BAKER CITY HERALD • SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 2022 A5
OREGON
Water deliveries
halted to farmers in
Oregon, California
EO Media Group, File
A crew works on a transmission line tower outside Boardman in this undated photo. The Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council will meet at
Eastern Oregon University’s Gilbert Center, La Grande, for three days starting Monday, Aug. 29, 2022, to hear oral appeals for 30 contested
portions of its proposed site plan for the controversial Boardman to Hemingway transmission line project.
State council plans to hear
appeals on B2H power line
BY DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Emotions could run
high at Eastern Oregon University’s Gil-
bert Center in La Grande next week.
The Oregon Energy Facility Siting
Council will meet at the Gilbert Cen-
ter for three days starting Monday, Aug.
29, to hear oral appeals for 30 contested
portions of its proposed site plan for the
controversial Boardman to Hemingway
transmission line project.
“This is a critical event,” said Fuji
Kreider, of La Grande, secretary and
treasurer of the Stop B2H Coalition, a
grassroots organization of 900 individu-
als and organizations.
The sessions for each appeal will run
about 25 minutes. At each session, the
organization or individual appealing the
segment of the proposed site plan will
speak along with those there to provide
clarification. All sessions will be open
to the public but only those who are pe-
titioners or litigants will be allowed to
speak.
In many cases those speaking in sup-
port of elements being challenged will
be representatives of Idaho Power, a ma-
jor funder of the proposed B2H project,
which would run from Boardman to the
Hemingway transmission line substation
near Melba, Idaho.
Sven Berg, an Idaho Power public in-
formation officer, said he respects the
concerns people have but stressed that
throughout the process of attempting to
get the B2H transmission line to become
a reality, Idaho Power has strived to
work with those who have worries and
those who could be impacted.
“We also want to find common
ground with landowners and stakehold-
ers. In all but a few cases, we have been
able to do this,” he said. “We have tried
to find pathways to address concerns,
while balancing this with the need to
provide clean and affordable energy to
our customers.”
Berg supports the opportunity the
meeting of the Energy Facility Siting
Council in La Grande will provide to
those who are on opposite sides of the
B2H fence.
“We trust the process and want to give
those who oppose and support the proj-
ect a chance to be heard,” he said.
The transmission line would cost be-
tween $1 billion and $1.2 billion. Towers
along the transmission line would be as
high as 180 feet tall.
In comparison, standard towers are
between 75 and 90 feet tall. The pro-
posed line would run through the
Grande Ronde Valley.
Idaho Power is leading the effort to
gain approval for the 300-mile, 500-kilo-
volt B2H line with the help of its partner,
PacifiCorp.
Elements of the proposed site plan
that will be challenged include the deci-
bel level of the sound that would come
from the B2H power lines. Kreider said
the site plan states that the sound level
would exceed the Oregon Noise Control
level standards by 10 decibels. Kreider
said she does not believe a variance
should be granted for this within the site
plan.
Berg said Idaho Power representatives
at the hearing may indicate the utility
could provide homeowners near B2H
power lines windows that would better
block out the sound.
At each hearing the Energy Facil-
ity Siting Council will take a straw poll
among its members to determine how
they feel about the issue. The council
will vote at a later meeting on its offi-
cial response to each element that was
appealed. Kreider said it is unclear how
the council’s response to the appeals will
influence its decision on whether to sup-
port or reject the B2H site plan. This de-
cision will be made sometime after leav-
ing La Grande.
Should the council vote to support the
site plan, Kreider said the Stop B2H Co-
alition may then appeal the decision to
the Oregon Supreme Court.
Ultimate approval of the site plan is
not a guarantee that B2H would become
a reality, since other steps would have to
be taken.
For example, the public utilities com-
missions of both Oregon and Idaho
would have to vote to authorize con-
struction of the B2H line, Berg said.
Berg said that Idaho Power’s goal is to
break ground for B2H in 2023 and have
lines for the project electrified by 2026.
House Republican leader stumps for
candidates, hits Democrats on crime
BY PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
Kevin McCarthy came to
Oregon to campaign for con-
gressional candidates whose
election he hopes will secure
Republicans a majority in the
U.S. House and make him its
next speaker.
The party’s current House
leader from California also
used his visit Wednesday not
only to promote Republicans
seeking the open 4th, 5th and
6th district seats, but to bash
Democrats and the city of
Portland. He accused Dem-
ocrats of seeking to defund
police — though he did not
specify any congressional ac-
tion on their part — and took
his cue from an Aug. 22 Wall
Street Journal story describ-
ing Portland’s difficulties in
dealing with a rising homi-
cide rate. (A Portland police
unit focused on preventing
gun violence was disbanded,
but has been reconstituted in
a different form.)
“What we found was that
Democratic policies brought
us to defund the police,” Mc-
Carthy said at a meeting at
the Grand Hotel at Bridge-
port, near Bridgeport Village
in Tualatin south of Port-
land. “We believe Republi-
cans have a better idea with a
commitment to America and
we’ll make our streets safe
again.
“My question to everyone
in Oregon: do you look for-
ward to going to downtown
Portland? The answer from
every data point is no.”
To a panel of invited may-
ors, other elected city officials
and some current and retired
police — none of them from
Portland — McCarthy said
one of those ideas is linking
Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images-TNS
U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, walks to
his office after being subpoenaed by the House Select Committee to
Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, in Washing-
ton, D.C., May 12, 2022.
federal grants for community
policing to criminal prose-
cutions and crime rates, al-
though he declined to say
who should set those stan-
dards or what they should be.
While conceding that “a lot
of this is really a local issue,”
McCarthy said, “You should
have a transparency factor,
especially when it comes to
prosecutors. You cannot have
law and order without order.”
He did not single out Mike
Schmidt, the Multnomah
County district attorney, but
did mention the June 7 recall
of San Francisco District At-
torney Chesa Boudin.
“We are supplying COPS
grants today,” McCarthy said.
“But DAs are not upholding
the law.”
Although not a special-
ist in criminal law, U.S. Rep.
Cliff Bentz of Ontario — the
lone Republican in Oregon’s
current congressional dele-
gation, and a lawyer — said,
“I call on them (prosecutors)
to do their job better.” Bentz’s
brother, Andy, is a former
Malheur County sheriff.
Democrats originated grants
What McCarthy didn’t say
was that the Office of Com-
munity Oriented Police Ser-
vices (COPS), a unit of the U.S.
Department of Justice that
awards COPS grants, was cre-
ated by anticrime legislation
that was passed by a Demo-
cratic Congress in 1994 and
signed by Democratic Pres-
ident Bill Clinton. One of its
chief architects was Joe Biden,
then a Democratic senator
from Delaware and chairman
of the Senate Judiciary Com-
mittee.
That legislation drew crit-
ics from both sides because it
banned military-style assault
weapons for a decade — a Re-
publican Congress let it lapse
in 2004 — and also imposed
life sentences under federal law
for some violent crimes. Some
said those sentences fell dis-
proportionately on people of
color, although the get-tough
movement was national in
scope. (Oregon voters passed
a ballot initiative, known as
Measure 11, not long after-
ward to impose mandatory
minimum prison sentences for
specified violent crimes.)
McCarthy said his compar-
ison was with the 1984 legis-
lation that required states to
raise the legal drinking age to
21 — though most states al-
ready were there — or stand to
lose federal highway funds.
He rejected a comparison to
the No Child Left Behind Act,
passed by bipartisan congres-
sional majorities and signed by
Republican President George
W. Bush in 2002, that linked
federal aid to schools with na-
tional educational standards to
be attained by 2014. But Con-
gress wrote another law, which
President Barack Obama
signed in 2015, to give more
flexibility to states after many
states agreed on an alternative
set of standards. It is known as
Every Student Succeeds.
“We have come as candi-
dates to listen to the mayors,”
McCarthy said.
Several of them told McCa-
rthy that because of Oregon’s
strict property tax limits —
and that police and fire ser-
vices consume the lion’s share
of many city budgets — they
would like to see more federal
aid.
Some officials, particu-
larly from Gresham and Ore-
gon City, said they used their
shares of money from the $2
trillion American Rescue Plan
Act — which President Biden
signed in March 2021 and
contained $350 billion in aid to
states, local and tribal govern-
ments — to shore up police.
No Republican in either
chamber voted for that legis-
lation. But McCarthy brushed
off a question afterward about
how small cities would con-
tinue to get what were in-
tended as one-time payments.
KLAMATH FALLS (AP)
cided to close the canal.
— The Klamath Irrigation
“(Our board’s) desire to
District in southern Oregon
do what’s right for our com-
has reversed course and now
munity put us in a really bad
says it has complied with a
spot,” Souza said. “There was
U.S. government
no good deci-
“(Our board’s)
order to stop de-
sion.”
livering water to
The Capital
desire to do what’s Press
farmers in the
reported
drought-stricken
that a spokes-
right for our
area.
person for the
community put us Bureau of Recla-
The district’s
directors initially
could not
in a really bad spot. mation
defied the fed-
immediately be
There was no good reached for com-
eral government’s
order to shut
ment.
decision.”
off water to the
Under the En-
Klamath Project,
dangered Species
— Gene Souza,
but the Klamath
Act, the agency
district’s manager,
Irrigation District
must uphold
has since closed
protections for
a canal after federal officials
several species of fish, includ-
threatened to withhold mil-
ing shortnose and Lost River
lions in drought assistance,
suckerfish in Upper Klamath
the Capital Press reported
Lake and coho salmon in the
Wednesday, Aug. 24.
lower Klamath River.
The U.S. Bureau of Recla-
The federal bureau initially
mation manages the Klamath
allocated 15% of full demand
Project, which includes the
for irrigators starting on April
Klamath Irrigation District
15. Officials said that if in-
and serves 266 square miles of flows to Upper Klamath Lake
farmland at the Oregon-Cal-
exceeded expectations, they
ifornia border. A limited al-
would set aside 50% of the ad-
location of water was allowed
ditional water for irrigators.
for irrigators from Upper
The Klamath Falls area ex-
Klamath Lake this year be-
perienced slightly above-aver-
cause of extreme drought.
age precipitation in May and
The bureau has said the
June.
project is now out of water
As of Aug. 1, the project’s
and ordered a shutdown last
water supply had increased
week, but irrigation district
while maintaining a mini-
directors met Monday and au- mum lake elevation for suck-
thorized the district’s manager, ers to access critical habitat.
Gene Souza, to continue op-
However, irrigation districts
erations, arguing that the U.S.
criticized the bureau for send-
agency had not provided a le-
ing mixed messages about
gal justification.
how much water may be avail-
That prompted a letter from able, making it difficult for
Alan Heck, acting area man-
farmers to plan.
ager for the bureau, warning
Brad Kirby, manager of the
that unless the irrigation dis-
Tulelake Irrigation District in
trict reversed course, it would
Tulelake, California, said ear-
disqualify all lands served by
lier this week that shutting off
the district from receiving $20 water now could spell disaster
million in emergency drought for some farmers and said irri-
funding.
gation districts are scrambling
Such an action would im-
to help save as many crops as
pact the Klamath Irrigation
possible.
District along with more than
He said irrigators are being
a half dozen other irrigation
forced to pump groundwater
and other districts.
from the district’s wells to keep
The Klamath irrigation Dis- crops alive through harvest.
trict board at an emergency
“We’re having to rethink
meeting Tuesday, Aug. 23 de-
our entire system,” Kirby said.
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin Photo/Greg Lehman. File
Smith Frozen Foods Inc. in Weston has agreed to pay a $100,000 fine
for the violations of the federal Clean Air Act in 2016.
EPA fines Smith Frozen
Foods $100K for violations
BY DAKOTA CASTETS-DIDIER
East Oregonian
WESTON — The Environ-
mental Protection Agency has
announced that Smith Fro-
zen Foods Inc. in Weston has
agreed to pay a $100,000 fine
for the violation of seven sep-
arate provisions of the Clean
Air Act in 2016.
“Our EPA enforcement of-
ficer did an inspection in 2016
and they were able to see some
of the violations on site,” said
Meshach Padilla, public affairs
specialist with the EPA.
The violations were in re-
gards to Smith Frozen Foods’
procedures on the storage and
use of anhydrous ammonia, a
refrigerant often employed for
use in closed systems.
“It is a dangerous chemical,
and an inhalation hazard,” said
Javier Morales, EPA Region 10
Risk Management Program
coordinator. “It is hygroscopic,
meaning it’s attracted to water.
When people inhale it, it’s very
harmful to the respiratory sys-
tem and to the eyes.”
EPA cited Smith Frozen
Foods on seven violations of
provisions within the Clean
Air Act for operators of gasses
such as anhydrous ammonia,
being safety information, haz-
ard analysis, operating proce-
dure, training, mechanical in-
tegrity, employee participation
and contractor requirements.
The penalty for these viola-
tions totaled $100,000.
“Facilities that use hazard-
ous materials like anhydrous
ammonia have an obligation
to follow regulations designed
to protect our communities
and environment from po-
tentially catastrophic con-
sequences of accidents,” Ed
Kowalski, director of EPA re-
gion enforcement and com-
pliance assurance Division,
said in an EPA press release
on Monday announcing the
penalties. “Failure to com-
ply with the law puts first re-
sponders and members of the
surrounding community in
harm’s way.”
The Clean Air Act is a fed-
eral air quality law, intended to
reduce pollution and increase
nationwide air quality, origi-
nally enacted in 1963, but fre-
quently revised. It provides the
EPA with regulatory authority
to monitor, inspect and penal-
ize operations with potentially
harmful gasses and pollutants.
“The EPA has their own
enforcement response policy
that we follow, we use them
to assess the penalties based
on the violations that were
found,” Morales explained, de-
tailing the procedure for how
the EPA tabulates and levels
penalties.
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