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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2022)
Serving Central Oregon since 1903 • $1.50 Monday • March 21, 2022 COLUMBIA BASIN Unique water storage plan will benefit farms, fish By GEoRGE PLaVEn Capital Press Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin photos Students dance and sing at the First Interstate Bank Center before the opening session of the oregon FFa State Convention at the deschutes County Fair & Expo Center on Thursday. BARNSTORMING THE FAIRGROUNDS FFA participants flock to Redmond for state convention after 2 years of being online T he Oregon FFA state convention was an online-only affair the past two years — a casualty of COVID-19 restrictions. So the 2022 version at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center this weekend was the first time in three years that FFA participants from across Oregon and the region have been together under one roof. The 94th annual convention, under the theme “All In,” kicked off Thursday with speeches, cheers, skits and even some singing and dancing. Redmond’s Kylie Baldwin was honored as part of the 2021-22 Oregon FFA state officer team. Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson, R-Prineville, spoke to the gathering on Thursday. The fifth-generation rancher and Oregon House Republican leader said she can trace her success at the Oregon Legislature back to her high school FFA career, where she learned about public speaking and parliamentary procedure. “I encourage you to soak up some of what is be- fore you in the next couple of days,” said Breese-Iver- son. “It’s a sneak preview of how you can be engaged in whatever careers you find yourselves in down the road.” The convention ran through Sunday. Events ranged from workshops on farm budgeting to extemporane- ous speaking contests. — Redmond Spokesman DUFUR — Under- ground water storage along Fifteenmile Creek in Or- egon’s Dufur Valley could provide some much-needed relief for farms and imper- iled fish, replenishing dan- gerously low streamflows during the region’s hot and dry summer months. The Wasco County Soil and Water Conservation District is evaluating a pro- posal that would divert sur- face water from the creek when flows are naturally higher in winter and spring. Water would be injected into a deep basalt well and later returned in-stream when needed. Tech giant Google, which operates a massive data cen- ter in nearby The Dalles, recently donated $100,000 to help build a small pilot project 6 miles upstream from Dufur. Fifteenmile Creek is a 54-mile-long tributary of the Columbia River, flow- ing from the Cascade Range near Mount Hood to just below The Dalles Dam. It includes habitat for sev- eral fish species, including Mid-Columbia steelhead, which are listed as threat- ened under the Endangered Species Act. Nearly three-quarters of the 373-square-mile water- shed is also used for agri- culture, primarily dryland wheat, irrigated hay fields and tree fruit orchards. Shilah Olson, Wasco SWCD manager, said that despite irrigators being within their water rights, surface flows in Fifteen- mile Creek are overallo- cated during the summer, limiting allocations while also posing a threat to steelhead. “The main thing is limit- ing their liability under the ESA,” Olson said, adding that violations of the law can quickly add up to hefty fines. Since 2013, some irriga- tors have voluntarily agreed to reduce their surface wa- ter pumping from Fifteen- mile Creek when stream- flows drop critically low for fish. Salmonids, in partic- ular, are vulnerable when the water temperature rises above 68 degrees. One significant example saw thousands of juvenile steelhead perish in warm, shallow water in 2009. That led to the creation of the Fifteenmile Action Plan to Stabilize Temperature, or FAST. See Water / A4 LEFT: Students run through the doors to enter the First Interstate Bank Center for the opening session of the oregon FFa State Convention at the deschutes fairgrounds. RIGHT: Students dance and sing on the floor Thursday. TODAY’S WEATHER Rain High 54, Low 41 Page a4 Feds allege huge fentanyl trafficking ring run out of Oregon salon One woman is accused of smuggling more than a pound of counterfeit oxy- codone pills made with fentanyl and 2 kilograms of heroin in the luggage she carried on a passenger bus from Cali- fornia to Portland in early December. Another person met up with a man outside a McDonald’s restaurant in Hillsboro at the end of December, al- legedly handing over a stash of coun- terfeit oxycodone pills to sell. In early January, a man known on the street as “Mugsy” went to a motel room in Wilsonville to pick up two bags full of counterfeit oxycodone pills from a couple and drop off cash from his ear- lier drug sales, according to court re- cords. The drug transfers, federal prosecu- tors allege, were all directed by a for- mer Portland man leading a large-scale drug-trafficking organization that dis- tributed more than 100,000 counterfeit prescription pills with fentanyl across Oregon and Washington for at least three years. The organization is accused of laun- dering millions of dollars of drug pro- ceeds through the small Mazatlán Beauty Salon in Tualatin, even after the business had been officially dissolved. It also concealed the drug profits through the outright purchases of nine residential properties valued at more than $4.6 million in Portland, Beaver- ton, Vancouver, North Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada, over eight months, prosecutors say. The alleged leader of the organiza- tion, Luis Antonio Beltran Arredondo, 32, who had recently moved to Las Ve- gas, and 10 others have been indicted, accused of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and heroin. Beltran Arredondo and his girlfriend, Jacqueline Paola Rodriguez Barrientos, 41, also are accused of laundering mil- lions in drug proceeds, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland announced Friday. See Trafficking / A4 Comics Dear Abby History Horoscope A7-8 A3 A3 A3 Kid Scoop A9 Local/State A2-3 Puzzles A8 Sports A5-6 The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper Monday E-Edition, 10 pages, 1 section We use recycled newsprint DAILY By MaXInE BERnSTEIn The Oregonian INDEX U|xaIICGHy02329lz[
