NEWS
Wallowa.com
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
A9
Boil order issued to 8 houses after mishap
Backhoe broke water main
on SW Thorpe Lane
By Bill Bradshaw
Wallowa County Chieftain
A boil order was issued to eight houses on
SW Thorpe Lane on the west side of Enter-
prise on Monday, Dec. 9, after a contractor’s
backhoe hit a water main and broke the pipe,
leading to a required testing of the water
after repairs were made.
“State law requires us to test the water”
after such an incident, city Public Works
Director Ron Neil said, adding that he didn’t
know what potential contaminants could be
found.
He said Tuesday that he had taken water
samples and sent them to a state lab. He said
he should know by today or Thursday if the
water is fi t for human consumption.
The boil order stated that anyone plan-
ning to drink or cook with city water in the
area should boil it until notifi ed otherwise.
The contractor at the accident site – who
asked to not be identifi ed – said the mis-
hap happened while they were connecting
the water main to a double-wide home that
had been moved there along Thorpe just
off SW Montclair Street. He said a private
party had installed the water line and had
not dug it as deep as it should’ve been, thus
the accident.
The contractor said the city got it shut off
quickly and his crew covered it up after the
city repaired the main.
Bill Bradshaw
A backhoe sits idle Tuesday, Dec. 10, amid work to connect a home along SW Thorpe Lane to the city water line. On Monday, the backhoe
accidentally struck and broke a city water main. After the pipe was repaired and covered up, the city was required to test the water for eight
houses along the street for contaminants and a boil order was issued. Public Works Director Ron Neil said he should know today or Thursday if
the water is safe.
State approves narrower forestry ballot New grants for climate-
positive agriculture
measures for signature gathering
By Ted Sickinger
The Oregonian
A week after winning a
legal challenge to her rejec-
tion of three forestry-re-
lated ballot initiatives fi led
by an environmental group,
Oregon Secretary of State
Bev Clarno approved three
replacement initiatives that
would prohibit most of the
same practices.
Clarno’s said she rejected
initiative petitions 35, 36
and 37 because they violated
a provision in the Oregon
Constitution that says indi-
vidual measures can only
deal with a single subject.
Environmental groups
fi led the three measures this
year to tighten aerial herbi-
cide spraying rules, increase
forest stream buffers, pro-
hibit logging in steep land-
slide-prone areas and pro-
hibit confl icts of interest
for state forestry board
appointees.
The new versions deleted
passages in the petitions that
Clarno found had violated
the single subject clause,
getting rid of restrictions on
confl icts of interest on the
Board of Forestry and aerial
spraying of herbicides near
schools.
Clarno’s lack of pro-
cess and explanation for
the rejection led to the legal
challenge by Oregon Wild, a
political dustup with Attor-
ney General Ellen Rosen-
blum, and accusations that
Clarno and her deputy, Rich
Vial, had rejected the initia-
tives on political grounds.
Meanwhile, Oregon Wild
fi led a new set of petitions —
45, 46, and 47, dubbed the
Oregon Forest Water Pro-
Rob Davis/The Oregonian
Ballot initiatives are planned on forestry practices.
tections — without the lan-
guage Clarno felt was prob-
lematic. Clarno approved
the three new initiatives
Thursday to move forward
with signature gathering.
“The meat of what we’re
trying to address is still
in there, but it’s unfortu-
nate that (some of these
other provisions) won’t be
included now,” said Steve
Pedery, a spokesman for
Oregon Wild.
Pedery contends Clarno
and Vial were looking to
delay the campaign and
remove restrictions that
would garner support among
voters, such as restrict-
ing herbicide spraying near
schools. “It was frustrat-
ingly political,” he said.
Clarno said she appre-
ciated that “the chief peti-
tioners of these initiatives
amended their proposals
to meet the constitutional
requirements. Voters will
now be able to read and
decide for themselves on
these issues.”
The proposed forestry
restrictions
are
wildly
unpopular among tim-
ber interests as they would
restrict clearcutting on steep
slopes and aerial herbicide
spraying.
Three retired loggers
backed by the timber indus-
try have fi led three of their
own initiative petitions to
counter what they say are
“radical anti-forestry ballot
initiatives being pursued by
environmental extremists.”
Rosenblum refused to
represent Clarno in the court
challenge fi led by Oregon
Wild. That forced Clarno
to hire outside counsel. But
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last week, a Marion County
judge sided with Clarno,
saying she was right to
reject the petitions.
The controversy is ongo-
ing as Rosenblum feels
that judge’s decision, if
upheld, could profoundly
disrupt the initiative pro-
cess, opening up measures
fi led by voters and referred
by the Legislature to legal
challenge.
WILMINGTON, Del.
— Corteva Agriscience
announced a $500,000
commitment to create the
Corteva Agriscience Cli-
mate Positive Challenge to
catalyze a movement toward
climate-positive agriculture.
The grant program will
be launched next year and
reward efforts that off-
set carbon emissions and
protect the environment
while sustaining farms and
farmers.
The challenge grants will
provide fi nancial rewards
to farmers who are already
advancing innovative cli-
mate-positive practices for
collaborating with local
environmental groups, uni-
versities, growers or others
in the ag value chain to help
scale the effort beyond their
own acres.
“We understand the chal-
lenges farmers around the
world are facing as it relates
to trade, policy and weather
challenges,” said James
Collins Jr., CEO of Corteva
Agriscience. “These reasons
are our primary drivers for
announcing this now — to
provide incentives for those
farmers that have a keen eye
for scaling their practices.”
Collins fi rst introduced
the concept of climate-pos-
itive agriculture at last
year’s World Food Prize.
Since then, the company
had meetings with farmers
and organizations represent-
ing every facet of agricul-
ture and food production on
the forefront of advancing
agricultural sustainability.
The discussions explored
what it would take to cre-
ate a carbon-negative and
climate-positive agriculture
industry around the world.
“Clearly, there’s a thirst
and passion to collabo-
rate and coordinate so that
we can best tackle what is
undoubtedly the biggest
challenge of our lifetimes,”
Collins said.
Corteva is already work-
ing toward creating mar-
ket-driven fi nancial incen-
tives for farmers. The
company’s
subsidiary,
Granular, is collaborating
with Nori, the world’s lead-
ing carbon dioxide removal
marketplace.
The site connects buyers
of carbon offsets with farm-
ers who are applying sus-
tainable farming practices
and provides them with a
viable carbon credit market
that will generate revenue.
“This is just the begin-
ning,” Collins said. “There’s
so much more we — and all
of us working together —
can do.”
