BEGS! S Y," ET2ELL
U OF OkE
ti E W S i" A P !- R L I 9
EUGEKE OR 97403
ECOAC to send protest
letter to Corps of
Engineers over lone
flood plain designations
JOL. 96, NO. 43
OMlCPlIlillg
7:30 p.m. .; s' "T j - ;J;-
lone 1 7 . : 1 1 ' :
High If i i Vj I
School ; f; IV x
Court V, 4 U ,
Teena Lindstrom Lori Edwards Arietta Aldrich
Margaret Doherty Janet McElligott
Heppner High School Court
Maureen Healy Barbara Devine Wendy Meyers
M V Janice Sherman ' mj Jackie Gentry if A
A Vf HEPPNER VS. WASCO f
Morrow
THURSDAY, OCT. 26,
1978
FRIDAY NIGHT
The East Central Oregon
Association of Counties has
authorized its executive di
rector to send a "strongly
worded" letter of protest to
the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers' Walla Walla office
to state objections to the
Corps' controversial updated
flood plain survey of lone.
The action came during a
regular meeting of the five
county agency last Thursday
in Heppner.
The Corps of Engineers
recently released Ione's new
flood plain map, which places
more than a half of the city in
either "floodway" or "flood
plain" areas, in which a new
construction would either be
prohibited or restricted.
Data has been compiled for
similar flood plain updates for
Lexington and Heppner, with
results expected to be releas
Hie Ileppnes?
County's
1978
Public is invited
Lounty W heat League to convene m ov. i ;
renowned wheat scientist Kronstad to speak
A banquet, cocktail hour,
and a taljt by an internation
ally known plant breeding
specialist will highlight the
. annual meeting of the Morrow,
County Wheat Growers Lea
gue next Wednesday, Nov. 1 at
the Heppner Elks Club. Jim
Swanson of lone, president of
the county organization, em
phasized that the non-wheat
growing public is invited to
take part in the program.
Dr. Warren Kronstad, head
of the plant breeding depart
ment at Oregon State
University, will speak on
agriculture's role in facing the
world population issue, tieing
in the part new food plant
$22 million to be
A second major natural gas
pipeline spanning the length of
Morrow County may be opera
tional by late 1983, if work
proceeds on schedule for the
San Francisco-based Pacific
Gas Transmission Corp.
The proposed new gas line
would carry natural gas from
Alaska's North Slope petro
leum fields to the Bay area
near San Francisco. The new
line would for the most part
parallel an existing line Paci
fic Gas Transmission
currently operates through
the area.
The new line would enter
Morrow County from the
Stanfield area, proceed south
to a point just west of lone,
pass through the Wolf Hollow
area on the way to Condon and
points south. The pipeline
would veer from the parellel
path with the existing line in '
making a crossing of the John
Day River.
Entering the U.S. at the
Idaho-Canada border, the line
would cross southeastern
Washington, enter Umatilla
County and proceed to Stan
field, before sweeping south to
the Bend area and into
California. Work on the link
from the Idaho frontier to
Stanfield is scheduled to begin
first.
The Stanfield to Idaho
"probuilding loop" is tentativ
ely scheduled to begin
ed at the end of this month.
Morrow County and ECOAC
officials anticipate that
surveys for the two other
Willow Creek towns may be as
restrictive to potential growth
as the lone survey.
While ECOAC officials are
upset over what the Corps
flood plain designations could
mean to Ione's future, they
also expressed anger over
what the flood plain updates
would do to comprehensive
planning efforts for the three
municipalities.
Comprehensive plan draft
technical reports were recent
ly completed for the three
towns, and accepted by the
county. But with the dramatic
changes listed by the Corps for
Ione's flood plain, with similar
results expected for Heppner
and Lexington, the compre
hensive planning process is
Award-Winning Weekly Newspaper
HEPPNER. OREGON
strains will play in meeting
the demands made by the
population upsurge.
Dr. Kronstad, who has done
...research ..w.ith , .Nobel Prize
winning agronomist Dr. Nor
man Hnrloug, is responsible
for developing several new
varieties of high-yielding
Northwest wheat, including
the Stephens, McDermid and
Hyslop strains. His research
has been performed in several
nations, including Mexico and
India.
The county Wheat League's
business meeting will start at
1:30 p.m. The meeting will
include the presentation of
proposals on a variety of
spent here
New gas line to span
carrying gas in late 1980. This
section of the pipeline would
. carry surplus Alberta-produced
natural gas to Northwest
markets from Stanfield until
the North Slope gas comes on
line, a Pacific Gas Transmis
sion spokesman said. The
majority of the North Slope
gas is earmarked for market
ing in California.
President Carter gave con
ditional approval to Pacific
Gas Tranmission's new pipe
line in 1974, when the Alaska
Pipeline Project was approv
ed. The San Francisco firm, a
subsidiary of Pacific Gas and
Electric, has received a condi
tional permit for construction
from the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission. The
Pacific Gas spokesman said
full permission for the pipeline
will be sought from the federal
agency soon, probably within
the next week.
Total cost for the Western
Leg of the project from the
Idaho-Canada border to Calif
orniais estimated at $385
million. The pipeline woujd
have a capacity of carrying
just under a billion cubic feet
of gas per day. The spokes
man said $22 million is
expected to be spent , for
construction in Morrow
, County alone. No new
compressor stations are ex
pected to be built within the
countv.
set back almost to square one.
ECOAC has been coordinating
the area's comprehensive
planning efforts.
"We've been waiting for this
information for the past two
years," said ECOAC Execu
tive Director Wayne
Schwandt. "They told us it
was a 'sure thing' that we'd
have it by last spring.. .We
might never have seen the
information if lone hadn't
pressed for it to plan for their
sewer system."
Schwandt noted that the
Corps has been receiving
information on the planning
efforts of the three cities, but
has failed to provide input on
flood planning. lone pressured
the Corps for an update on the
town's flood plain, after the
city's rating on an enviromen
tal Protection Agency funding
priority list slipped several
topics developed during a
statewide Wheat League
workshop. Reporting on
marketing proposals will be
, committee , chairman Gene,
Majeski and vice chairman
Herman Blettel; on product
ion and land use, Eric
Anderson and Kenny Turner;
on federal programs, Brock
Tucker and Bob Jepsen; on
taxation and legislation, Steve
Peck and Ed Martin; on
transportation. Chuck Nelson
and Paul Tews; on wheat use
and research, Jerry Myers
and Harold Rietmann; on
public affairs, Mark Miller
and Tom Martin; on member
ship, Keith Rea and Joe
Last year, Pacific Gas
Transmission's existing gas
line brought $66,000 in prop
erty tax reciepts to the county
treasury.
The Federal Bureau of Land
Management is currently
making a survey of property it
owns along the route of the
proposed new transcontinent
al line, to check for possible
wilderness characteristics.
The wilderness inventory is
an outgrowth of the 1976
Federal Land Policy Manage
ment Act, which requires the
Secretary of the Interior,
through the BLM, to deter
mine which BLM lands should
be recommended to Congress
for wilderness designation.
The BLM will start a survey of
all the . agency's lands in
Oregon next month, but the
pipeline route check will begin
earlier to complete a study of
the project's possible impacts.
State BLM Director Murl
Storms will then determine
whether BLM lands along the
route have sufficient wilder
ness characteristics to
warrant designation as wild
erness study areas. Storms
will announce his decisions on
the wilderness study of the
pipeline route in mid-November,
followed by a 60-day
public review, after which he
will make final decisions.
Nearly all the BLM land
involved along the route is
notches due to the unavailabi
lity of the Corps survey. lone
was on the priority list to
receive funding for a proposed
sewer system. With the new
Corps designation, the future
of the project becomes a
bigger question mark.
Last week, ECOAC staff
members attending a meeting
of the Morrow County Inter
governmental Council
announced that , they had
applied for a $9,691 grant from
the Land Conservation and
Development Commission to
re-do comprehensive planning
for the three communities set
back by the Corps of engineers
study.
The Morrow County Inter
governmental Council has
asked Corps of Engineers
officials to meet with them
during the agency's next
meeting early next month.
TWO SECTIONS
McElligott; on safety, Kenny
Nelson and Kenny Peck; on
Wheathearts, Lisa Nelson and
Birdine Tullis.
. Joe McElligott, current first
vice-president of the county
organization, will be elevated
to the president's office, and a
new first vice-president will
be elected during the banquet.
Secretary for the organization
is Harold Kerr.
-- County Wheat League offici
als point out that several of the
"proposals that have been
brought out during past busi
ness meetings have been
adopted as policy at the
national level of the Wheat
League organization.
length of
located in the Prineville
District, with isolated tracts in
the Lakeview and Baker
districts. In Morrow County,
nearly all the pipeline route
passes through privately own
ed land.
No right-of-way purchases
will be made in the county,
MCGG slates Nov. 6
for annual meeting
Richard Baum, executive
director of the Western Wheat
Associates, will be the featur
ed speaker during the annual
meeting of the Morrow County
Grain Growers on Nov. 6,
starting at 6:30 p.m. at the
fairgrounds in Heppner.
Baum, who was instrument
al in establishing the Oregon
Wheat Commission, has been
involved with developing
Asian wheat markets since the
mid-1950's. His Asian market
ing work has led to extensive
travels through such nations
as Indonesia, South Korea,
Japan, the Philippines and
India.
The business portion of the
meeting will include financial
reports and the election of new
directors to fill four three-year
terms (hat are expiring, plus
20 PAGES
A happy hour will follow the
business meeting, starting at
5:30 p.m., sponsored by the
Morrow County Grain Grow
ers. The banquet starts at 7
p.m. Cost will be $3 per
person.
"Everyone's welcome to
take part," stated Swanson.
"We want the people who
aren't involved with wheat
production to be aware of
some of the problems we're
facing..." In addition, he
noted, wheat production af
fects the economy of the entire
county, and thus has at least
an indirect bearing on every
one's pocketbook.
Morrow
since the right-of-way for the
existing pipeline is wide
enough to accomodate an
additional line, the company
spokesman said.
Pacific Gas Transmission is
the nation's largest importer
of natural gas.
five associate director posi
tions. Directors whose terms ex
pire this year are John
Ledbetter, Lyle Peck, Roy
Martin, and Gary Grieb.
Weather
By Don Gilliam
Wred., Oct. 18 ' 69 39
Thurs., Oct. 19 70 42
Fri., Oct. 20 ee 40
Sat., Oct. 21 59 30
Sun., Oct. 22 58 27
Mon., Oct. 23 68 35
Tues., Oct. 24 61 47