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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, August 1, 2017 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor MARISSA WILLIAMS Regional Advertising Director MARCY ROSENBERG Circulation Manager JANNA HEIMGARTNER Business Office Manager MIKE JENSEN Production Manager OUR VIEW Transload facility a game changer for Eastern Oregon ag Officials in southeast Oregon are calling a proposed rail transload facility in Malheur County a game changer for the local agricultural economy. It’s big news, particularly after a disastrous winter that saw local farmers lose 100 million pounds of onions from last year’s crop when heavy snows destroyed 60 storage sheds. The $5.3 billion transportation package passed by the Oregon Legislature includes $26 million to create the facility near Ontario. The facility will be a big benefit to the area’s agricultural sector, Sean Ellis/Capital Press File particularly the onion Onions are sorted at a packing-shipping facility industry, Rep. Cliff in southwestern Idaho last year. A rail transload Bentz, R-Ontario, said. facility planned in Oregon’s Malheur County could save onion shippers in the region up to $15 million The 300 growers in a year and speed delivery of their produce to East the Treasure Valley of Oregon and Idaho raise Coast markets. 1.5 billion pounds of Spanish big bulb onions each year. There are 30 packer/shippers. Much of the crop is shipped to East Coast markets by rail now. But to do that, the onions first have to be trucked more than 200 miles to the nearest transload facility in Wallula, Wash. Shippers say that costs about 50 cents per 50-pound bag of onions, and wipes out the geographic advantage the area has over competitors in Washington. Packers say the facility could put $15 million a year back into the hands of farmers, and turn a trip to the final market that now takes weeks into days. “This thing is huge,” Paul Skeen, an onion farmer who is president of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association, told the Capital Press. “It’s a big, big deal. It will allow us to move product faster and cheaper.” Getting onions to market faster and cheaper is a big deal in itself, but growers also see the opportunity to expand the region’s market share once its access improves. Kudos go to Bentz, who has been working over the last couple of years to get Oregon’s urban legislators to pay a bit more attention to the needs of rural Oregonians, particularly those in his far eastern district. At Bentz’s invitation, House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, made a three-day trip to Eastern Oregon last year and saw first-hand the challenges farmers and other businesses in the region face. That eventually led to the passage of House Bill 2012, which provides $5 million for a special economic development region in Eastern Oregon. In the context of a $5 billion spending package, a $26 million investment in Eastern Oregon is small potatoes. But it will produce a big return for people in a region that hasn’t had a lot of good economic news over the years. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of publisher Kathryn Brown, managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, and opinion page editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. LETTERS POLICY The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com. OTHER VIEWS What if Hitler had invaded Britain? or more than a thousand years, held back the Germans for a few days the tribes of Europe have stared at the Dunkirk perimeter. They may into the gun-metal-gray chop of have saved upward of 100,000 lives the English Channel and thought of with their rear guard action. conquest. “We have six centuries of Later, a German commander insults to avenge,” said Napoleon. I called the halt order one of the was just there, on the same spring week biggest blunders of the war. Most of when the great bedraggled scraps of those rescued soldiers would live to the French and British armies were Timothy fight another day, many landing at cornered for slaughter by the Nazi war Normandy, when the Allies returned to Egan machine 77 years ago. retake the continent four years later. Comment Perhaps many people did not know, The fiasco at Dunkirk became a as Donald Trump says about obvious psychic triumph in England. But that things that he just learned about, that the brings up the second big question: At the miracle of the Dunkirk evacuation continues to height of their power, why didn’t the Germans prompt one of the great historical “what-ifs” of cross the channel and march to London? all time. “Hitler knows he will have to break us in Alternative history is all the rage now. One this island or lose the war,” Churchill told his television series imagines a countrymen on June 18, United States under German 1940. “But if we fail, then and Japanese rule (“The Man the whole world, including in the High Castle”). Another the United States, including series in development at all that we have known and HBO will ask us to envision cared for, will sink into the an equally horrid new abyss of a new dark age world: the slaveholding made more sinister, and Confederacy continuing to perhaps more protracted the present day. by the light of perverted Both scenarios are science.” preposterous. But the And here we have question of whether the the prospect of the Nazis swastika could have flown over the Thames is developing an atomic bomb. Imagine the much more than Hollywood fiction. Germans controlling all of Europe to the Thanks to the film “Dunkirk,” an Ural Mountains, giving the most evil of men improbably intimate look at what Winston enough time to develop the most lethal of Churchill called “a colossal military disaster,” weapons. minds otherwise gone soft by the heartless As Churchill said, it was not just Britain current governing policies of the United States at stake, but lands under imperial control, can turn to a day when bigger minds guided including the Middle East oil fields. The Western democracies. Aside from slighting United States, which had its own appeasement the French, the film is an energy drink of movement at odds with Franklin Roosevelt, speculative fuel. was a long way from entering the war. Between May 26 and June 4, 1940, the Hitler’s generals drew up plans for an British were able to evacuate more than invasion of Britain, Operation Sea Lion. 330,000 allied troops from the French beach Before there could be an invasion, the at Dunkirk, aided considerably by a flotilla Luftwaffe would have to destroy the Royal of fishing boats, pleasure craft and other Air Force. small ships. They had been routed; those who England held — what became its “finest remained were sitting ducks for a fatal blow. hour,” in Churchill’s best-known phrase — Home, as the soldiers who queued up in the because the Royal Air Force bested Hitler’s air sand while the Nazis shelled and strafed them, force in the monthslong Battle of Britain. was almost close enough to touch. But even if England were occupied, it’s By the close of summer of 1940, most of fair to think a vigorous resistance movement Western Europe was under German control would have forced Germany to keep a huge or that of puppet states. Would England fall reserve of troops in place to hold down the as well, and usher in a Nazi empire, with its island kingdom. And Hitler, of course, had horrific Jewish genocide, that might have other things in mind: the invasion of the Soviet lasted well beyond the war’s end in 1945? Union. The first big question is, why didn’t Walking along the sand of the English the Germans finish off the stranded forces Channel, you can’t help seeing those shivering of good? Shockingly, one day before the boys at Dunkirk, part of the World War II evacuation, the Blitzkrieg took a break. generation that will soon be gone entirely. Historians say German troops needed rest, and Before they disappear into the churn of history, wanted to consolidate their forces for a final we owe them another deep thanks, for the push of the allies into the sea. Plus, there was speculation that can remain just that. concern about tanks getting bogged down, ■ and the weather was less than ideal for aerial Timothy Egan worked for 18 years as a bombing. writer for The New York Times, first as the And the French, still ridiculed for letting Pacific Northwest correspondent, then as a Paris fall in barely a month’s time, heroically national enterprise reporter. F Here we have the prospect of the Nazis developing an atomic bomb. OTHER VIEWS Making bipartisan progress on safe drinking water ll of us in Oregon seen horrible problems and across the from Flint, Michigan country deserve to drinking fountains in access to safe, clean Oregon schools. drinking water. That’s why Our legislation focuses the Energy and Commerce on addressing drinking Committee — where I water systems’ physical serve as chairman — just needs, aiding states and passed bipartisan utilities with compliance Greg legislation to modernize Walden and operation of the the nation’s drinking water drinking water program, Comment infrastructure. and encouraging the wisest Today, drinking water use of money that is spent. flows to our homes and businesses For the last 20 years, Congress through more than one million has helped drinking water delivery miles of pipes operated by both systems meet the challenge of publicly and privately owned water providing consumers with safe systems. Many of these pipes and affordable water through the were laid in the early to mid-20th Drinking Water State Revolving century with an expected lifespan Fund. From the end of 1997 of 75 to 100 years. In fact, some through 2016, Oregon has received communities in Oregon still rely more than $274 million in grants on wood stave water pipes that are to help improve the safety and reaching the end of their life. While quality of tap water, comply with in most places drinking water drinking water rules and reporting quality remains high, we also have requirements, and give a helping A hand to the most economically distressed communities struggling to provide their residents safe drinking water. This fiscal year, Oregon is set to receive nearly $12 million in funding to improve its water systems. Many rural communities across Oregon struggle with failing infrastructure and a limited ability to afford these increasingly costly projects. They turn to the drinking water fund for help. In Malheur County, rural communities such as Vale and Nyssa are completing new water treatment and storage facilities to bring safe drinking water to their residents. In Umatilla County, the city of Pendleton is upgrading more than 30 miles of water lines that are nearly a century old — Mayor John Turner said this project would be impossible without the program. Our bill, the Drinking Water System Improvement Act, continues those important investments and authorizes $8 billion over five years for the drinking water fund while also expanding the number of ways in which the fund can be used to improve delivery systems. In fact, we’re authorizing an increase of $350 million in funding for next year from which states such as Oregon could benefit. Perhaps most important is how the bill looks to the future, using smart technology to monitor drinking water quality in real time. This allows us to better prevent, Many rural communities are struggling with infrastructure. detect, or rapidly respond to contaminants in our water systems. The ability to have up-to-the- minute information helps ensure water is safe and clean, system leaks and recent contamination are identified quickly, and the accuracy and availability of compliance data is maintained. We also included a program to help our schools replace drinking fountains that might contain lead. These are just some of the highlights of the bill. As this measure heads to the House for a vote, I will continue working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure it passes and we do our part to make sure the water Americans drink is safe. ■ Rep. Greg Walden (R-Hood River), represents Oregon’s second congressional district, which includes 20 counties in central, southern and Eastern Oregon.
