A4
Opinion
wallowa.com
June 10, 2015
Wallowa County Chieftain
Waters of
the U.S.
rule needs
rewrite
I
t happens a lot in Washington, D.C. An agency sets out
to clarify regulations and the outcome is worse than the
starting point.
Think of the Food
EDITORIAL
Safety Modernization
Act. Once the folks at
The voice of the Chieftain
the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration began to
put their heads together, the simple intent of Congress to
make sure food is safe to eat turned into a Frankenstein
monster of what-ifs. Ask onion growers, who were forced
to prove to the FDA that their crop had never been linked
to a food-borne illness. And ask breweries, which had for
thousands of years fed their spent grain to cattle without
ever creating a food safety problem.
Only after members of Congress interceded and
researchers proved what experience had already
demonstrated did the FDA decide to reverse itself on those
issues.
And think of the new Waters of the United States
rule. A simple effort on the part of the Environmental
Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
WRUHFRQFLOHFRQÀLFWLQJFRXUWGHFLVLRQVWXUQHGLQWRDQRWKHU
Frankenstein rule. Actually, we would characterize it as
Frankenstein on steroids. It’s 297 pages of bureaucratese.
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like ‘adjacent,’ ‘wetland’ and ‘discharge,’ while adding
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Legal Foundation attorney who successfully argued one
of the cases before the U.S. Supreme Court that caused
the EPA to rewrite its rule. “And it provides that federal
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µRWKHUZDWHUV¶VKRXOGEHUHJXODWHG´
Another major objection that the Capital Press
editorialized on in the past is the EPA and Corps provide
no path for appealing an agency’s decision other than
going through a jurisdictional review by the Corps.
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9th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals differ on whether
landowners’ due process rights are protected in similar
cases.
If the EPA wanted to clarify something, it could have
guaranteed a citizen the right to challenge an agency
determination in court after a jurisdiction review.
Because of its bulk and unclear language the rule
created or left open as many questions as it answered.
That is what made farmers and ranchers — and other
landowners — most nervous.
There’s on old term we like a lot: Cowboy talk. It’s a
synonym for plain language. Instead of trying to impress
each other with their command of obscure and unclear
terms, the folks at the EPA and Corps should have written
a rule that reads something like this: We promise to
leave farmers and ranchers alone unless we can prove
VFLHQWL¿FDOO\DQGEH\RQGDVKDGRZRIDGRXEWWKDWUXQRII
from a farm or ranch is polluting a navigable stream, river
or lake protected under the Clean Water Act. Any of our
determinations can be appealed in federal court.
They would have saved 296 pages of vagueness and
gibberish and done a better job.
USPS No. 665-100
P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828
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Enterprise, Oregon
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Contents copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. Reproduction
without permission is prohibited.
Area talent disproportionate
It’s amazing the difference a few
weeks of rain can make. The Zumwalt
Prairie that was dusty and getting low on
drinking water is now verdant and ponds
are full. I haven’t moved sprinklers or irri-
gated for three weeks and the grass is get-
ting ahead of the cattle.
It looks like the drought in Texas and
2NODKRPD LV EURNHQ +DOI RI 2NODKRPD
and most of Texas is under water. See what
happens when the Bible Belt prays for rain?
I hope they have learned their lesson. I talk-
ed to my friend Ace Berry who now lives
just south of Oklahoma City and he is on
high ground but received 17 inches of rain
in May and it is still coming.
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beautiful county spurs creativity and tal-
ent or whether it attracts talented people.
I lived in a county about this size that
has a population of over 500,000 people.
I knew one guy that could play a guitar.
I didn’t know anyone that had written a
book, I knew a couple of people that were
artistic but that was the extent of talent I
knew about. I had the opportunity to at-
tend the spring Wallowa County Music
Alliance program held in the Odd Fellows
hall a couple of weeks ago and am still
amazed at all the musical talent here. The
fact that the program covered old country
music was a plus. Everything from Jim-
PLH5RGJHUVPXVLFWR+DQN:LOOLDPVDQG
OPEN RANGE
Barrie Qualle
the Sons of the Pioneers. The musicians
that performed represented only part of
the vast local musical talent.
In addition to the musical talent we
are blessed with many artists, writers and
sculptors. All this talent crammed into
an agricultural county of 7,000. When I
told my family I was moving to Wallowa
County they told me it would be a cultur-
al wasteland. Every time they visit I rub
their noses in that idea.
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God. Being put into a lead-up like we are
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by TSA adds a lot to the misery of travel-
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and explosives, makes you wonder if there
isn’t a better way. I suggest issuing a load-
ed .45 to all passengers when they board.
That would put a stop to terrorism and also
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GXULQJWKHÀLJKW
I see that some Muslims are demand-
ing that the welfare food they are given be
of Islamic code, whatever that is. They also
insist that their women must wear a face
covering even for driver license photos.
It seems that all minorities want to have
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be mandatory for everyone to watch. I
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very funny. It seems that we are not get-
ting much better at being tolerant of each
other’s differences and races, and political
parties have agitators within them that love
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County the hippies and cowboys seem to
do a good job of tolerating each other.
The situation in the Middle East con-
tinues as it has for centuries. Stupidly, we
think we can throw money at their prob-
OHPVDQG¿[WKHXQ¿[DEOH:HFRQWLQXHWR
ship state-of-the-art weapons to Iraq so their
army can abandon them to ISIS as soon as
they show up with a few zealots. It appears
that our foreign policy is to arm both sides
so we can keep things in an uproar. This is
a windfall for the military-industrial com-
plex that Eisenhower warned us about.
They get to sell us arms to distribute to
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this money leaving the country and I live
on a dirt road.
Open Range columnist Barrie Qualle
is a working cowboy in Wallowa County.
Time to re-engage on forests
The Malheur, Umatilla and Wal-
ORZD:KLWPDQ 1DWLRQDO )RUHVWV DUH FRP-
mitted to keeping an open dialogue con-
tinuing with the communities we serve
and as such would like to update you all on
our progress in the Blue Mountains Forest
Plans revision process. We want to thank
many of you for your recent efforts in help-
ing us think through and develop a re-en-
gagement strategy for the communities in
the Blue Mountains.
As we announced last month, we have
met with a broad spectrum of stakeholders
so far this year to discuss the best ways to
reengage with folks in the Blues. Through
their counsel and advice we are exploring a
range of re-engagement activities including
community, stakeholder and Forest Service
hosted meetings. We want to be clear that
these meetings will be open to public; our
hope is that these meetings will provide
opportunities to discuss and develop ideas
WKDWZLOOKHOSXVWRLPSURYHWKH¿QDO5H-
vised Forest Plans, and provide clarity on
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As previously announced, this past Feb-
ruary, we began asking local organizations,
GUEST COLUMN
Steve Beverlin, Kevin Martin,
Tom Montoya
including counties, tribes, members of the
public at large and special interest groups,
if they would be interested in hosting or
participating in public meetings in their
communities on issues brought forward
through the Draft Environmental Impact
Statement comment process. We are work-
ing with those who have responded to plan
and/or participate in a variety of forums to
be announced soon. We welcome addition-
al efforts if there is interest. We are open to
meet with the public and any entity inter-
ested in discussing the draft.
We heard a strong desire for further
discussion around Forest access, back
country, wilderness and the pace and scale
of restoration, so you can anticipate meet-
ings around these topics, as well as some
other more localized issues. We hope to
identify some common ground and create
solutions. We look forward to these dis-
cussions.
It is important to know that while the
analysis for the Malheur, Umatilla and
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be included in one environmental impact
statement, each Forest will have its own
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communities.
We want Forest Plans that provide re-
siliency for our communities in Eastern
Oregon and Washington; Plans that sup-
port the local economy and the social val-
ues of the people who use and depend on
them. We also want resiliency in ecosys-
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ZLOG¿UHLQYDVLYHVSHFLHVKXPDQLPSDFWV
and have the strength to return to healthy
ecosystems in the long run. Our Forest
Plans should provide the vision of how to
do just that and we will continue to need
your help in shaping them.
Please come to a meeting. If you can-
not come to a meeting, contact your local
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Facility’s residents shouldn’t leave
To the Editor:
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to vote them in a new hospital, they told us
they had to have a new nursing home too!
They promised us at the meeting that any of
the residents of the old nursing home would
have a home at the new one too, to live out
the rest of their time. Then Marathon took
over the new nursing home and they agreed
also that they would keep all of our loved
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bought out Marathon and have told 3 of our
loved ones that they have 30 days to get out.
(3 now, if there is not a big uproar from the
community, how many more will they kick
out?)
We, the taxpayers are still paying for that
nursing home but Artegan seems to think
they can make all the rules.
There is an emergency meeting over this
matter on June 22, at 11:30 at the conference
room at the hospital. I want to urge everyone
to attend this meeting and let them know we
are not happy about this. Marathon is still li-
able for the promise they made us and they
have no right to sell to Artegan without Ar-
tegan agreeing to all the terms set by us resi-
GHQWVRIWKHFRXQW\+RZDERXWKROGLQJEDFN
the tax money for the district until this matter
is set straight and they live up to the promise
LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR
that they made to us?
Bill Coffman
Enterprise
look at funding this facility that is of very
little value to most of us.
Fred Barstad
Enterprise
Of roads and words
To the Editor:
I read with interest the Chieftain edi-
torial on the road repair vote in Joseph. I
Assisted living less
don’t think the options are quite as hope-
less as you present when you suggest our
valuable
FRPPXQLW\RI¿FLDOV³IROGWKHLUDUPV´DQG
To the Editor:
sulk because we didn’t pass the bond mea-
The nursing home is kicking out peo- sures. That’s not particularly constructive.
ple who they say are too sick to be there. I
There are many options for dealing
thought that was why you had county tax with the roads, including managing traf-
payers pay for a new nursing home, so sick ¿F DQG VSHHG IURP WKH GRZQWRZQ DUHD
people could stay there. When we voted to During events, downtown (which gets its
fund a new nursing home I thought that roads updated by the state because it’s a
was what we were voting for, but it seems KLJKZD\WXUQVHYHQWWUDI¿FORRVHRQWKH
WKDW,ZDVKRRNZLQNHG1RZZHKDYHDQ side streets, which are not designed for
³$VVLVWHG/LYLQJ&HQWHU´ZKLFKJHQHUDOO\ out of town visitors to go speeding down
takes care of people who can almost take them. Which, alas, they do, popping out
care of themselves. When someone be- potholes in an amusing fashion.
In an unacknowledged letter to my town,
comes a problem, because they have more
needs, they are kicked out of the place, I suggested a variety of ways to look at this
that we, the hoodwinked taxpayers are LVVXH QRQH RI ZKLFK ZHUH UHÀHFWHG LQ WKH
still paying for. I believe that all the people
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of Wallowa County need to take a second