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Saturday, February 20, 2021
East Oregonian
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Lessons: Emergency manager urges residents to be ‘two weeks ready’
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district’s athletic complex
behind the high school and
berms along the Umatilla
River there are “almost
completely restored.”
The school district was
allowed to rebuild the berm
built along the river to keep
the fields from flooding, and
Sipe said they built it not
just bigger, but smarter —
designed not only to keep the
water out during most flood-
ing, but to allow the water a
way to drain out of the fields
if the river breaches the berm
again. Sipe said that should
prevent a repeat of the 4-foot
deep lake that lingered for
days after the river receded.
“That said, I’m fairly
certain people thought they
did it right last time,” she
said. “I doubt they thought
they did a halfway job.”
In Hermiston, last year’s
flood spurred the city to
move infrastructure at River-
front Park out of harm’s way.
When the park was built in
2005, planners put the play-
ground, restrooms, welcome
kiosks and parking lot at the
north end of the long park —
directly in the path the river
takes when it overflows its
banks at the location.
The city plans to move the
playground and parking lot to
the south end of the park this
summer, and the restroom at
a later date. Parks and Recre-
ation Director Larry Fetter
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
The playground at Riverfront Park in Hermiston sits in disarray on Feb. 27, 2020, following
flooding from the Umatilla River less than a month before.
said the new location may see
some standing water during
future flooding, but shouldn’t
be in the path of the rushing
water that causes the most
damage.
One disaster provides
training for the next
Umatilla County Emer-
gency Manager Tom Roberts
said past floods taught the
county lessons that could be
used in 2020, and the 2020
flood helped identify more
gaps to be filled before the
next crisis.
“At the end of planning
exercises, we take a close
look at where there is room
for improvement,” he said.
“We do the same thing after
a disaster.”
An example of a “gap”
the flood identified was the
need to pre-stage emergency
supplies at more locations
around the county. Roberts
said while the emergency
management department
had plenty of sandbags and
shovels, for example, they
were stored in one location
that took time to mobilize
to everywhere they were
needed. He said he is work-
ing with some communities
to create staging areas to
store supplies closer to where
future flooding may occur.
One unknown when plan-
ning for disasters is how
much nonprofits and indi-
vidual volunteers will step
up to help, Roberts said,
and the 2020 flood drew an
“unreal” level of commu-
nity support that will help
the county have more confi-
dence about a response for
future events. He also said
the support Umatilla County
received from the emergency
management community
was unprecedented.
“We had 13 different
emergency managers rolling
through our center the first
few weeks after the flood,
lending their expertise. ...
That model really helped set
the stage for other disasters
(in 2020),” he said.
While government agen-
cies are working on an
updated hazard mitigation
plan, Roberts said improve-
ments won’t all happen
overnight, especially as
the pandemic continues to
complicate efforts. He urged
everyone to be “two weeks
ready” with food, water and
other supplies in case of
future disasters.
“If people can use these
lessons to better prepare
themselves, that’s one less
item we have to worry about,
one less person we have to
worry about,” he said.
Flood control is a fight
between humans and nature
Kate Ely, a Umatilla Basin
hydrologist for the Confed-
erated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation, said one
thing that has been notable in
her research is the number of
people living in a floodplain
who would like to move else-
where.
Within the last 25 years,
she said, the Umatilla River
has experienced “several
extraordinarily high peak
flows” that, given historical
tracking of the river, should
have each been expected to
occur once every 25 to 500
years.
Those living in a flood-
plain have the highest risk
from these increasingly
common occurrences, as the
floodplain is an integral part
of a river system. Humans
try to build levees to prevent
water from spreading across
its natural flood plain, she
said, but the cost of main-
taining those levees is often
more than the homes they are
trying to protect.
“I worry that more levees
will be built to fight a losing
battle against a river doing its
work naturally to drain the
watershed,” she said. “Time
and time again people try
to control a river with engi-
neering methods knowing
the river will eventually win
and society will pay the cost.”
Marily n Lohman, a
hydrologist with the National
Weather Service in Pendle-
ton, also said now is a good
time for people to assess
where they live and the risks
to their property as high
water events become more
frequent. She said counties
and cities should also be
looking at what adjustments
they might need to make to
their hazard mitigation plans.
“There’s a lot of people
looking at a lot of these issues
around the area, and maybe
their expertise can be drawn
into help counties and cities,
and better prepare their infra-
structure,” she said.
Vaccines: ‘I really don’t want to postpone again’
Continued from Page A1
vaccine shipments. “The
reporting I got from (the
Oregon Health Authority
on Friday, Feb. 19) is that
they are still having issues
getting shipments out, and
they’re not able to be very
firm on when our shipment
will get here.”
The doses are shipped
from Tennessee, where
winter conditions have
halted vaccine distribution,
creating widespread delays
and forcing hundreds of
vaccine sites across several
states to cancel, according
to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
The state has informed
the county to expect the
promised doses to arrive
“sometime between Feb.
22 and Feb. 24,” Fiumara
said. The county, however,
is planning the vaccine event
it postponed this week for
Wednesday, Feb. 24, and
if the promised shipment
arrives that day, the health
department will have to
postpone yet another event.
“I really don’t want to
postpone again,” he said. “At
that point it just gets really,
really messy.”
To add to the confusion,
state officials also informed
Fiumara that because of this
week’s delay, the shipment
of vaccine already planned
for next week will also be
delayed, pushing it back
near the end of the week
when the county had already
planned two more vaccine
events.
“That puts all three of
our events next week on
edge,” he said, adding that
the county will revisit sched-
uling the events on Feb. 22
when they hope to have
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Vehicles line the parking lot at Hermiston High School as
teachers wait to receive their first dose of the COVID-19
vaccine on Jan. 29, 2021.
tracking information on
when to expect more ship-
ments.
The hodgepodge of
delays and cancellations
comes as Umatilla County
drops to the second lowest
vaccination rate of any
county in Oregon, with
approximately 785 people
vaccinated per 10,000
people, according to data
from OHA as of Thursday,
Feb. 18.
Fiumara said a combina-
tion of factors have caused
the low totals, including
small shipments from the
state, the county’s compara-
tively small Phase 1a popu-
lation and the frequency at
which it exhausts its allo-
cated supply, like it did by
Feb. 19.
“I don’t like it, but I’m not
surprised by where we’re
at,” he said. “We kicked
this out about as fast as we
could.”
Fiumara said he expects
totals to level out as the
county is able to vacci-
nate more elderly residents,
which make up a greater
portion of the population
than teachers, health care
workers and other individ-
uals who have already been
eligible to receive a vaccine.
“At the very least, we
shouldn’t fall f ur ther
behind,” he said. “Hope-
fully we can gain some
ground, but it all depends on
what (the state) gives. We’re
giving it out, but it just isn’t
arriving as fast as we would
like.”
The delays could also
force the county to postpone
providing second doses to
residents as well, Fiumara
said, pushing them past the
designated six-week time
frame.
Residents have already
reached out to the health
department saying they
have reached the six-week
mark for their second dose,
Fiumara said. But the health
department had already
exhausted its supply and
couldn’t vaccinate them.
“The assumption by
most is that it shouldn’t hurt
anything,” he said of receiv-
ing a second dose after the
six-week period. “But we
don’t know if it will have
a lower-efficacy rate. At
the same token, it could
be higher. The fact is that
there’s no known data, so we
try to hold to that (six-week)
date as close as we can.”
Next week, the county
is expecting to receive
increased shipments of
vaccines due to changes on
the federal level. Barring
further inclement weather
delays, the county should
receive 300 doses that would
have arrived this past week
and a new allocation of 700
prime doses — 300 of which
will go directly to Mirasol
Family Health Center in
Hermiston.
In addition, the coun-
ty’s Safeways, in Pendleton,
Hermiston and Milton-Free-
water, will continue to
receive 100 doses each. It’s
possible that pharmacies like
Safeway will see increased
allocations in the coming
weeks due to shifts at the
federal level, Fiumara said.
“We’re told this is what
we should plan for and
expect,” he said of the new
shipments. “There may be
some of these weeks where
we get more, and if we get
more, that’s just better for
everybody.”
Fiu m a r a s a id t h e
increased supply of vaccines
should continue for about a
month, and perhaps beyond
that point. He said officials
have seemed so confident
that it prompted the health
department to schedule
events through April, so
that if residents miss an
availability one week, they
know roughly when they can
receive the vaccine next.
Storms: Weekly briefings planned for flood preparations
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Snowpack levels in the
Blue Mountains are nearing
normal levels for this time of
year after the hillsides were
blasted with snow last week,
according to Lohman. But
the snow, for the large part,
was a dry snow due to the
cold front, making conditions
less conducive to flooding.
“The snow that fell was
more powdery, which means
it had a lower water content,”
Lohman said.
Short-term conditions
over the next two weeks
are also looking optimistic,
Lohman said, with occa-
sional weather systems
forecast to bring light precip-
itation. Through March, the
weather service is expecting
cooler than normal tempera-
tures and seasonal precipita-
tion.
However, conditions
can change daily, Lohman
said. The weather service
is continuing to monitor for
signs of possible floods, and
residents who may be at risk
of flooding events should
keep a watchful eye and
consider preparing them-
selves in case conditions
suddenly shift.
“It’s that time of year to
keep abreast of the changes
in the weather,” Lohman
said. “Maybe stay up-to-
date on changing conditions
and make sure that you are
prepared. If something were
to happen, what would you
do? Maybe start thinking
ahead.”
Last week, Lohman and
a group of officials from
Umatilla and Walla Walla
counties met to discuss
the current conditions and
prepare for the possibility of
future floods. Among those
attending were county and
city officials as well as those
from law enforcement, the
National Weather Service,
the Bureau of Land Manage-
ment, the Army Corps of
Engineers, and the Confed-
erated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation.
“I really sympathize with
all these folks that have gone
through last year’s (flood)
and are still dealing with it,
and then we get 17 inches
of snow, and they think —
where in the world is that
going to go?” said Umatilla
County Commissioner Dan
Dorran, who attended the
meeting on behalf of the
commissioners.
Officials plan to hold
weekly briefings throughout
the winter and early spring to
be more proactive and plan
for possible floods.
“What we’ve learned
from the floods in the past
couple of years has helped
us to be better prepared and
more vigilant and aware of
the possibilities, thus we
are able to help our entire
community,” Umatilla
County Emergency Manager
Tom Roberts said in a press
release regarding the meet-
ing and current conditions.
“Each of us should also be
prepared individually, which
is also very important.”
George Plaven/Capital Press, File
Wastewater lagoons are emptied at the former Lost Valley
Farm as part of cleanup operations. The facility’s cleanup
was completed before the Oct. 31, 2020, deadline estab-
lished under a legal agreement with Oregon regulators.
Dairy:
Continued from Page A1
near Boardman.
“Though the situation
with Easterday Ranches and
Easterday Farms is unfortu-
nate, Easterday Dairy LLC’s
commitment to our current
CAFO permit and our permit
application is unchanged,” he
said.
Cole Easterday declined
to comment on the lawsuit or
bankruptcy filings.
The 7,228-acre dairy has
already undergone a turbulent
past. As Lost Valley Farm, it
opened in early 2018 and
was shut down within a year
after racking up more than
200 permit violations under
previous ownership, including
open-air lagoons overflowing
with liquid manure.
Easterday Farms bought
the property, including build-
ings and infrastructure —
but not the cows — for $66.7
million in 2019. The family
promised to invest $15 million
in the dairy, upgrading its
wastewater treatment system
and correcting environmen-
tal deficiencies that led to Lost
Valley’s demise.
“It’s a state-of-the-art
dairy,” said Cody Easterday,
president of Easterday Farms,
during a tour and interview in
July 2019. “It just needs to be
finished, and it needs to have
the correct management.”
Easterday Dairy applied for
a CAFO permit in June 2019.
Oregon’s CAFO program is
jointly administered by the
state Department of Agricul-
ture and Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality to ensure
operations will not pollute
“waters of the state.”
According to its permit
application, the dairy would
have 9,700 mature dairy cows,
8,600 dairy heifers and 10,000
additional non-dairy cattle
kept on site. Those animals
would produce an estimated
5.4 million cubic feet of liquid
manure, 5.9 million cubic
feet of solid manure, and 11.7
million cubic feet of processed
wastewater annually.
The dairy would recycle all
that nitrogen-rich manure by
using it as fertilizer on 5,390
acres of surround farmland, a
process known as land appli-
cation. It would additionally
have storage capacity for more
than 10 million cubic feet of
manure in lagoons for up to
111 days, and year-round stor-
age for more than 13 million
cubic feet on an impervious
soil pad.
Wym Matthews, CAFO
program manager for ODA,
said the Easterday Dairy
application is under review
and agencies are working
toward issuing a draft permit
that would then be available
for public review.
“There is quite a bit of back
and forth between the agen-
cies in developing the permit,”
Matthews said. “One of the
things, because this proposed
site is located in a groundwa-
ter management area, it’s a
new source of nitrogen in an
area that already has known
concerns about nitrate levels
in groundwater.”
Stephanie Page, natural
resources program direc-
tor for ODA, said the lawsuit
and bankruptcy potentially
add another layer of compli-
cations. She said the agen-
cies are working closely with
the Justice Department about
their authority going forward,
and are continuing to gather
more information.
“I think we’ve all been on
the same page in terms of not
wanting to jump to conclu-
sions,” Page said. “We’re
just continuing to evaluate
the info we’ve gotten about
the business structures, and
how they’re separate but also
making sure we understand
how they’re interrelated.”
ODA spokeswoman
Andrea Cantu-Schomas said
officials want to let the legal
process play out before draw-
ing any conclusions about the
dairy’s viability.
“At this point, they are
allegations,” Cantu-Schomas
said. “They are concerning,
but we want to proceed with
fairness and transparency.”