REGION
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
East Oregonian
A3
Spring rains put wheat at risk of sprouting, fungus
By JOHN TILLMAN
East Oregonian
ADAMS — Umatilla
County’s exceptionally
heavy spring rains put at
risk what could be a bumper
wheat crop. After a nearly
disastrous drought last year,
the water defi cit has not only
been made up, but some
areas have already suff ered
from fungus growth.
“There are problems
with the moisture,” said
wheat rancher Bud Schmidt-
gall, former Athena mayor.
“Wheat can get foot rot, and
you have to spray. Or it can
sprout in the head. In some
lower elevations, I’ve seen
fallen down wheat. That’s a
sign of the fungus.”
Growers are applying
quite a bit of rust fungicide,
Oregon State University soil
scientist Don Wysocki noted.
He works at the Columbia
Basin Agricultural Research
Center near Adams.
“When you get a lot of
moisture and good yield, it’s
benefi cial to rust,” he said.
“At this crop stage, growers
can’t apply fungicide them-
selves. Some put it on earlier,
but this late you have to
apply by air, either helicop-
ter or fi xed wing airplane.”
At a minimum aerial
application costs $14 to $20,
Wysocki said.
“But at today’s prices
that’s only about two bush-
els of wheat,” he observed.
“The return on investment
is there.”
Christina Hagerty studies
cereal pathology at CBRAC.
She reported rust is the main
battle in high-yielding wheat
years.
“So growers with suscep-
tible varieties are making
complex economic decisions
to apply fungicide,” she said.
“Luckily, rust has arrived
late this season. The later
the rust arrives, typically
the lower yield loss we see.”
The popular soft white
winter wheat variety Magic
is more susceptible to rust
than other strains, Wysocki
explained. Many growers are
treating their Magic crops
with fungicide.
“Magic has yielded well,”
he said. “With 2-gene Clear-
field production system,
Magic can use Beyond
herbicide. You have that
option, if done earlier. It’s
too late now.
On balance this year has
been a blessing, Wysocki
continued.
“Only once or twice in a
lifetime have growers seen
high prices and high yield,”
he added. “They don’t come
along very often in a 40-year
career. This is the kind of
year in which growers end
up retooling. They can aff ord
to buy new equipment and
keep it running for a long
time.”
Implement dealers should
do well, Wysocki concluded.
Echo’s lack of burning
Merkley gets update on food warehouse laws raises red fl ags
for one vocal resident
PENDLETON
By ANTONIO
ARREDONDO
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — U.S.
Sen. Jeff Merkley was in
Pendleton on Friday, June 17,
to tour the food bank Commu-
nity Action Program of East
Central Oregon operates and
fi nd out more about expand-
ing those eff orts.
The CAPECO ware-
house serves as a one-stop
shop for low-income houses
to receive the food that they
need and sends goods to
other local food banks, but
the facility has its limits.
CAPECO receives plenty of
food from grocery stores and
other resources — too much,
in fact. The warehouse is not
equipped to handle perishable
foods and unable to receive
food in bulk.
Merkley, a Democrat,
secured $2 million in commu-
nity-initiated project funding
for CAPECO to support the
construction of a multi-use
facility.
“I’m really glad we could
procure funds for a place like
this,” Merkley said. “Food
banks are near and dear to
my heart.”
CAPECO CEO Paula
Hall said the CIP funds are
going to be a springboard
for the organization.
Antonio Arredondo/East Oregonian
Sen. Jeff Merkley, left, talks with Umatilla County Commis-
sioner George Murdock on Friday afternoon, June 17, 2022,
at the Community Action Program of East Central Oregon
food warehouse in Pendleton.
“It’s something that I hope
our community will be proud
of and something for genera-
tions to come,” she said.
With the closing of Pend-
leton’s senior center, Hall
said she sees the organization
opening its doors to Pend-
leton’s senior population as
well. The warehouse at this
time has no availability for
such hopes.
Hall said CAPECO is
looking at two lots in the
Pendleton area to build a new
warehouse. Moving the loca-
tion would save the program
$25,000 a year and allow for
more events.
“We really want the new
building to be used by the
community, not just for our
needs,” Hall said.
The food center also will
serve as a regional food
bank, a communal place for
seniors to have meals, a site
to prepare home-delivered
meals for homebound seniors
and people with disabilities
and more.
“Depending on the foot-
print we have,” Hall said,
“we could even have an
outdoor garden for kids to see
the plants grow and get their
hands on them.”
Other possibilities for the
new location include kitchens
for meals, washing stations
for perishables and more stor-
age for fresh and frozen food.
Merkley expressed his
gratitude for Hall and her
team’s work. After the tour,
he presented Hall with a fl ag
fl own at the U.S. Capitol as
thanks for her work toward
eliminating and destigmatiz-
ing hunger.
“You don’t have to know
anything about hunger, you
don’t even have to experience
hunger,” Hall said. “But you
can be part of the solution.”
Merkley on this swing
through Eastern Oregon
began the day at the Eastern
Oregon Economic Summit in
Hermiston, then in the early
afternoon toured Echo’s pota-
ble water system. The senator
secured $450,000 for the Echo
as another community-initi-
ated project through the fi scal
year 2022 federal government
funding package.
The funding will allow the
city to replace aging service
connections and update from
old paper maps to a GIS digi-
tal mapping system of the new
connections and correspond-
ing valves. This modernized
mapping will allow Echo to
manage the system better
and create an accurate digital
system for all future related
maintenance work, which will
reduce the fi nancial burden on
Echo residents.
6 of top 10 dirtiest power plants in Oregon are local
By ANTONIO
ARREDONDO
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Two
Oregon environmental groups
on Thursday, June 16, posted
their findings for Oregon
most climate-polluting power
plants, and the results look
grim for plants in Umatilla
and Morrow counties — at
least for now.
Six of the top 10 dirtiest
plants in the entire state are
in the two counties, accord-
ing to research from the Envi-
ronment Oregon Research &
Policy Center and Oregon
State Public Interest Research
Group Foundation.
“Climate change is here
and already impacting
lives,” said Celeste Meif-
fren-Swango, state director
at Environment Oregon. “We
need to do everything we can
to move away from fossil
fuels and towards renewable
energy.”
That action already has
taken place in Boardman,
where Portland General Elec-
tric Co. in 2021 dismantled
the fi nal coal-powered plant in
the state. The pair of environ-
mental groups rated it the dirt-
iest plant in Oregon in 2020.
The two sister groups
looked at data from the Envi-
Michael Durham/Contributed Photo, File
Portland General Electric’s Carty Generating Station in
Boardman came in at No. 3 on a list Thursday, June 16, 2022,
detailing Oregon’s top 10 climate-polluting power plants.
ronmental Protection Agen-
cy’s eGRID, a comprehensive
database that shows the envi-
ronmental characteristics of
nearly all of the nation’s power
plants.
According to the report,
Oregon’s top 10 most
climate-polluting plants in
2020 were responsible for
98.4% of carbon dioxide
equivalent emissions from the
power sector while generating
32.2% of total electricity. The
total emissions of Oregon’s
top 10 power plants are 9.7
million metric tons, which is
equivalent to 2 million cars on
the road for a year.
While none of Oregon’s
power plants fell in the top
100 dirtiest in the country,
this doesn’t mean the power
plants were in the clear. The
top operating plant, Calpine
Corporation’s Hermiston
Power Plant in Hermiston,
produces more than 1.56
million metric tons of carbon
dioxide emissions.
With coal plants out of the
picture, next up could be natu-
ral gas plants. These plants,
mostly operated by Portland
General Electric, also are
changing.
“Our natural gas plants
constitute a part of our gener-
ation fl eet that is changing,
and will continue to do so,”
Allison Dobscha, a spokes-
person for PGE, said. “These
plants will serve a diff erent
purpose in the future than
they do today, serving more
as capacity resources that can
provide fl exibility and reli-
ability when needed.”
The remaining nine plants
on the list use methane gas,
and the proposed shift away
from gas to cleaner energy is
something Meiff ren-Swango
is hopeful for.
“This list underscores
how methane is an extremely
potent gas,” the Environment
Oregon director said. “We
will fi gure out better ways to
power our lives before it’s too
late.”
With Oregon Gov. Kate
Brown signing a clean energy
bill that promises 100%
renewable energy for electric-
ity by 2040, Meiff ren-Swang
said she believes that change
is coming, and soon.
By YASSER MARTE
East Oregonian
ECHO — Echo lacks
local laws enforcing open
burning, and that has
raised the concerns of resi-
dent Bobby Jo Schultz.
“In a desert area out
here as dry as it gets, it
is irresponsible to light
a burn barrel and walk
off and leave it,” she said
while discussing how her
neighbor’s burn barrels of
wood in their yard. “I’m
concerned that the fi re will
spark and spread.”
Schultz brought her
complaint to city offi-
cials and the city coun-
cil, but without local laws
proscribing the do’s and
don’ts of open burning,
there is little for offi cials
to do. Still, the Echo Rural
Fire Protection District
recommends the town’s
residents follow fi re safety
guidelines from the Oregon
Department of Environ-
mental Quality.
“So there is not a ‘no
burn season,’ so a person
is able to burn 365 days
a year,” Echo Fire Chief
Delber t Geh rke said.
“Technically you can burn
legally as long as you
follow DEQ guidelines.”
The Umatilla County
Department of Land Use
Planning oversees open
and agricultural burning
for county areas. Gina
Miller, the county code
enforcement coordinator,
said local fi re districts and
cities follow a protocol that
defers to both the county
and DEQ guidelines. She
said the county uses mete-
orological information
to determine each day at
6 a.m. if burning is OK.
“We are sending out
alerts for ‘no burn’ days
on our webpage, we have
phone lines people can call
and for agriculturists we
send out a mass emergency
text we call a ‘red fl ag,’ if
certain weather conditions
call for it,” Miller said.
The county offi ce also
relies on readings of the
particulate matter in the
air to determine pollut-
ant levels. These readings
are vital for residents who
suff er respiratory issues.
According to Miller,
the effects of air qual-
ity on public health go
into considering a coun-
ty-wide burn ban. Certain
days involving large public
events such as the Pendle-
ton Round-Up, Pendleton
Whisky Music Fest and
the Walla Walla County
Fair would require a coun-
ty-wide ban on open burn-
ing as well.
As the summer nears
a nd w i ld f i re se a son
commences in the Pacifi c
Nor t hwe s t , Um at i l l a
County Code Enforce-
ment works to help spread
awareness to residents.
“This summer we will
add a feature to give out
health infor mation to
caution those with lung
problems and asthma,”
Miller said. “We don’t have
the link up yet, but it’ll be
up soon on the umatilla-
county.gov website.”
Because Echo is in a
fire district, if someone
were reported burning ille-
gal material such as tires,
petroleum, rubber, plastic,
wet garbage or industrial
waste, the fi re department
could put out the fi re.
But the fi re district relies
on voluntary fi refi ghters,
and voluntary fi refi ghters
are unable to issue citations
or fines for such viola-
tions, Gehrke explained.
However, the Stanfield
Police Department, which
provides law enforcement
services to Echo, should
be able to hand out cita-
tions and court summons
for these nuisances, if the
situation calls for it. The
fi re district also can call
upon a state fi re marshal if
the circumstances involve
serious criminal matters,
such as arson.
“We don’t enforce
anything, we just put out
fi res. Enforcing codes and
ordinances is up to the
city,” Gehrke said.
Echo City Administra-
tor David Slaght said the
city looks into complaints,
and he has handed out code
enforcement violations for
weeds, garbage and more.
But during his time as city
administrator, he has not
yet come across a reason
to hand out any fi re infrac-
tions.
Gehrke was on that
same page.
“We are f ine as it
currently stands,” Gehrke
said. “No complaints.”
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LOCAL BRIEFING
Milton-Freewater raises
waste removal rates
MILTON-FREEWATER — Milton-Free-
water City Council at its meeting June 13
voted unanimously to raise rates for garbage
and waste removal services by 10% for city
residents.
New rates will take effect July 1, and
customers will see the increases on their bill-
ing statements in mid-July or early August.
City Manager Linda Hall said the rate hikes
are needed due to increased costs for fuel, tires,
landfi ll permits and landfi ll maintenance.
Milton-Freewater customers pay $14.65 per
month, and the new rate will bump that up to
$16.12.
“The extra $1.47 a month that citizens will
pay will cover a portion of the costs to provide
the service,” Hall said.
Despite the increase, Milton-Freewater rates
are less expensive than other nearby cities.
The city of College Place’s monthly waste
removal fee is $23.35, and Walla Walla’s is
$25.80.
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