPOR-
TUNITY EDUCATOR AND EMPLOYER. FOR COMPLETE EEO
DISCLOSURE, PLEASE SEE WWW.BLUECC.EDU/EEO
A BENEFIT FOR
STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS!
East Oregonian
Page 3A
PENDLETON
Two in trouble
for school ires
East Oregonian
Pendleton police caught
two boys in connection to
ires at two schools.
Pendleton Police Chief
Stuart Roberts reported
oficers
caught
them
Tuesday, the same day as
the ires.
“We used the internal
cameras to identify persons
coming/going from the
damaged restrooms,” the
chief said in an email.
Roberts also stated he
could not identify the chil-
dren by name due to their
ages.
The Pendleton Police
Department at about 10:30
a.m. Tuesday responded
to a ire call at Sunridge
Middle School, 700 S.W.
Runnion Ave., Pendleton.
Pendleton Assistant Fire
Chief Shawn Penninger
said someone started the
ire in at least three separate
points in the bathroom near
the school cafeteria. School
staff extinguished the
lames and all students left
the building.
The investigation led
police to arrest a 12-year-old
boy for arson, according to
Roberts. The youth “was
on conditional release for
severely damaging a pickup
last week with a sledge-
hammer while skipping
school.”
The second ire was
Tuesday afternoon at Wash-
ington Elementary School,
1205 S.E. Byers Ave., after
an 8-year-old boy urinated
on an electrical outlet in a
bathroom, causing some
light smoke and charring
along the wall. That ire also
led to a school evacuation.
Roberts said due to the
boy’s age and the limits of
Oregon law, “no criminal
charges can be brought,”
and the Pendleton School
District will handle any
discipline.
Sheriff launches drone
program for searches
East Oregonian
The Umatilla County
Sheriff’s Ofice announced
this week the launch of a
new drone program.
The remote-controlled
aircraft is for search and
rescue, emergency manage-
ment and other purposes.
“Drone technology is
helping public safety agen-
cies ind missing people
faster and can provide assis-
tance to distressed victims
in many types of disaster
incidents,” according to the
written statement from the
sheriff’s ofice. “During a
search and rescue mission,
this tool will help us view
a much larger area much
faster than with traditional
methods, and can direct
ground searchers and
provide aid to a victim
more quickly, which can
help save lives.”
The sheriff’s ofice
reported consulting during
the past several months
with Steve Chrisman, Pend-
leton’s airport manager and
economic
development
director, Darryl Abling,
the range manager at the
Eastern Oregon Regional
Airport, Pendleton, and
staff at the city’s drone
range for advice and direc-
tion on how to use drone
technology.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Dwight
Johnson oversees the
search and rescue unit
and is managing the drone
program. He completed
testing and requirements to
obtain a remote pilot certi-
ication from the Federal
Aviation Administration.
The sheriff’s ofice also is
recruiting more staff to test
and become certiied.
BOARDMAN
City to sponsor fall cleanup
East Oregonian
Boardman residents will have the chance to spruce
up their homes and yards, with a little help from the city,
during a community-wide fall cleanup event that will run
through the month of November.
The city has garbage vouchers available, up to a $50 limit,
valid at both the Finley Butte Landill and North Morrow
Transfer Station. Anyone interested can pick up a voucher at
City Hall, 200 City Center Circle, beginning Oct. 31.
For more information, call 541-481-9252.
SUBMIT COMMUNITY NEWS
Submit information to: community@eastoregonian.
com or drop off to the attention of Tammy Malgesini at
333 E. Main St., Hermiston or Renee Struthers at 211
S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton. Call 541-564-4539 or 541-
966-0818 with questions.
FREE ADULT
FLU SHOTS
St. Anthony Hospital
Parking Lot
Drive Through Clinic
Saturday, October 22nd • 10am - 2pm
2801 St. Anthony Way
Pendleton, OR 97801
www.sahpendleton.org
541-278-3262