BAKER CITY HERALD • THuRsDAY, JAnuARY 6, 2022 A5
LOCAL & REGION
Swapping clubs for skis
The groomer creates a “cordu-
roy” path — five feet wide, with
shallow longitudinal grooves —
Quail Ridge Golf Course
won’t be ready for putts and chip designed to accommodate skiers,
said Chelsea Judy, marketing di-
shots for a couple months, but
rector for Anthony Lakes, which
the sprawling property with its
also runs the ski area in the Elk-
rumpled topography is hosting
another brand of outdoor recre- horn Mountains.
Judy said Johnson has been
ation this winter.
waiting for enough snow to start
Cross-country skiers.
grooming at Quail Ridge, which
Peter Johnson, general man-
ager of the Anthony Lakes Out- is in south Baker City off Indiana
Avenue.
door Recreation Association,
The groomed routes cover
which manages the city-owned
about 1½ to 2 miles, Judy said.
18-hole golf course, this week
Johnson groomed the trail
started grooming a route, mainly
on the course’s fringes following on Sunday, Jan. 2, and again on
Tuesday, Jan. 4, following the
cart paths, for Nordic skiing.
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
latest snowstorm that brought
about four inches to Baker City
the previous night.
There is no charge to ski on
the course, which also lures
snowshoers and hikers during
the winter.
Some of its steeper hills also
attract sledders.
The parking lot, at 2801 Indi-
ana Ave., is plowed and open for
parking.
“It’s another option for getting
outside during the winter,” Judy
said.
Late on the morning of Jan. 4,
a few skiers were gliding along
the groomed path at Quail Ridge.
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
A cross-country skier at Quail Ridge Golf Course in Baker City on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022.
Oregon shatters daily COVID case record
ber of new COVID-19 cases across the
U.S. reached a record-breaking average
PORTLAND — The Oregon
of 480,000 this week, and some primary
Health Authority reported 4,540 new
care providers fear they will soon be
COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, Jan. 4 — overwhelmed by the surge.
shattering the state’s previous record of
Dr. Laura Byerly, the chief medical
daily cases, set just five days earlier.
officer with Virginia Garcia Memo-
Currently, 510 people are hospi-
rial Medical Center in northwestern
talized with COVID-19 in the state,
Oregon, said her primary care clin-
which is less than half the number
ics are quickly transitioning back to
during the delta variant surge. How-
a telehealth model in anticipation of
ever local scientists estimate that
more staffers getting sick or requiring
roughly 1,650 coronavirus patients
quarantine.
will be hospitalized statewide on the
“We have to do a lot more telemed-
predicted peak in late January due to
icine visits than face-to-face because
the highly contagious omicron variant. we don’t have the staff to handle the
Across the country, daily case count bodies in the building,” Byerly said.
records have been surpassed. The num- “It’s heartbreaking because so much
BY SARA CLINE
Associated Press/Report for America
care has been deferred because of
previous telehealth needs.”
On Monday, Jan. 3, Oregon officials
reported more than 9,700 new cases of
COVID-19 from the holiday weekend,
smashing a previous record for weekly
coronavirus cases. During that time the
state also hit a single-day high for new
cases on 3,534 confirmed or presump-
tive infections. However that record has
been replaced by Tuesday’s case count.
In addition 18.2% of COVID-19 tests
administered over the long weekend
were positive for the virus, the Oregon
Health Authority said. That’s the high-
est positivity rate seen in the state so far.
Peter Graven, a data scientist at Ore-
gon Health and Science University and
author of the influential COVID-19
statewide forecast, predicts that if
people take steps to reduce the spread
of the virus — such as getting vac-
cinated and boosted — the surge in
hospitalizations would be slightly
higher than the number of people
hospitalized during the peak of the
delta variant, 1,187 people on Sept. 1.
But officials say that increase
threatens the state’s already strained
hospitals who are still dealing with
the influx of patients hospitalized
during the delta surge.
Currently there are 59 available
adult intensive care unit beds and
94% of the state’s staffed adult non-
ICU beds are full.
During previous surges, to free up
space hospitals have postponed elec-
tive procedures.
In addition, last month Gov. Kate
Brown extended Oregon’s declaration
of a state of emergency as health offi-
cials prepare for an expected surge in
COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations
in the coming weeks. The declara-
tion is necessary in order to provide
resources for the state’s COVID-19
response and recovery efforts — al-
lowing for the use of volunteer med-
ical providers in hospitals and at vac-
cination clinics, providing flexibility
around professional health licensing
and ensuring that the state has access
to federal disaster relief funds.
Former columnist Kristof makes case for Oregon residency
He wants to
seek Democratic
nomination for
Oregon governor
According to Ore-
million for his cam-
gon law, a candidate
paign war chest. He
must have been a res-
noted in his affida-
ident of the state for
vit that he had resi-
at least three years be-
dences in both New
fore an election. His
York state and Ore-
having voted in New
gon and had regis-
BY ANDREW SELSKY
York in November
tered to vote in New
Kristof
2020 has raised ques-
York for convenience.
Associated Press
SALEM — Former New
tions in the Oregon Secretary
“By voting in New York, I
York Times journalist Nich-
of State’s office about his eligi- had no intention of renounc-
olas Kristof told Oregon’s top bility to run in the November ing Oregon as my home,”
election official Monday, Jan. 2022 election, and it had asked Kristof said in an affidavit
3, that his having voted in
him for more information.
filed with Secretary of State
New York state in 2020 doesn’t
Kristof is running in a
Shemia Fagan, Oregon’s top
disqualify him from being a
crowded field for the Demo-
election official.
candidate for governor in Or- cratic nomination for gover-
For years, Kristof was a
egon.
nor and has raised some $2.5 globe-trotting foreign corre-
spondent and columnist for
The New York Times. The
two-time Pulitzer Prize win-
ner retired from the newspa-
per last year.
Lydia Plukchi of the secre-
tary of state’s office earlier said
candidate eligibility is typi-
cally vetted by checking voter
registration records and since
he had voted in New York,
she asked Kristof for any ad-
ditional “documentation or
explanation” to show he was
an Oregon resident for three
years prior to November 2022.
Kristof ’s campaign also of-
fered to Fagan a legal opinion
by retired Oregon Supreme
Court Justice William Riggs
that Kristof has been a resi-
dent of Oregon since at least
November 2019 “and likely
much longer.”
Riggs said that Kristof ’s vot-
ing in New York would un-
dermine his Oregon residency
only if it established that he
didn’t intend Oregon to be his
permanent home.
Kristof pointed out that he
moved as a 12-year-old with
his parents to a farm in Yam-
hill, Oregon, in 1971, and has
considered it to be his home
ever since. He has purchased
additional acreage nearby
since then.
The 62-year-old Kristof, in
his sworn statement, said that
after he dies he wants to be
cremated and his ashes spread
on the farm and on the Pacific
Crest Trail.
Molly Woon, a spokes-
woman for Fagan, said experts
in the Secretary of State’s elec-
tions division will be review-
ing Kristof ’s response with
attorneys at the Oregon De-
partment of Justice.
“We hope to make a final
determination later this week,”
Woon said.
US close to ending buried nuke Snoqualmie Pass sees
most snowfall in 20 years
waste cleanup at Idaho site
The Associated Press
about 13,500 cubic yards of mate-
rial — which is the equivalent of
nearly 50,000 storage drums each
containing 55 gallons.
Most of the waste is being sent
to the U.S. government’s Waste
Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mex-
ico for permanent disposal. Some
waste will be sent to other off-site
repositories that could be com-
mercial or Energy Department
sites.
The Energy Department said it
is 18 months ahead of schedule in
its cleanup of the landfill.
“The buried waste was the pri-
mary concern of our stakehold-
ers since the beginning of the
cleanup program,” Connie Flohr,
manager of the Idaho Cleanup
Project for the Energy Depart-
ment’s Office of Environmental
Management, said in a statement.
“Completing exhumation early
will allow us to get an earlier
start on construction of the final
cover.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Mike
Simpson represents the area that
benefits from millions of federal
dollars brought into the state by
research work done at the Idaho
National Laboratory.
“What exciting news for DOE
and the Idaho Cleanup project,”
he said on Twitter about the land-
fill work. “A successful clean-up
means protection for the region
and the Snake River Plain Aqui-
fer.”
The Lake Erie-sized Eastern
Snake River Plain Aquifer sup-
plies farms and cities in the re-
gion. A 2020 U.S. Geological
Survey report said radioactive
and chemical contamination in
the aquifer had decreased or re-
mained constant in recent years.
It attributed the decreases to
radioactive decay, changes in
waste-disposal methods, cleanup
BY KEITH RIDLER
Associated Press
BOISE — A lengthy project to
dig up and remove radioactive
and hazardous waste buried for
decades in unlined pits at a nu-
clear facility that sits atop a giant
aquifer in Eastern Idaho is nearly
finished, U.S. officials said.
The U.S. Department of Energy
said last week that it removed the
final amount of specifically tar-
geted buried waste from a 97-acre
landfill at its 890-square-mile site
that includes the Idaho National
Laboratory.
The targeted radioactive waste
included plutonium-contam-
inated filters, graphite molds,
sludges containing solvents and
oxidized uranium generated
during nuclear weapons produc-
tion work at the Rocky Flats Plant
in Colorado. Some radioactive
and hazardous remains in the
Idaho landfill that will receive an
earthen cover.
The waste from Rocky Flats
was packaged in storage drums
and boxes before being sent from
1954 to 1970 to the high-desert,
sagebrush steppe of eastern Idaho
where it was buried in unlined
pits and trenches. The area lies
about 50 miles west of the city of
Idaho Falls.
The cleanup project, started in
2005, is named the Accelerated
Retrieval Project and is one of
about a dozen cleanup efforts of
nuclear waste finished or ongoing
at the Energy Department site.
The project involving the land-
fill is part of a 2008 agreement
between the Energy Department
and state officials that required
the department to dig up and re-
move specific types and amounts
of radioactive and hazardous ma-
terial.
The agency said it removed
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efforts and dilution from water
coming into the aquifer.
The report said contamina-
tion levels at all but a handful of
nearly 180 wells are below accept-
able standards for drinking water
as set by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.
The nuclear site started oper-
ating in the late 1940s under the
Atomic Energy Commission, a
forerunner to the Energy Depart-
ment, and contamination of the
aquifer began in 1952, according
to the U.S. Geological Survey re-
port.
Contamination reached the
aquifer through injection wells,
unlined percolation ponds, pits
into which radioactive material
from other states was dumped,
and accidental spills mainly
during the Cold War era before
regulations to protect the envi-
ronment were put in place.
Tritium accounted for most
of the radioactivity in water dis-
charged into the aquifer, the U.S.
Geological Survey report said, but
also included strontium-90, ce-
sium-137, iodine-129, plutonium
isotopes, uranium isotopes, nep-
tunium-237, americium-241, and
technetium-99.
In 1989, the area became a Su-
perfund site when it was was
added to the National Priorities
List for Uncontrolled Hazardous
Waste Sites.
The Energy Department
shipped nuclear waste to Idaho
until a series of lawsuits between
the state and the federal govern-
ment in the 1990s led to a 1995
settlement agreement.
The agreement was seen as
a way to prevent the state from
becoming a high-level nuclear
waste repository. It also required
cleanup and removal of existing
nuclear waste, which continues.
NORTH BEND, Wash. — Authori-
ties say Snoqualmie Pass in Washington
state has received the highest snowfall
in 20 years as of Monday, Jan. 3.
The Washington State Department
of Transportation says by the afternoon
of Jan. 3, 236 inches of snowfall was re-
Suspect in New Year’s Eve
shootout on Interstate 84 dies
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The Pendleton Po-
lice Department in a press release Sat-
urday, Jan. 1, reported the suspect law
enforcement pursued on New Year’s
Eve from Union County into Umatilla
County died.
Police identified the suspect as Nich-
olas Russell Proudfoot, 30, of North
Bend, Washington.
The pursuit began the morning of
Friday, Dec. 31, after the theft of a ve-
hicle in Ukiah at 6 a.m., according to
a press release that day from the Uma-
tilla County District Attorney’s Office.
The Union County Sheriff’s Office at
about 10:45 a.m. attempted to stop the
vehicle in Union County.
The report from Dec. 31 stated law
enforcement caught the suspect at
11:53 a.m. and took him into custody
at gunpoint. Officers took the suspect
to a hospital for medical attention.
But the press release Jan. 1 from the
Pendleton Police Department pre-
sented more information.
Pendleton police reported the chase
ended on Interstate 84 at approxi-
mately milepost 223 on Cabbage Hill,
about 13 miles east of Pendleton.
The suspect fired several rounds at
an Oregon State Police trooper and ci-
vilians as he fled and carjacked occu-
pied vehicles on the interstate, Pendle-
ton police reported. The trooper and
one civilian who was a victim of a car-
jacking returned fire at the suspect.
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“The incident ended after the sus-
pect’s stolen vehicle became disabled,”
according to the press release, “and he
was found unresponsive with an injury
to his head.”
Pendleton police reported law en-
forcement performed life-saving ef-
forts and an ambulance took Proud-
foot to a hospital, but he succumbed to
his injuries Dec. 31 at 9 p.m.
No civilians or law enforcement offi-
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shooting.
At approximately noon that day,
Pendleton Police Department, at the
request of the Umatilla County District
Attorney’s Office and in compliance
with the Umatilla County Deadly Phys-
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investigation. Police also reported there
will be an autopsy to determine the
manner and cause of Proudfoot’s death.
The investigation of multiple crime
scenes led to the shutdown of I-84 be-
tween mileposts 237 and 223 on both
the east and westbound sides until about
9:30 p.m. Dec. 31. The investigation also
is relying on resources from Hermiston
Police Department, Umatilla Tribal Po-
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“Once the investigation is complete,”
according to the press release, “all ma-
terial will be turned over to the Uma-
tilla County District Attorney.”
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On Jan. 3, blowing snow closed In-
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