WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2022
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‘A big,
old
teddy
bear’
Community mourns the
passing of ‘Buzz’ Brazeau,
former high school
principal, NFL player
By ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Herald
When the word went out
about the death of a for-
mer Hermiston High School
administrator, many people
expressed their sorrow.
Philip “Buzz” Brazeau
Jr. died Jan. 12 at the age of
72. Locals are talking about
the man they
describe as
both a “giant
personal-
ity” and an
“intellec-
tual.”
“Buzz
was more
Brazeau
than just a
great administrator,” Tricia
Mooney, Hermiston School
District superintendent, said.
“He was a great human.
The Hermiston School Dis-
trict and our community are
fortunate that we had the
opportunity to have Buzz
on our team. His legacy is in
the lives he touched and the
people he impacted. We are
all better because of him.”
According to the Hermis-
ton School District, Brazeau
was employed as a Herm-
iston High School assis-
tant principal 2004-07 and
principal 2007-12, and he
was the 2011-12 Hermiston
School District Administra-
tor of the Year.
Outside of Hermiston,
he was known as a football
player for Washington State
University, the Los Angeles
Rams, the Green Bay Pack-
ers and the Portland Storm.
After his football days, he
worked as a teacher, a coach
and a school administrator at
diff erent school districts.
His obituary praises him
as a family man, a loving
husband to wife Kathy, and
a beloved father, uncle and
grandfather.
Umatilla County Com-
missioner Dan Dorran is
among those who said they
grieve over Brazeau’s death.
Dorran was at Brazeau’s
See Brazeau, Page A8
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Hermiston High School senior Marcos Preciado, left, age 17, practices drawing blood from instructor Janci Sivey during an internship class Friday,
Jan. 28, 2022, at the high school. Preciado and three other members of the class recently passed the national phlebotomy certifi cation exam.
Drawing blood
Hermiston High students pass phlebotomy exam, plan futures in health care
By ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Herald
M
arcos Preciado said he was feeling
a little nervous on Friday, Jan. 28, as
he was drawing blood from one of his
teachers, Janci Sivey.
This was not the fi rst time he had done
this, though. He and other students are taking
a class from Sivey, and they draw her blood
at least once a week, Sivey said, for practice.
Preciado, along with Grace Vertrees, Lilly
Chase and Karsen Graham on Jan. 21 took the
National Health Career Association exam for
accreditation as certifi ed phlebotomy techni-
cians. All four students in Sivey’s internship
class passed the test.
Graham, 18, is a senior who said she wants
to work for either the American Red Cross or
a phlebotomy lab. She said she sees this as a
career path because she likes to help people.
She said she can be a helper by becoming a
phlebotomist.
In the internship class, she and her class-
mates visit workplaces. They also perform
classwork and prepare for phlebotomy and
medical assistance exams. It was in this class,
Graham said, that she discovered phlebotomy.
On June 4, she will take a test to be a med-
ical assistant. Though excited about the exam,
she said she already is looking beyond it. Her
plans include going into the medical fi eld
after graduation, she said.
Sivey said she is proud of her students,
despite the occasional bruises she gets from
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Hermiston High School seniors Karsen Graham, left, Marcos Preciado, Lilly Chase and Grace
Vertrees (not pictured) on Jan. 21, 2022, took the national certifi cation exam to practice
phlebotomy as a portion of their in school curriculum at the high school. Each student passed.
them and their needle practice. This group of
four phlebotomists comprised the fi rst four
students to take and pass the exam in her
class. She has other students who are plan-
ning to take the phlebotomy test in the spring.
Sivey said these students will be qualifi ed
to obtain phlebotomy jobs — but only after
graduating from high school. For now, they
will gain additional practice in class and
through internships at Interpath Laboratory
See Exam, Page A8
Group seeks to invalidate green energy credits for dairy digester
By GEORGE PLAVEN
EO Media Group
An environmental group
is asking California regula-
tors to nullify green energy
credits for biogas produced
from dairy manure at Ore-
gon’s Threemile Canyon
Farms.
Food & Water Watch
fi led a complaint to the Cal-
ifornia Air Resources Board
on Jan. 19, arguing that
Threemile Canyon was gen-
erating lucrative credits pos-
sibly worth millions of dol-
lars under the state’s Low
Carbon Fuel Standard while
at the same time commit-
ting air quality violations in
INSIDE
Oregon.
Threemile Canyon is
Oregon’s largest dairy with
nearly 70,000 cattle —
including 33,000 milking
cows — along the Colum-
bia River near Boardman. It
is run by R.D. Off utt Co., a
farming corporation head-
quartered in Fargo, N.D.
The farm built an anaer-
obic digester in 2012 to
capture methane emissions
from manure, which was ini-
tially used to generate elec-
tricity that was sold to the
interstate utility Pacifi Corp.
In 2019, Threemile Can-
yon installed $30 million
of new equipment at the
digester plant to convert
methane into “pipeline qual-
ity” natural gas, tapping into
California’s Low Carbon
Fuel Standard, or LCFS.
Iogen Corp., a Cana-
dian fi rm, markets the gas
as a cleaner-burning fuel
for trucks and buses on Los
Angeles freeways.
Created in 2011 by the
California Air Resources
Board, the LCFS is a mar-
ket-based incentive pro-
gram specifi cally for the
state’s transportation sec-
tor. Companies that produce
lower-carbon fuels gener-
ate credits that can be sold
to off set emissions from
more carbon-intensive fos-
sil fuels.
A2 ‘Hermiston History’ looks into
the past
The LCFS is one of sev-
eral measures under a 2006
California climate package
that aims to reduce green-
house gas emissions 20%
by 2030 and 80% by 2050.
The
board
certi-
fi ed Threemile Canyon’s
bio-methane production on
Sept. 9, 2020, making it eli-
gible to bank and sell LCFS
credits.
However, Food & Water
Watch — part of an envi-
ronmental coalition called
Stand Up to Factory Farms
— is calling for a revocation
of Threemile Canyon’s cred-
its after the farm was fi ned
by the Oregon Department
of Environmental Quality
A3 Echo School District denies
lawsuit’s discrimination allegations
Threemile Canyon Farms/Submitted Photo
The diversifi ed farm has 93,000 acres of cropland and open
space.
for violating conditions of
its air quality permit.
According to DEQ,
Threemile Canyon used
A4 ‘Inside My Shoes’ column
addresses pronouns and respect
excess natural gas at the
digester to dry leftover solid
See Digester, Page A8
A6 McNary Heights teacher
nominated for national award