SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 2021
Baker City, Oregon
A4
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OUR VIEW
Water case
limits use
of land
When and where does the Clean Water Act apply?
What if there is no surface ﬂ ow between a piece of land and
a waterway? What if there is a road between a soggy property
and a waterway?
They are issues for homeowners and for farmers. A recent
decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit is arguably a win for conservationists. It will also make
it more challenging for property owners to do what they want
on a property without ﬁ rst getting a Clean Water Act permit.
The case involves Chantell and Michael Sackett of Idaho.
They “purchased a soggy residential lot near Idaho’s Priest
Lake in 2004,” as the court summarized. They wanted to build a
home. They got the necessary county permits and began ﬁ lling
it in with sand and gravel. The EPA basically issued an order
to stop them, telling them to remove the inﬁ ll and return the
property to its natural state.
A bit more context helps explain the situation. “The Sack-
ett’s property is bounded by roads to the north and south,” the
court wrote. “To the north, across Kalispell Bay Road, lies the
Kalispell Bay Fen, a large wetlands complex that drains into an
unnamed tributary. That tributary feeds Kalispell Creek, which,
in turn, ﬂ ows southwest of the Sacketts’ property and then emp-
ties into Priest Lake. To the south, across another road, is a row
of homes fronting Priest Lake. The Sacketts’ property is 300 feet
from the lake.
The case hinges on a number of factors. Is the property
a wetland? The EPA said so. It had photographs and other
evidence. The Sacketts disagreed. And is it adjacent to another
wetland or a waterway? There is apparently not direct surface
ﬂ ow from the Sackett’s property and the lake. For one, there
are the roads in the way. But the federal government’s regula-
tions explicitly state that “’adjacent wetlands’ included wetlands
separated from other waters of the United States by artiﬁ cial
dikes and barriers,” the court wrote.
The Capital Press reported the Sacketts believe the court’s
decision was wrong. The couple is working with their attorneys
to decide how to proceed.
This situation of a separated wetland or wet area is far
from unique to the Sacketts. And the case may have signiﬁ cant
repercussions on how much power the federal government has
to regulate land.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Baker City Herald.
Columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions
of the authors and not necessarily that of the Baker City Herald.
The slothful soil an
otherwise sylvan scene
T
here’s a certain majesty to a
forest in the wake of a soaking
rain — the jewels of water
clinging to the ponderosa pine
needles, the fresh scent of damp
bark, the discarded diaper molding
among the pinegrass.
Coming across that last, as I did
on a recent hike in the woods near
Phillips Reservoir, was about as jar-
ring as its appearance in the previ-
ous sentence, fouling the conclusion
to a list of pleasant things.
It’s rather like following a ﬁ ne
meal with an aperitif of stagnant
pondwater.
Distasteful.
Ponds, of course, have no control
over their circumstances, or the
quality of their water.
But diapers, as a rule, mar other-
wise sylvan scenes solely as a result
of human sloth.
Adult sloth, speciﬁ cally, as in-
fants can hardly be held responsible
for the disposal of the garments
they soil.
I initially mistook this particular
diaper for a scrap of paper.
But only when I walked closer
did I see the colored design on the
white background.
(I’ve never quite understood why
disposable diapers are festooned
with cartoon characters and the
like. I doubt the wearer appreciates
the decoration. Cloth diapers, by
contrast, typically are plain.)
The diaper, which had swollen
as they do when saturated (albeit
from the outside in this case rather
than the other way round as is
more typical), was 15 feet or so off
the road. The route is blocked to
full-size rigs by a tank trap, but the
parallel tracks, mainly devoid of
grass, show that ATVs still go this
way occasionally.
Littering fascinates me.
I mean intentional littering,
rather than, say, a candy bar wrap-
per or other ﬂ imsy thing that can
waft out of a car window without
the driver noticing.
Quite often it seems to me that
it requires more effort to litter than
to not. This is especially so when
the litterer was in a vehicle, which
generally has enough room to tem-
porarily accommodate the sorts of
Your views
Quiet zone would make Baker City safer, better
I’ve been a citizen of our beautiful city for 60 years. I went to
elementary at South Baker. We live in a wonderful place, a real
slice of heaven to call home except for the hundreds of incessant,
painful and extremely annoying UPRR train whistles. I’ve lived
near them most of my life and I HATE the deafening shrills.
Serving our citizens in public ofﬁ ce is an honor and a solemn
pledge to help our city thrive and make it a better place to live.
In the past, I served as your mayor and city councilor for eight
years, worked as a local builder for 35 years and 20 years as a
Realtor. There are many reasons to support the quiet zone in
our city:
• Safety – Federal Railroad Administration approves mea-
sures to improve safety at crossings, and make them just as safe
as crossings with horns.
• Positive economic effect is worth the minimal cost by mak-
ing it feasible to build new homes in the area and increasing the
property values near the worst affected areas.
• We have competition for jobs in Eastern Oregon from adja-
cent cities. Pendleton has a quiet zone and La Grande recently
invested in one, making these cities quieter and healthier thus
more attractive to potential employers looking for a great place
to locate.
• Reduced noise to South Baker Elementary School and
Trade School on Broadway.
I ask all in local leadership positions, especially the Baker
City Council, to support the safety upgrades to the railroad
crossings. The investment cost is minimal and the wonderful
beneﬁ ts will be felt for generations to come.
Jeff Petry
Baker City
JAYSON
JACOBY
items that people typically toss out.
I understand, of course, that
diapers — particularly those which
have served their purpose — are
not welcome accessories in a rig.
But even if the diaper I found
had been especially, well, aromatic
— I wasn’t inclined to investigate
the matter to that degree of detail
— this hardly absolves the person
who heaved it off the road.
I suppose I’m not exactly the an-
tidote to irresponsibility, as I left the
diaper lay. But I had just started
hiking and, lacking even a back-
pack, I didn’t much fancy carrying
the thing around for the next hour
or so, tossing it from hand to hand
occasionally, like a cornhole bag, to
evenly divide the grime.
Diapers, or so my research
indicates, are a much more durable
item than their ephemeral purpose
might suggest.
Which means the thing probably
will still be there when the ﬁ rst
snow falls (and what a blessedly
cold relief that will be after the
summer we’re slogging through).
We saw a handful of potential
Christmas tree candidates on our
walk so we might get back that way.
If I remember — a dubious pros-
pect at best — I might bring a sack
along in case the diaper remains.
I’ll have gloves anyway.
———
My cell phone rang the other
day and as I grabbed it off the table
beside my bed I noticed something
that I’ve seen hundreds of times
but that seemed, in that instant,
utterly new.
The green symbol on the screen,
denoting that the phone was
performing the most prosaic of its
many functions, is a shape familiar
to anyone born before, say, 1990.
It’s the curve, sort of a sideways
“U,” with slightly bulbous ends.
This of course represents the
receiver of an old-fashioned tele-
phone. The kind that occupied tens
of millions of American homes, a
stout chunk of bakelight that could
serve as an effective blunt object if
a burglar were on the premises or
a nail’s head protruded from a wall
and a hammer wasn’t at hand.
We had a few such phones in my
childhood home, rendered, so far as
I can recall, in the hideous earth-
tones of puce and orange that were,
for reasons beyond my comprehen-
sion, considered fashionable in the
1960s and ’70s.
(I myself came along in 1970, so
my retinas were exposed to all man-
ner of unsightly shades slathered on
objects ranging from refrigerators to
linoleum.)
I can scarcely think of a piece
of technology that has been so
thoroughly rendered obsolete as the
dial phone.
Although we listen to music
nowadays in digital form, with
thousands of songs stored on a
device smaller than a credit card,
the difference in that medium is
still not so great as with phones.
The handheld transistor radios
that dominated the market prior to
Sony’s Walkman weren’t exactly be-
hemoths, after all, even if they were
wholly analog. They were cordless,
too, just like an mp3 player.
The modern smartphone and the
dial phone, by contrast, can’t even
fairly be described as cousins.
Indeed, the sole function of an
old phone is the one that most
smartphone owners use rarely if at
all — speaking to another person.
Yet cellphones continue to depict
that function by way of a symbol
that, to a child, must not be so
immediately recognizable as it is
to me.
I wonder how many years will
pass before the shape of a phone
will become so foreign to young
eyes that the makers of cellphones
and other devices which make and
receive calls will need to ﬁ nd a
replacement.
Perhaps not many years at all.
The designers ought to get
started on the task now. Otherwise
that once-ubiquitous symbol might
became as useless as trying to show
drivers where to park by way of
signs depicting buggy whips.
Jayson Jacoby is editor of the
Baker City Herald.
CONTACT YOUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS
President Joe Biden: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,
Washington, D.C. 20500; 202-456-1111; to send comments, go to
www.whitehouse.gov.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley: D.C. offi ce: 313 Hart Senate Offi ce
Building, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-3753;
fax 202-228-3997. Portland offi ce: One World Trade Center, 121
S.W. Salmon St. Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204; 503-326-3386;
fax 503-326-2900. Baker City offi ce, 1705 Main St., Suite 504, 541-
278-1129; merkley.senate.gov.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden: D.C. offi ce: 221 Dirksen Senate Offi ce
Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-5244; fax 202-228-2717.
La Grande offi ce: 105 Fir St., No. 210, La Grande, OR 97850; 541-
962-7691; fax, 541-963-0885; wyden.senate.gov.
U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz (2nd District): D.C. offi ce: 2182 Rayburn
Offi ce Building, Washington, D.C., 20515, 202-225-6730; fax 202-
225-5774. La Grande offi ce: 1211 Washington Ave., La Grande, OR
97850; 541-624-2400, fax, 541-624-2402; walden.house.gov.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown: 254 State Capitol, Salem, OR
97310; 503-378-3111; www.governor.oregon.gov.
Oregon State Treasurer Tobias Read: oregon.treasurer@
ost.state.or.us; 350 Winter St. NE, Suite 100, Salem OR 97301-
3896; 503-378-4000.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen F. Rosenblum: Justice
Building, Salem, OR 97301-4096; 503-378-4400.
Oregon Legislature: Legislative documents and information
are available online at www.leg.state.or.us.
State Sen. Lynn Findley (R-Ontario): Salem offi ce: 900
Court St. N.E., S-403, Salem, OR 97301; 503-986-1730. Email: Sen.
LynnFindley@oregonlegislature.gov
State Rep. Mark Owens (R-Crane): Salem offi ce: 900 Court
St. N.E., H-475, Salem, OR 97301; 503-986-1460. Email: Rep.
MarkOwens@oregonlegislature.gov
Baker City Hall: 1655 First Street, P.O. Box 650, Baker City,
OR 97814; 541-523-6541; fax 541-524-2049. City Council meets
the second and fourth Tuesdays at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers.
Councilors Jason Spriet, Kerry McQuisten, Shane Alderson, Joanna
Dixon, Heather Sells and Johnny Waggoner Sr.
Baker City administration: 541-523-6541. Jonathan Cannon,
city manager; Ray Duman, police chief; Sean Lee, fi re chief; Michelle
Owen, public works director.
Baker County Commission: Baker County Courthouse 1995
3rd St., Baker City, OR 97814; 541-523-8200. Meets the fi rst and
third Wednesdays at 9 a.m.; Bill Harvey (chair), Mark Bennett,
Bruce Nichols.
Baker County departments: 541-523-8200. Travis Ash,
sheriff; Noodle Perkins, roadmaster; Greg Baxter, district attorney;
Alice Durfl inger, county treasurer; Stefanie Kirby, county clerk; Kerry
Savage, county assessor.
Baker School District: 2090 4th Street, Baker City, OR 97814;
541-524-2260; fax 541-524-2564. Superintendent: Mark Witty.
Board meets the third Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. Council
Chambers, Baker City Hall,1655 First St.; Andrew Bryan, Kevin
Cassidy, Chris Hawkins, Katie Lamb and Julie Huntington.