NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Saturday, July 13, 2019
Washington, Oregon hemp industries continue to grow
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
SALEM — The number
of licensed hemp farmers in
Washington has more than
doubled since May, accord-
ing to the state Department
of Agriculture.
As of Tuesday the
department had issued
licenses to 87 growers,
compared with 35 in late
May. The state has issued
another 18 licenses to pro-
cessors. Many farmers have
combination licenses to
grow and process hemp.
The
department
is
reviewing about 30 more
applications and expects to
eventually issue approxi-
mately 150 hemp-related
licenses this year, spokes-
man Chris McGann said.
Washington’s
hemp
industry is still small com-
pared to several states,
including Oregon. The
growth, however, firms
up a once-shaky program.
Washington’s hemp crop
last year was 140 acres cul-
tivated by the Colville tribe
in northeast Washington.
This year, farmers have
registered to plant 6,700
acres, not counting green-
houses. Several large East-
ern Washington farms have
obtained hemp licenses.
McGann said the depart-
ment anticipates the hemp
Hemp Northwest Photo
Hemp grows in Washington. The number of licensed hemp farmers in Washington has more than doubled since May, accord-
ing to the state Department of Agriculture.
program
will
become
self-supporting. Lawmak-
ers this spring sent the
department $212,000 to
avoid massive increases
in license fees paid by
farmers.
“We don’t expect to have
to go back to the Legisla-
ture,” McGann said. “All
expectations are, yes, it will
be sustainable.”
The 2018 Farm Bill took
hemp off the federally con-
trolled substance list. The
federal government still
requires states to license
and inspect hemp farms.
Oregon has added 300
licensed hemp farmers in
the past seven weeks and
now has 1,642, according to
the Oregon Department of
Agriculture. Farmers have
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
Mostly sunny
Partly sunny and
pleasant
Partly sunny and
delightful
Partly sunny and
beautiful
Pleasant with
partial sunshine
89° 61°
87° 60°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
85° 59°
86° 59°
86° 58°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
93° 63°
91° 64°
90° 63°
90° 65°
90° 63°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
70/57
85/58
89/57
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
91/64
Lewiston
77/58
94/64
Astoria
70/57
Pullman
Yakima 91/61
77/55
93/65
Portland
Hermiston
82/61
The Dalles 93/63
Salem
Corvallis
81/56
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
86/57
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
85/57
82/50
88/57
Ontario
99/71
Caldwell
Burns
89°
63°
88°
58°
109° (2002) 44° (1950)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
82/57
0.00"
Trace
0.09"
4.55"
5.10"
5.79"
WINDS (in mph)
97/65
91/52
0.00"
0.02"
0.12"
9.59"
6.49"
7.69"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 84/54
82/57
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
89/61
84/62
87°
60°
88°
58°
109° (2002) 42° (1911)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
78/57
Aberdeen
87/60
86/64
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
76/59
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
90/60
Sun.
WSW 7-14
W 7-14
WSW 7-14
W 7-14
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
85/49
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
5:18 a.m.
8:43 p.m.
6:09 p.m.
2:45 a.m.
Full
Last
New
First
July 16
July 24
July 31
Aug 7
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 116° in Thermal, Calif. Low 34° in Gothic, Colo.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
registered to plant 53,573,
almost a fivefold increase
over last year when the state
licensed 584 growers.
The USDA is expected
to propose national hemp
regulations in the fall. Agri-
culture Secretary Sonny
Perdue said after touring a
Kentucky hemp farm July
2 that the crop’s connec-
tion with marijuana has not
Washington State Patrol
builds up fleet of 111 drones
By comparison,
Oregon State
Police has three
drones
By TOM BANSE
Oregon Public Broadcasting
OLYMPIA, Wash. — In
the span of just a few years,
the Washington State Patrol
has built up a fleet of more
than 100 drones. At last
check, the Oregon State
Police had three. The Wash-
ington patrol says its small
quadcopters are used for
crash investigations, not for
surveillance. WSP Detec-
tive Sgt. Clint Thomas said
roughly 100 state troopers
and detectives across Wash-
ington are now trained to
fly camera-equipped drones
— also known as UAVs,
unmanned aerial vehicles.
Thomas said the patrol
has acquired 111 drones
made by DJI, some of which
are higher-end consumer
models. Others are a more
robust commercial enter-
prise model. The state may
upgrade and further expand
its fleet with a fresh infusion
of cash recently approved
by the state Legislature.
Thomas said his agency
limits the use of the remotely
piloted eyes in the sky to
pretty much one job: docu-
menting serious crashes and
fatality scenes.
“We’re making a big dif-
ference in the time that we
take to document that scene
and get the roadway clear,”
Thomas said in an interview
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
50s
ice
60s
cold front
E AST O REGONIAN
— Founded Oct. 16, 1875 —
211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton 541-276-2211
333 E. Main St., Hermiston 541-567-6211
Office hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Closed major holidays
EastOregonian.com
To subscribe, call 1-800-522-0255
or go online to EastOregonian.com
and click on ‘Subscribe’
East Oregonian (USPS 164-980) is published daily except Sunday,
Monday and postal holidays, by the EO Media Group, 211 S.E. Byers
Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Periodicals postage paid at Pendleton, OR.
Postmaster: send address changes to
East Oregonian, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801.
Copyright © 2019, EO Media Group
70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
one of the largest, if not the
biggest by far, owned by a
state or local government
anywhere in the country.
A study on public safety
drones published last year
by the Center for the Study
of the Drone at Bard Col-
lege identified the Polk
County Sheriff’s Depart-
ment in Florida as hav-
ing the greatest number at
the time of its survey. That
sheriff’s department oper-
ated 20 drones.
Privacy watchdogs, such
as the American Civil Lib-
erties Union, are closely
monitoring the rapidly
increasing numbers of law
enforcement drones. The
Washington State Patrol
said it consulted with the
ACLU state chapter as it
developed its limited-use
drone policy.
ACLU of Washing-
ton technology and liberty
director Shankar Narayan
has been critical of some
city police departments for
not having clear enough
guidelines to prevent war-
rantless flyovers or lacking
restrictions on data sharing.
In an interview with pub-
lic radio Tuesday, Narayan
said greater transparency is
needed around surveillance
technology. He said he is
worried about “mission
creep” since drones have
the capability to collect a lot
of information.
“Even if the Washington
State Patrol has the best pol-
icy in the world, an average
person has no recourse in
order to enforce it,” Narayan
said.
high
low
CORRECTIONS: The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and sincerely
regrets any errors. If you notice a mistake in the paper, please call 541-966-0818.
Subscriber services:
For mail delivery, online access, vacation stops
or delivery concerns call 1-800-522-0255 ext. 1
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
EZPay
52 weeks
26 weeks
13 weeks
in Tacoma Tuesday. “It’s a
little more work on the back
end in the office putting it
together through the soft-
ware, but you’re saving a lot
of time out on the roadway.
That was the driving force
— to save time on the free-
ways, getting those cleared
up to get traffic moving
again.”
Thomas said a compact
two-car collision scene can
be mapped in 10 minutes
with a drone compared to a
half-hour to an hour using
traditional methods, such as
with a tape measure, chalk
marks or laser scanner.
Many
local
police
departments and the Ore-
gon State Police deploy
drones for a wider range of
purposes, including obser-
vation of armed, barricaded
suspects, and search and
rescue. Thomas explained
the Washington State Patrol
is deliberately taking a more
limited approach to “get off
on a good foot.”
Thomas said any uses
besides collision and crime
scene mapping, such as pos-
sible deployments to assist
with wildfire monitoring
this summer, will require
the personal approval of the
chief of the state patrol.
“We’re not allowed to
take video or use it for sur-
veillance,” Thomas said,
elaborating on the agen-
cy’s written policies. “We’re
very strict in how we run our
program. Essentially, we’re
just taking baby steps.”
Viewed another way, the
Washington State Patrol
drone fleet appears to be
B2H CLARIFICATION: The A1 story “Stop B2H Coalition remains charged up
to defeat massive power line project” from July 6, 2019, misstated the Boardman to
Hemingway power line would cross Cowboy Ridge in Union County. The power line
project will run near the elk calving site, and coalition members remain concerned
the power line project would disrupt elk habitat.
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
been entirely severed yet.
“I think what I heard was
a lot of opportunity, but a
lot of challenges needing a
federal framework to help
guide the progress of this
crop,” he said. “We heard
about financial transac-
tion issues where this crop
is conflated with its illegal
cousin in many states.”
Industrial Hemp Asso-
ciation of Washington lob-
byist Bonny Jo Peterson
said the state’s first full-
fledged hemp season has
been marked by “mishaps
and hiccups” as farms try
to find the right seeds and
equipment.
“I think too many farm-
ers went too big, too quick,”
she said. “There’s going to
be a lot of trial and expense
and unfortunately a lot of
lost crop.
“If you’re not ready to go
now, wait until next year.
Learn from other people’s
experiences.”
Peterson said farmers
who plan carefully will be
in better position to survive
if the CBD oil boom busts.
CBD oil is marketed for a
wide variety of ailments.
The Food and Drug Admin-
istration is examining
claims about the extract’s
benefits.
Washington collects an
annual $450 application fee
from hemp farmers, plus
$300 for a one-year license.
Farmers must pay another
$200 for each additional
field, plus testing fees.
The Washington Depart-
ment of Revenue has said it
will tax hemp like any other
agricultural product. Hemp
growers are eligible for tax
breaks available to other
farmers, according to the
department.
Local home delivery Savings (cover price)
$13/month
60 percent
$173.67
41 percent
$91.86
38 percent
$47.77
36 percent
*EZ Pay = one-year rate with a monthly credit
or debit card/check charge
Single copy price:
$1.50 Tuesday through Saturday
Circulation Dept.
800-781-3214
ADVERTISING
Regional Publisher and Revenue Director:
• Christopher Rush
541-278-2669 • crush@eomediagroup.com
Advertising Services:
• Angela Treadwell
541-966-0827 • atreadwell@eastoregonian.com
• Grace Bubar
541-276-2214 • gbubar@eastoregonian.com
Multimedia Consultants:
• Jeanne Jewett
541-564-4531 • jjewett@eastoregonian.com
• Audra Workman
541-564-4538 • aworkman@eastoregonian.com
Business Office Coordinator
• Dayle Stinson
541-278-2670 • dstinson@eastoregonian.com
Classified & Legal Advertising
1-800-962-2819 or 541-278-2678
classifieds@eastoregonian.com or legals@eastoregonian.com
NEWS
• To submit news tips and press releases:
call 541-966-0818 or email news@eastoregonian.com
• To submit community events, calendar items and Your EO News:
email community@eastoregonian.com or call Tammy Malgesini
at 541-564-4539 or Renee Struthers at 541-966-0818.
• To submit engagements, weddings and anniversaries:
email rstruthers@eastoregonian.com or visit eastoregonian.
com/community/announcements
• To submit sports or outdoors information or tips:
541-966-0838 • sports@eastoregonian.com
Business Office Manager:
541-966-0824
COMMERCIAL PRINTING
Production Manager: Mike Jensen
541-215-0824 • mjensen@eastoregonian.com