STANFIELD/3A
41/24
FIRE
DAMAGES
STARCH
FACTORY
PENDLETON
BOYS, GIRLS
WIN LEAGUE
TITLES 1B
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2017
141st Year, No. 92
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
The law of the land
Police rely on Oregon law when it
comes to immigration enforcement
By PHIL WRIGHT
and JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Despite new executive orders
from President Donald Trump,
local law enforcement show no
signs of helping federal agents
capture and detain people in the
country illegally.
The Department of Homeland
Security issued a policy Tuesday
expanding deportations and calling
for the restart of the “287(g)
program,” which allows local
law enforcement entities to agree
to help U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement with immi-
gration enforcement.
But Oregon statute prohibits
law enforcement agencies of the
state from using agency funds,
More inside
Millions targeted for possible
deportation under Trump rules
Page 7A
equipment or personnel to fi nd and
arrest people whose only offense is
being “persons of foreign citizen-
ship present in the United States
in violation of federal immigration
laws.”
The Oregon State Sheriffs’
Association published a legal
analysis of the law in response to
the Trump administration’s Jan. 25
executive order on immigration.
“That statute has been in place
since 1987,” the analysis states.
“And unless the Oregon legislature
changes it, that law will continue
to prohibit Oregon police offi cers
from acting as immigration
enforcement offi cers.”
Umatilla County does not
have a policy on cooperating with
federal authorities. Sheriff Terry
Rowan in an email said his offi ce
“cooperates with ICE as far as the
See IMMIGRATION/7A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Samantha Castoldi, with Blue Mountain Wildlife, releases an adult male bald eagle at McKay Reservoir on Tuesday in Pendleton.
Rehabbed and released
Bald eagles take fl ight in McKay Creek Refuge
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
A cold and steady rain fell
Tuesday afternoon at McKay
Creek National Wildlife Refuge
where Lynn Tompkins and
Samantha Castoldi arrived with
two bald eagles in plastic carriers.
After months of rehabilitation at
Blue Mountain Wildlife, the birds
were set to be released back into
the wild. They took fl ight without
any hesitation, and in seconds
were soaring effortlessly over the
reservoir south of Pendleton.
“Two less mouths to feed,” said
Tompkins, executive director of
Blue Mountain Wildlife, as she
watched the eagles fl y.
It has been an unusually busy
winter at the wildlife rescue, where
Tompkins said they have received
more than twice as many birds
so far in 2017 as they did at this
time last year. She fi gures it has
something to do with the extreme
cold and snow, though it is diffi cult
to tell just how much of a role the
weather has played.
“I’m sure the weather one way
or another has had an effect,”
Tompkins said.
Blue Mountain Wildlife cares
for sick, injured and orphaned
animals from across Eastern
Oregon and Washington. About
half of what they get they can’t
treat, Tompkins said, which is why
“They fl ew very well.
They’d been ready
to go for a while.”
— Lynn Tompkins, executive
director of Blue Mountain Wildlife
they are so excited when they are
able to return native species to
their natural habitat.
The eagles released Tuesday
were initially brought to the center
See EAGLES/10A
One dollar
Savings
possible
by closing
nuclear
plant
PORTLAND (AP) — A new
study says Pacifi c Northwest
utility ratepayers could save
hundreds of millions of dollars
if the Bonneville Power Admin-
istration and Energy Northwest
close the region’s only commer-
cial nuclear power plant in Rich-
land, Washington and replace its
output with renewable energy.
The
Portland-based
McCullough Research consulting
fi rm estimated savings from
$261.2 million to $530.7 million
over 10 years due to historically
low renewable energy prices at
the aging plant, The Oregonian/
OregonLive reported.
“The rapid drop in renewable
energy costs in recent years has
been shocking to everyone,” said
economist Robert McCullough.
“It is now possible to affordably
replace aging facilities ... without
increasing the region’s carbon
footprint.”
The report was commissioned
by the anti-nuclear group Physi-
cians for Social Responsibility
and is the latest in a salvo against
the economic feasibility and
reliability of the aging Columbia
Generating Station.
The station is all that’s left of
a plan to build fi ve nuclear plants
in the Northwest, a debacle that
led to one of the largest municipal
bond defaults in history. The
Richland facility was the only one
completed. It is an older design
that has had a variety of operating
issues. Federal regulators recently
cleared it to run through 2043.
Energy Northwest, a public
utility consortium that operates
the plant, criticized the report
and told the newspaper that the
1,200-megawatt plant has set
generating records in four of the
past fi ve years.
The consortium markets the
power through the Bonneville
Power Adminstration.
The study cited the low
cost and abundant supply of
renewable power. But the plant’s
supporters point out that supply
differs from capacity — making
sure that power is there when you
need it.
“The report faults CGS for what
makes it so valuable: We make
electricity
around-the-clock,”
said Mike Paoli, a spokesman for
Energy Northwest. “With wind
and solar, a lot of the generation
happens at off-peak times. When
peak demand comes, you have
to have baseload generation to
cover that.”
See NUCLEAR/10A
Day 30: Carry on
Refugees, supply shortages will
affect life a month after earthquake
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
AP fi le photo
In this May 2016 photo, Washington Air National Guard soldiers
from Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane, Wash., work to assemble
temporary living structures at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Wash-
ington to train for emergency response in case of a natural disaster.
Refugees from the west side of the state will move east after the
Cascadia subduction zone earthquake, taxing local supplies.
Life will go on in Eastern Oregon
if the dreaded Cascadia earthquake
ever hits the Pacifi c Northwest. But
it will not quickly return to normal.
It’s unclear how many refugees
from the west side of the state will
land in Umatilla County, but Joe
Franell, CEO of Eastern Oregon
Telecom and chair of the gover-
nor’s Oregon Broadband Advisory
Council, said if half of the county’s
Editor’s note: This is part
three of a fi ve-part series
about a possible 9.0 Cascadia
subduction zone earthquake
in the Pacifi c Northwest.
76,700 residents have family on the
west side who come to stay with
them, the county’s population could
quickly double.
See CASCADIA/10A