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
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