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OREGON
East Oregonian
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Trump administration finalizes plan to repeal Obama-era water protections
Trump’s first EPA administrator.
“This is not the end of this
unfortunate and disastrous jour-
ney, this is just a midway point,”
Center for Biological Diversity’s
government affairs director Brett
Hartl said. “So even if the conse-
quences to the Northwest are not
severe right now, in six months
we’re looking at massive losses of
wetland protections.”
Environmental
advocates
plan to file lawsuits to fight back
against the repeal.
But not all are against the
changes, as the Oregon Farm
Bureau applauded the repeal and
replacements of the Water of the
United States rule.
The Oregon Farm Bureau
issued a statement saying the state
already has strong water quality
and fill-and-removal regulations.
The rule proposed by the previ-
ous administration would not add
anything and it would only give
litigious environmental groups
the ability to bring citizen suits
against farmers who are already
working to improve and protect
water quality.
With this final repeal, the
agencies will implement the pre-
2015 regulations, which are cur-
rently in place in more than half
of the states, informed by appli-
cable agency guidance documents
and consistent with Supreme
Court decisions and longstanding
agency practice.
The final rule takes effect 60
days after publication in the Fed-
eral Register.
By MONICA SAMAYOA
Oregon Public Broadcasting
WASHINGTON — The Trump
administration is finalizing plans
to repeal an Obama-era water pro-
tections rule.
The Environmental Protection
Agency’s administrator, Andrew
Wheeler, signed the repeal Thurs-
day of the Waters of the United
States rule — the first step in a
two-step rule making process.
“Today, EPA and the Depart-
ment of the Army finalized a rule
to repeal the previous admin-
istration’s overreach in the fed-
eral regulation of U.S. waters and
recodify the longstanding and
familiar regulatory text that pre-
viously existed,” Wheeler said in
a statement, referring to his own
agency and the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers.
The next step allows the Trump
administration to finalize a new
definition for which bodies of
water deserve federal protection
by the end of the year.
Environmental
advocates
said removing regulations could
potentially increase pollution in
certain waters, while the agricul-
tural industry praised the move as
correcting an earlier overreach in
regulation.
Columbia Riverkeeper’s exec-
utive director Brett VandenHeu-
vel said President Donald Trump’s
attempt to lessen regulations are
heading in the wrong direction.
“The Clean Water Act is a core
part of our of nation’s laws to pro-
United States Fish and Wildlife Service Photo/Teal Waterstrat
An Oregon spotted frog. A federal judge has halted cattle grazing in the Fremont-Winema National Forest over
concerns of impact to the Oregon spotted frog.
tect clean water. It’s been in place
since 1972,” VandenHeuvel said.
“It’s done a lot of good and it’s
extremely popular with the Amer-
ican public. We want clean water.”
In 2015, President Barack
Obama signed the Waters of the
United States rule to clarify gov-
ernmental authority to regulate
smaller tributaries and wetlands,
Ex-lawmaker files complaint
against Brown’s top lawyer
By HILLARY BORRUD
The Oregonian
SALEM — A former
state lawmaker has asked
the Oregon State Bar to
investigate whether Gov.
Kate Brown’s top lawyer,
Misha Isaak, violated pro-
fessional rules for lawyers
during a dispute over the
independence of the state’s
public records advocate.
In a bar complaint filed
Wednesday morning, Jeff
Kropf asked the Oregon
State Bar to investigate
whether Isaak committed
misconduct by allegedly
pressuring Public Records
Advocate Ginger McCall
to stop pushing for certain
public records reforms and
instead secretly advance the
governor’s policy interests.
McCall cited that pres-
sure, which she described
as an “abuse of authority”
by Isaak, in a letter to the
governor Monday announc-
ing she would resign effec-
tive Oct. 12.
Isaak is set to take a
seat on the Oregon Court
of Appeals on Nov. 1, a
job to which the governor
appointed him at the end of
August.
Kropf, a former Repub-
lican representative who
is also the executive direc-
tor of the politically con-
servative nonprofit Oregon
Capitol Watch Foundation,
wrote in an email to the
state bar that a rule against
attorney
misconduct
“applies to this situation
in which Isaak allegedly
pressured another lawyer
to mislead the public into
believing that she is an
independent officer while
advocating secretly for his
client, the governor.”
Under the bar’s rules
of professional conduct, it
is considered professional
misconduct for a lawyer to
“engage in conduct involv-
ing dishonesty, fraud,
deceit or misrepresentation
that reflects adversely on
the lawyer’s fitness to prac-
AP Photo/Andrew Selsky
Ginger McCall, Oregon’s first public records advocate, pos-
es for photos in her office in Salem. Faced with what she
thought was undue interference and disrespect shown by
Gov. Kate Brown’s general counsel, McCall, whose job is
aimed at making government more transparent, resigned.
Her resignation has blown up into a debacle for the Demo-
cratic governor’s office.
Isaak
Brown
tice law.”
Kropf cited a bar rule
that lawyers must not “in
the course of representing
a client, knowingly intim-
idate or harass a person
because of that person’s
race, color, national origin,
religion, age, sex, gender
identity, gender expression,
sexual orientation, marital
status, or disability.”
“Ms. McCall claimed
she was intimidated into
misleading the public by
Isaak while nine months
pregnant which could be
a violation of (this rule),”
Kropf wrote.
In an interview on the
OPB program Think Out
Loud on Tuesday, McCall
said that she was nine
months pregnant when
Isaak informed her during
a January meeting that he
believed he was her super-
visor. According to notes
VISIT US ON THE WEB AT
M c C a l l
wrote imme-
diately after
that meeting
and
which
The Orego-
nian/Oregon-
Kropf
Live obtained
through
a
public records request,
Isaak concluded the meet-
ing by telling McCall he
was concerned she would
tell a specific reporter about
the discussion.
“This conveyed to me
that I was expected to keep
this meeting, including the
fact that the governor’s
office interpreted (state
law) to mean that I report
to them, a secret,” McCall
wrote in her contemporane-
ous memorandum.
McCall told Think Out
Loud host Dave Miller on
Tuesday that she felt she
had to comply with Isaak’s
wishes. “I was at the time,
nine months pregnant, I
will note, and I had moved
across the country for this
job and I didn’t have any
other job in hand and I had
bills to pay. So I was put in
an impossible position,” she
said.
but the rule never went into effect
— as it was challenged in a multi-
state lawsuit led by Scott Pruitt,
then the Oklahoma attorney gen-
eral before he went on to be
BRIEFLY
Woman given
6-plus years prison
for fraud, theft
SALEM — A woman res-
cued from an oceanside cliff
in 2017 and later arrested on
98 theft, fraud and criminal
mistreatment charges has
been sentenced to more than
six years in prison.
The Statesman Journal
reported Heather Mounce,
formerly of Dallas, was sen-
tenced Thursday after plead-
ing guilty to two counts of
aggravated theft, 12 counts
of identity theft and two
counts of theft.
Defense attorney Tim-
othy Park said domes-
tic violence and mental ill-
ness led her to steal more
than $40,000 from her for-
mer employers at a trucking
company.
Prosecutors say Mounce
took vacations, got mas-
sages, and went to nail and
hair appointments with the
money. Court documents
say Mounce also created a
GoFundMe account under
another woman’s name say-
ing she was a domestic vio-
lence victim and tried to gar-
ner donations.
Mounce was rescued in
August 2017 by the U.S.
Coast Guard near Sea Lion
Caves north of Florence,
which made national news.
Man found guilty
of sex abuse
involving 3 girls
HILLSBORO — A
jury has found a Hillsboro
man guilty of 18 counts of
child sex abuse involving
three girls.
KOIN-TV reported the
Washington County jury
convicted Alvaro Noe Men-
doza-Valencia on charges
ranging from rape and
sodomy to creating child
porn and unlawful sexual
penetration.
One of the girls reported
the abuse to a relative in
2016. But an investigation
wasn’t launched until the rel-
ative later passed the story
on to a victim advocate, who
notified Hillsboro police.
Investigators
learned
from the girls that the abuse
had been happening for sev-
eral years.
They said Mendoza-Va-
lencia threatened to hurt
them or their loved ones if
they told anyone.
Mendoza-Valencia will be
sentenced later this month.
Cop cleared over
friendly texts with
group leader
PORTLAND — Portland
Police Chief Danielle Out-
law and Mayor Ted Wheeler
have announced that the
bureau’s former crowd con-
trol liaison was largely doing
his job when he exchanged
friendly texts with Patriot
Prayer leader Joey Gibson to
gather protest information.
The Oregonian/Oregon-
Live reported Portland’s
Independent Police Review
didn’t find sufficient evi-
dence to prove allegations
against Lt. Jeff Niiya after
reviewing over 11,000 of
his cellphone text messages
between May 2017 and Feb-
ruary 2019.
Investigators
consid-
ered allegations that Niiya
Man pleads not
guilty to killing for
gang status
PORTLAND — A man
has pleaded not guilty to a
federal murder in aid of rack-
eteering charge in the fatal
shooting of a 21-year-old
man in Portland allegedly
to increase his status in the
Hoover gang.
The Oregonian/Oregon-
Live reported 23-year-old
Javier Fernando Hernandez
entered the plea Thursday.
He is also is charged with
using a firearm in a crime of
violence in the death of Kyle
Polk.
Polk was headed home
from his job when he was
shot and killed outside a con-
venience store Dec. 16, 2015.
The U.S. Attorney’s
Office says a four-week jury
trial was tentatively set for
November.
The federal indictment
describes the Hoovers as
a criminal street gang that
started in Los Angeles in
the 1960s, but established a
presence in the 1980s. The
indictment alleges the gang
has been involved in mur-
ders, sex trafficking and
drug distribution.
— Associated Press
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engaged in unprofessional
behavior during his commu-
nications with Gibson, didn’t
maintain objectivity while
communicating with Gib-
son and inappropriately dis-
closed information to Gib-
son to allow individuals to
avoid arrest.
Chief Danielle Out-
law found all allegations
“unfounded.”
Pam Wagenaar,
Administrative Assistant
2237 SW Court, Pendleton
541-276-5053
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