A4
Opinion
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
EPA water rule
reaches into
the heartland
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n what seems sort of
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routine, the Environmental
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headlines, locally and across
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an EPA emergency response
team as it investigates nasty
fumes rising from the ground
into homes and buildings in the
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and contractors are trying
to locate the source of an
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collecting air and water
samples, analyzing data, and
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collaborating with state and
local agencies in a mission that
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administration pushed ahead
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in essence by claiming federal
jurisdiction over every pond,
mud puddle and ditch in the
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States rule was drafted by
the EPA and Army Corps of
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powers through the Clean
Water Act, which originally
limited federal regulation to
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As the Wall Street Journal
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“Now it is extending federal
control over just about any
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or muddy farm that EPA says
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further concern that the EPA
seems to be creating a new
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the collected experience of
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contended: “A pothole on
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affect downstream waters, but
the EPA could still regulate
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determine that prairie potholes
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Environmental groups
have lauded the rule as a step
to protect clean water and
vulnerable sources such as
vernal pools, but the expansion
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American Farm Bureau and
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overreach could drastically
increase uncertainty and
threaten jobs and livelihoods in
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Walden, R-Hood River, said in
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Walden contends the rule
change came despite adverse
court rulings and repeated
Congressional rejection of
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He urged Senate passage of a
measure, already approved in
the House, that would require
the EPA to withdraw the
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Congress, if not the courts,
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whether this rule treads too
harshly on private rights, but
getting to that point promises
only to exacerbate the urban-
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Anthrax oops should
set off alarm bells
EO Media Group
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plot of a end-of-the-world movie —
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accidentally shipped a deadly disease
from a Utah laboratory to nine other
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In such a movie or a Stephen
King novel, the pathogen would have
jumped the fence and started rampag-
ing through the innocent civilian pop-
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the nation by the Army is highly dan-
gerous, but not contagious in a tradi-
tional sense, so this particular blunder
between March 2014 and this April
was never capable of igniting a wide-
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Bills come and go in the Oregon have a hard time imagining themselves
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ing it can change considerably or never school they have two options: earn
minimum wage somewhere or, if their
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But one bill stands out as an interest- SDUHQWVDUHQ¶WULFKRUWKH\¶UHQRWDQH[-
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waive tuition at all Oregon community WKHZURQJFKRLFHWDNLQJWKHVKRUWWHUP
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creasing lifetime earnings as you move EHWWHU
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Grant County
Elsewhere in Oregon
Continental U.S., Outside Oregon
Outside Continental U.S.
It also would be expensive for the
state, costing somewhere between
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ing on the number of students who
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losophy is to invest available dollars
early into the education system –
from preschool to third grade – in an
attempt to get everyone on the same
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education to become the norm for the
majority of Oregon high school stu-
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daughters will be able to compete in
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– Republished from the East
Oregonian, an EO Media Group
newspaper.
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high-containment laboratories comply
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adequate oversight raise the prospect
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paper.
Free college: Nice idea with a cost
Blue Mountain
Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper
and its international allies and foes
are also stewards of numerous germs
that would be able to spread from per-
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newspaper provides frightening con-
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experts:
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the same chain of errors as the CDC
shipments of live anthrax bacteria in
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1,500 US laboratories authorized
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• “Oversight is critical in im-
proving biosafety and ensuring that
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Blue Mountain Eagle
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Copyright © 2015 Blue Mountain Eagle
All rights reserved. No part of this publication covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced
or copied in any form or by any means — graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
taping or information storage and retrieval systems — without written permission of the publisher.
To the Editor:
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our nation, and it is so important
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supervisors and eight years to com-
plete – but one thing is for certain,
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agement plan, and they surely do
not want you having a true voice in
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Currently the Wallowa-Whit-
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Subpart A of the plan, this part is
where the Forest Service decides
how many and what roads are
needed (or more importantly not
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would hold meetings with the resi-
dents of the region to find out their
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have a request in from September
2014 for the draft document outlin-
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As of today, I still have no docu-
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doing, and so the Forest Service
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they file the report with their re-
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in the maps session and that should
count for meeting their needs, but
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Currently in Eastern Oregon ex-
ists a draft document of the Subpart
A report, and the roads it intends to
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of 2015 the Wallow-Whitman will
release that plan to the regional of-
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them to do it without standing up
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If you have time, please send an
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questing the draft Subpart A report
and tell him travel management
planning cannot move forward un-
til all uses are protected in the Sub-
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John D. George
Bates
Drama in politics
To the Editor:
Noted Cartoonist Dixon Diaz
quoted President Obama as say-
ing the United States Constitu-
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Appears the Forest Service and
several political figures in our
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ignore the oath and Constitution
with as great fervor as the occu-
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me if I view, with jaundiced eye,
the apparent changing of sides
by some who have heretofore sat
in the Forest Service and envi-
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local hypocrite who dramatically
claimed that God had a hand in
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effort to subdue the citizens and
run roughshod over our pub-
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the pound, he would be rich as
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Judy Kerr
Canyon City
etters policy: Letters to the Editor is a forum for Blue Mountain Eagle readers to express themselves on local, state, national or world issues. Brevity
is good, but longer letters will be asked to be contained to 350 words. No personal attacks; challenge the opinion, not the person. No thank-you letters.
Submissions to this page become property of the Eagle. The Eagle reserves the right to edit letters for length and for content. Letters must be original and
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