Capital Press
Your frozen fingertips may not appreciate it, but the extended cold snap gripping the Pacific Northwest through the first week of January may actually do some good.
Oregon pest specialists say it could reduce the population or at least delay the onslaught of spotted wing drosophila, or SWD, the fruit fly that can cause devastating damage to raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and other small fruit crops.
“We’re very optimistic that it will definitely impact SWD and kill off a fair amount,” said Tom Peerbolt, founder and senior consultant with Peerbolt Crop Management. “From that viewpoint it’s a very good event. We’re killing a bunch of them off and that’s good.”
Peerbolt said SWD almost exclusively over-winter as adult flies, making them susceptible to cold. While they can take refuge, an extended run of cold temperatures can knock down their numbers, he said. The flies can go through a dozen breeding cycles per year, and the cold may stall the population buildups that lead to heavy damage, Peerbolt said. Even gaining a week or 10 days would help mid-season harvests, he said.
Peerbolt said SWD love caneberries, and growers are planting fewer late-season varieties in an attempt to avoid some damage. SWD populations build over the summer, so the earlier farmers can harvest, the better.
Jim Labonte, an entomologist with the Oregon Department of Agriculture, said planting earlier berry varieties is a “really good strategy” in the fight against spotted wing drosophila. “I’m glad to hear that,” he said. “Toward the end of the year, the population gets to be tremendous. I think that would help.”
Otherwise, Labonte said he’s not sure the recent cold Oregon weather will have much effect on SWD or another major pest, the brown marmorated stink bug, which damage hazelnuts and feed on a wide variety of other crops.
Both of them live in regions of the U.S. that are far colder than the Willamette Valley, he said. “I’m uncertain of the threshold of severe cold that’s sufficient to really knock them down,” he said.
“Even if it does, both of these things can reproduce very efficiently,” he said. “They may have a slow start in spring, but by mid-season there will be plenty of them around.”
He said stink bugs produce far fewer generations of offspring per season than SWD, but are “remarkably tough creatures” and very good at sheltering themselves from the cold.
Spotted wing drosophila are native to Asia but arrived on the West Coast about 2008. They are unusual fruit flies in that they attack ripe or ripening berries and fruit; most flies are attracted to over-ripe or rotting produce. The female SWD has a serrated-edged ovipositor that it uses to cut through the berry surface and lay eggs inside. The developing larvae feed on the fruit from the inside, turning it into a gooey mess that cannot be used commercially.
Common pesticides work against them, but require additional sprayings and cost to growers. In addition, prolonged pesticide use may lead to the flies developing resistance to it, Peerbolt said.
HERMISTON, Ore. — Fourteen dead cattle were discovered Jan. 7 at a property on Columbia Lane and South Edwards Road in Hermiston, which the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office is investigating as a case of animal neglect.
Another 15 cattle were so malnourished they could not be moved safely, according to Sheriff Terry Rowan. One calf was so weak it could not stand and had to be euthanized, Rowan said. None of the sick animals appeared to have enough food or water.
Authorities are working with a special prosecutor from Benton County who specializes in animal neglect cases, and reports should be turned in to the Umatilla County district attorney early soon. Rowan said investigators will recommend pressing charges against the cattle owner, 55-year-old Michael Hockensmith of Hermiston.
For now, though the cattle have technically been seized, but Rowan said the animals will be left in place due to their numbers and fragile health. Officers will be checking daily to make sure they receive proper care.
“We do not believe they can be transported without further loss,” Rowan said. “From this point forward, we’re just ensuring continued care.”
The incident was first reported Jan. 5 by an anonymous caller who noticed seven dead cows that were clearly visible from across Columbia Lane. A search warrant was served Jan. 7, and Rowan said they found a total of 14 dead cattle — mostly yearling calves.
Fifteen more cows were badly malnourished, Rowan said, and separated from the rest of the herd where they were treated by veterinarians. During their investigation, officers found that a water trough for the sickest animals was frozen over with six inches of ice.
“They weren’t able to get to water for a couple of days,” Rowan said.
Some of the cattle were also very skinny, Rowan said, with their backbones and hip bones showing.
“These are Angus cattle that are typically well-rounded animals,” he said. “Our evaluation and evidence would point to neglect or inadequate feed.”
The bodies of the dead animals had been left outside for several days, Rowan said, though state law requires carcasses be buried or burned within 15 hours.
Hockensmith, who did not return calls for comment, was apparently the only one caring for the animals. Rowan said Hockensmith seemed willing to work with the sheriff’s office to care for the animals while they remain on his property.
“Hopefully, we can create a partnership there to where he is willing to provide adequate care,” Rowan said. “We will just continue to monitor it.”
Concerns about the increasing number of cases of herbicide-resistant weeds have prompted the industry to hold seven listening sessions across the country to look for answers.
The only Pacific Northwest meeting will be 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Jan. 24 at the Red Lion Conference Center in Pasco, Wash. The listening session is limited to the first 160 registrants.
“Specialists who are managing weeds are throwing their hands up,” said Ian Burke, associate weed science professor at Washington State University. “We’re really sort of out of options. We need industry, stakeholder and grower input to chart a path forward.”
Burke said he’s documented dozens of new types of herbicide resistant weeds in recent years, calling it a “widespread” problem in the Pacific Northwest.
“We don’t produce a Roundup Ready crop on a widespread basis, but we’re working on new cases of Roundup resistant weeds because we use a lot of Roundup,” he said.
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup.
For example, Russian thistle in fallow areas can sometimes harden under hot summer conditions and not absorb herbicide like they would under optimum conditions, for one example, said Jim Fitzgerald, executive director of the Far West Agribusiness Association in Spokane.
“They may get sick but they don’t die, but in that process, they develop some resistance,” he said.
“None of these herbicide companies profit when one of their products becomes obsolete due to resistance,” Burke said.
It’s important that the Pacific Northwest perspective be represented when discussion leads to new policy, Burke said.
“Ideally, we want to get to a place where everyone wins,” he said. “Where we can apply the latest science to manage herbicide resistance in a way growers can make the income they need over the short term, and make them more sustainable in the long term.”
It takes roughly 10 years to develop and gain approval for new chemistries, Fitzgerald said.
“Look what’s going to happen in the next 10 years as far as chemical resistance,” he said. “It’s tending to the need that’s right here in front of us in the next few years.”
Ignoring the problem could lead to more weeds developing resistance, Fitzgerald said.
“This is sort of an intervention before there’s any kinds of mandates or requirements,” he said.
Burke said researchers are considering ways to use herbicides considered obsolete in a new way, or add to herbicides farmers rely on to make them more effective or less vulnerable to resistance.
The last 40 years have been an important time for herbicide development, Burke said. He doesn’t expect the same number of new herbicides to be developed in the next 40 years. In fact, he expects fewer products to be introduced.
The meeting is sponsored by Far West, USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Weed Science Society of America and the United Soybean Board.
Online
To register, go to http://www.cvent.com/d/wvqdfj/4W Far West: http://www.fwaa.org/
Two million-dollar-plus disputes between agricultural interests have been decided.
In one, an Idaho packing company owes $1.3 million for potatoes that a farmer delivered to an intermediary but wasn’t paid for, a federal judge ruled.
The ruling by Chief U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill concludes about three years of litigation between farmer Kirk Jacobs, Taylor Produce and the Idaho Potato Packers Corp.
Previous court decisions held that Taylor Produce failed to pay Jacobs for more than $1.3 million worth of potatoes in violation of the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, or PACA, which requires proceeds from crops to be held in trust for growers.
While Taylor Produce packaged and shipped the potatoes, the sales were handled by the Idaho Potato Packers Corp., or IPPC.
Jacobs claimed that IPPC improperly deducted $1.3 million in expenses for marketing, freight, packaging materials and commissions from potato proceeds that were to be turned over to Taylor Produce.
The judge has now agreed that the proceeds from IPPC’s potato sales were PACA trust assets belonging to Jacobs that the packing company wrongly converted by deducting those expenses.
Winmill said that “IPPC has not established that the various expenses it seeks to recoup can be traced to Jacob’s potatoes” or that the deductions were even authorized under its marketing agreement with Taylor Produce.
For that reason, IPPC and its subsidiaries are liable to Jacobs for the $1.3 million in potato proceeds, the judge said.
In the other dispute, Winmill recently resolved a lingering financial dispute between the H.J. Heinz Co. and a former supplier, the Bright Harvest Sweet Potato Co.
Bright Harvest filed a complaint against Heinz three years ago, alleging the food company had reneged on a contract to buy sweet potato fries after building its own processing facility in Ontario, Ore.
A jury found that Heinz hadn’t breached the contract in 2015, but Winmill overturned that finding, ruling that the jury’s conclusion wasn’t supported by the evidence at trial.
After a second trial, a jury awarded Bright Harvest more than $1.2 million in damages, which was challenged by Heinz.
Winmill has now refused Heinz’s request to overturn or amend the judgment, or order a new trial.
An environmentalist group has won more than $60,000 in attorney fees for blocking juniper removal with motorized vehicles on 80,000 acres in Eastern Oregon.
U.S. District Judge Garr King has awarded the Oregon Natural Desert Association nearly $63,500 because the nonprofit prevailed in a lawsuit opposing the use of motorized vehicles in an 80,000-acre “wilderness study area” near Steens Mountain.
Ranchers and local officials worry the prohibition against motorized vehicles will impede juniper removal to the detriment of habitat for the sage grouse.
The bird’s declining population has prompted restoration efforts in the arid West to forestall its designation as a threatened species, which would likely curtail cattle grazing on public land.
In 2015, King found that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management had interpreted its authority too broadly in allowing for the “administrative” use of off-road motorized vehicles to cut and remove juniper trees, which crowd out sage brush and sap water.
Since then, ONDA has sought $70,000 in attorney fees from BLM under the Equal Access to Justice Act, which requires compensation for plaintiffs who successfully challenge government actions that aren’t “substantially justified.”
The BLM argued that ONDA doesn’t qualify for attorney fees in this case because the agency was substantially justified in trying to reconcile one legal provision that requires juniper management with another that restricts off-road motorized vehicles.
The judge said that while he’s “sympathetic” with the difficulty of removing juniper on a large scale without motorized vehicles, BLM’s attempt to reconcile the two provisions was “simply not reasonable.”
King also said the amount of time ONDA’s attorneys spent on the case was “eminently reasonable” and found their hourly rates were justified “considering their experience, skill, and reputation.”
However, the judge did reduce ONDA’s requested award by about $7,000 for a portion of litigation spent arguing over attorney fees.
Fifteen Oregon counties must soon decide whether to opt out of a class action lawsuit seeking $1.4 billion for allegedly insufficient logging in state forests.
As the Jan. 25 deadline approaches, a coalition of environmental and fishing groups is urging counties and the taxing entities within them — including school and fire districts — to exit the litigation.
The North Coast State Forest Coalition, which represents the seven organizations, hopes to send a message that counties and taxing districts see state forests as more than just “piggy banks,” said Chris Smith, the coalition’s coordinator.
Linn County is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit but its boundaries contain far fewer acres of state forestland than Tillamook, Clatsop and Washington counties, he said.
“If some of the bigger counties opt out, the merits of the case are then suspect,” said Smith.
John DiLorenzo, the attorney representing Linn County, said the groups within the coalition have nothing to lose with their request, but counties and tax districts will suffer remorse if they opt out.
“It’s a half-baked strategy,” DiLorenzo said.
The lawsuit simply aims to recoup revenues lost by the counties when the State of Oregon changed forest policies in 1998 to focus on the environment and recreation instead of maximizing logging, he said.
By making that decision, Oregon’s government breached its contract with counties, which turned over their forestlands in the early 20th Century in return for a portion of timber revenues, DiLorenzo said.
Counties and tax districts that exclude themselves from the lawsuit won’t impact forest policy because the case is purely about financial damages, he said.
“Opting out is a useless gesture that amounts to turning down money,” DiLorenzo said. “They will have a lot of explaining to do the next time they ask voters for more money.”
Entities that exit the litigation also won’t have any influence if Oregon does decide to enter settlement negotiations, he said. “You have to be at the table to have a judge listen to you.”
Smith, of the North Coast State Forest Coalition, countered that counties and other entities that opt out of the case will reduce the state’s possible liability and thus the pressure to settle.
“They haven’t won the case yet and I’m not at all sure they will,” he said.
Opting out also reinforces Oregon’s argument that state forests are valuable for multiple purposes, including water quality and recreation, Smith said.
While Tillamook County has decided not to exit the litigation, the coalition still hopes to sway other entities, he said. “We’re trying to make the case and our supporters are talking to their (county) commissioners.”
Linn County filed the lawsuit earlier this year on behalf of itself and 14 other counties that donated roughly 650,000 acres to the State of Oregon.
Since then, its complaint has survived the state government’s motion to dismiss and has been certified by Linn County Circuit Judge Daniel Murphy as a class action, which means other counties and tax districts are included in the litigation unless they object.
The lawsuit claims Oregon breached its contract with counties in 1998 when it emphasized environmental and recreational goals as the “greatest permanent values” of state forests, rather than maximizing revenues.
Up to 150 local taxing districts that receive timber sales receipts from harvests from the Oregon Forest Trust Lands contract could be eligible join the suit. That includes schools, libraries, public safety agencies and other districts.
The other counties that benefit from the trust are Benton, Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Coos, Douglas, Josephine, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln, Marion, Polk, Tillamook, and Washington.
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A massive storm system stretching from Northern California to Nevada sent rivers overflowing and toppled trees — prompting evacuations, school cancellations, road closures and warnings of dangerous mudslides for hillsides parched by wildfires last summer.
Some California ski areas closed for the second day Monday in the Sierra Nevada over avalanche concerns and power outages, with forecasters warning that more snow and rain was on the way.
In Nevada near Reno, Nevada National Guard high-water vehicles were deployed to help people evacuate from a town.
Over the weekend, toppled trees crashed against cars and homes and blocked roads in the San Francisco Bay Area, and officials rescued stranded motorists from cars stuck on flooded roads.
A giant tree fell across a highway in Hillsborough to the south of San Francisco, injuring a driver who couldn’t break in time and drove into the tree. And a woman was killed Saturday by a falling tree while she took a walk on a golf course.
In California’s famed wine country, the Napa River jumped its banks and flooded vineyards. Rivers in Sonoma Valley north of San Francisco and in Reno, Nevada, both overflowed their banks late Sunday with officials saying the waterways could remain at flood stage for days.
Schools were canceled in Sonoma County, where homes were evacuated, thousands were without power and many roads were impassable. To the south near Los Angeles, commuters were warned of possible highway flooding and mudslides in hilly areas.
Emergency workers in Nevada voluntarily evacuated residents of 400 homes with about 1,300 residents in a Reno neighborhood as the Truckee River overflowed and drainage ditches backed up.
In the city of Sparks neighboring Reno, Bob Elsen said he never expected so much rain in Nevada’s high desert where only 8 inches of precipitation normally falls each year. He had moved to Sparks from perpetually wet Bremerton, Washington.
“I don’t think I’ve seen this much rain since I moved here six years ago,” Elsen said, watching the Truckee River’s waters rise. “It’s why I moved out of Washington to get away from this stuff.”
The worst flooding in Sparks was expected to send several feet of water early Monday into an industrial area where 25,000 people work.
The back to back storms that have hit California and Nevada since last week are part of a so-called “atmospheric river” weather system that draws precipitation from the Pacific Ocean as far west as Hawaii with potentially catastrophic consequences for areas hit with the most rain.
“For forecasters who’ve been here a decade or more, this is one of the most impressive atmospheric setups that we have seen in a long time for potential flooding in the region,” said Chris Smallcomb, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Reno. “If you had to write a textbook on how to get a flood in the region, you would use a scenario just like this.”
Schools were also canceled in Reno and Sparks and Gov. Brian Sandoval told all non-essential state government workers to stay home Monday after he declared a state of emergency.
In California’s Calaveras Big Trees State park, a well-known giant sequoia tree known for the huge tunnel carved through its trunk that cars once passed through came toppling down, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Park volunteer Joan Allday said the tree had been weakening and leaning severely to one side for several years.
“It was barely alive, there was one branch alive at the top,” she told the newspaper.
Farther north, two major highways across the Sierra Nevada were partially closed because of mudslides and roads leading to Yosemite National Park’s valley floor remained were closed amid fears that the Merced River could overflow and cause major flooding.
BOISE (AP) — Residents in Idaho and Oregon braced for treacherous roads and the possibility of nuisance flooding Sunday as freezing rain coated parts of the region.
After record snowfall earlier this week prompted government leaders to declare a state of emergency for the Boise, Idaho, area, many stores were out of bottled water, snow shovels and sandbags.
Fearing the rain could cause roughly 15 inches of accumulated snowfall to quickly melt, some law enforcement agencies in southwestern Idaho urged residents to dig out pathways away from their home and uncover any nearby storm drains if possible. The pathways are intended to create a drainage system, in hopes of mitigating any nuisance flooding.
Elizabeth Duncan with the Idaho Office of Emergency Management said they are monitoring conditions statewide, with the potential for flooding from ice jams on the Snake, Salmon, Lemhi and Big Wood rivers and tributaries.
Meanwhile, businesses and homeowners were working Saturday and Sunday to get snow off of rooftops, porches and decks, fearing that the additional weight from the rain could cause structures to collapse.
Oregon travelers were also facing big problems, with most flights canceled at the Portland and Eugene airports and the Oregon Department of Transportation advising motorists to stay home if possible because of icy conditions. Chains are required on several roads, and some eastern and central Oregon highways completely closed to drivers.
In Portland, authorities said a woman died in a downtown parking garage, and her death may have been caused by exposure to the cold weather.
Sgt. Pete Simpson told local TV station KGW police were told that a 52-year-old woman appeared to be struggling in the cold and was removing her clothing in the garage on Saturday afternoon. When officers and medics arrived, she was dead.
Simpson said a medical examiner will determine the cause of death.
In Klamath Falls, a 40-year-old woman sustained serious injuries on Saturday after she was struck by a pickup while sledding down a neighborhood road.
Klamath Falls Police Chief Dave Henslee told the Herald and News newspaper that the victim “sustained some very significant injuries” and was transported to Sky Lakes Medical Center. Henslee said an investigation determined the driver didn’t have time to see the victim before the collision and wasn’t at fault.
The weather was less extreme across most of Washington state, though roads were closed in Benton and Yakima counties in central Washington on Sunday because of blowing snow and drifts.
The National Weather Service was also warning residents in the Cascades and Cascade foothills of winds reaching 40 mph and gusts of up to 60 mph on Sunday afternoon.
Meanwhile, widespread power outages affected thousands of Seattle residents and the University of Washington campus on Sunday afternoon, though it wasn’t immediately clear if weather or something else was the cause.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Federal agriculture officials could decide this week to give up its oversight of a spreading grass that was engineered to resist an herbicide.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports Scotts Miracle-Gro is no longer planning to commercialize the grass and wants federal agriculture officials to deregulated it.
Scotts partnered with Monsanto to engineer the grass. Scotts was fined $500,000 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for letting it spread.
Federal officials also made the company responsible for controlling the grass.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found the grass puts endangered plant and animal species at risk.
Research by Oregon State University and the Environmental Protection Agency determined the herbicide resistance could pass on to other grasses.
The presence of genetic modifications can also block some international sales.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Rivers were rising and winds were whipping up across Northern California on Sunday as a massive storm that could be the biggest to slam the region in more than a decade arrived.
Residents and authorities cleared storm drains and stacked sand bags, preparing for the system expected to reach full force late Sunday and early Monday.
Some flooding was reported Sunday morning, including along U.S. 101 in Sonoma County, where stranded motorists had to be rescued. Swift water teams performed rescues at a mobile home park in Marin County, where officials reported road closures and some damage from flooding and fallen trees.
Authorities were watching rising water levels of several rivers, including the Cosumnes, Truckee, Merced, American and Russian.
Forecasters warned of heavy rain that could down trees and trigger mudslides as the system gains strength throughout the day. Several feet of snow were predicted in the Sierra Nevada. A woman was killed Saturday by a falling tree on the San Francisco Bay Area golf course.
The stormy weather comes as California enters its sixth year of drought. Each drop of rain is welcomed, but officials said several more big storms are needed to replenish depleted groundwater supplies.
The strong wet season began in October with more rain falling than in three decades, mostly in Northern California. Los Angeles, which will likely get the brunt of the latest system early Monday, is experiencing its wettest winter in six years, forecasters said.
Forecasters anticipate the storm surge stretching from Hawaii — called an atmospheric river — could dump up to 15 inches of rain in some foothills communities.
The storm’s relatively mild temperatures will drive up the snowline to above 9,000 feet throughout the Sierra Nevada, causing runoff in the lower elevations, said Zach Tolby, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Reno, Nevada.
Flooding could rival the winter of 2005-06 that sent 5 feet of water into an industrial area in Sparks, Nevada. Crews worked to secure storage drums filled with hazardous materials to stop them from floating away as they have in past floods.
In the Pacific Northwest, residents braced for treacherous roads and the possibility of nuisance flooding. Most flights were canceled at the airports in Portland and Eugene, Oregon. Officials urged residents in Boise, Idaho to dig pathways to allow rain and runoff from 15 inches of snowmelt to drain.
Back in California Rangers at Yosemite National Park closed all roads leading to the park’s valley floor, a major attraction for visitors from around the world eager to view gushing waterfalls and gaze up at towering granite rock formations such as El Capitan and Half Dome. Other parts of the park remain open, but rangers cautioned visitors to be aware of ice and falling debris on the roads.
Photographer and rock climber Josh Hilling, who lives in the foothills below the park, spent recent days chopping wood and stocking up on groceries.
“If you live long enough in this canyon, you experience lots of natural disasters — floods, fires, rock falls,” Hilling said Friday from his family’s home in El Portal.
Another storm is forecast for Tuesday and with the ground already saturated, rain won’t seep into the soil quickly enough and extra runoff could end up in already swollen rivers and creeks, officials said.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Federal prosecutors want a judge to order a California man to remove all information from his website about confidential informants involved in the takeover of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon last winter.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that authorities say the information posted by 70-year-old Gary Hunt was turned over to defense attorneys in the case pursuant to a protective order that barred it from being shared with outside parties. Hunt has been involved in Operation Mutual Defense, a network of militias and supporters founded by Ryan Payne, one of the refuge occupation’s organizers.
Occupation leader Ammon Bundy and six others were acquitted of conspiracy and other charges after a five-week trial that ended Oct. 27; a trial for seven other defendants looms. Hunt argues that the court’s protective order doesn’t apply to him.
EUGENE, Ore. — Oregon State University Extension has added a commercial and community horticulture faculty member in Lane County.
Jeff Choate will work with commercial producers in orchard, nut and berry crops, according to an OSU Extension press release. He’ll also serve nursery crop producers and serve broadly in diagnosis of plant diseases and other growth issues.
He starts March 1.
Choate will also lead a team of staff and volunteers in management of Lane County’s master gardener program, and he’ll help organize and deliver a wide range of horticulture and gardening programs for the public.
He has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Oregon and a master’s degree in soils from OSU. Choate previously worked as an agronomist for the Eugene Farmer’s Cooperative, and as an instructor and volunteer manager for OSU in Douglas County, as the horticulturalist for Paradise Lodge in Southern Oregon, and as the training manager for Jerry’s Home Improvement.
He will be stationed in the Lane County OSU Extension Office, 996 Jefferson St., Eugene. He’ll join a team that provides programs in 4-H, small farms, forestry and natural resources, nutrition education and food safety and preservation.
OSU Extension is a cooperative effort of local, state and federal governments, working locally to extend the knowledge of the university to people throughout Oregon.
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BOISE — Idaho irrigators fear they’ll be hurt financially if the State of Oregon prevails in a legal battle to force the reintroduction of endangered fish to the Snake River upstream of the Hells Canyon Complex of dams.
“If you have a listed species above Hells Canyon in the Snake River and tributaries, you’re going to have an alphabet soup of environmental laws imposed,” said Norm Semanko, executive director with Idaho Water Users Association.
Construction of the Complex — which is located at the Idaho and Oregon border and includes the Brownlee, Oxbow and Hells Canyon dams — was started in the mid-1950s. The dams provide about 30 percent of Idaho Power Co.’s total energy, but they’ve blocked the migration of native chinook salmon and steelhead trout, which once used the upstream channel and tributaries for spawning.
The original federal license to operate the Complex expired in 2005, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a final environmental impact statement for the relicensing in 2007. But the new license has been delayed as Idaho Power awaits Clean Water Act certifications from the states of Idaho and Oregon.
Both states have issued draft certifications, which are in the midst of public comment periods that end Feb. 13. Oregon’s draft would require Idaho Power to implement technology to enable salmon and steelhead to pass above and below the complex.
Marilyn Fonseca, hydropower program coordinator with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, explained her state has proposed a phased-in reintroduction plan spanning about two decades. Initially fish would be introduced in Oregon’s Snake River tributaries upstream of the complex, starting with Pine Creek. Ultimately, Idaho Power officials said the company would capture fish in special collection areas, trucking adult steelhead and salmon upstream of the complex and juvenile fish downstream.
Fonseca said Oregon has a state law mandating fish passage past any manmade water obstruction, but the state’s legal argument hinges its own water quality standards, drafted in accordance with the federal Clean Water Act, requiring that Oregon waterways maintain robust fish populations.
In a letter to Oregon leaders, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter opposed reintroduction of endangered species in his state without the Legislature’s consent, citing problems with federally reintroduced wolves.
“While I appreciate Oregon’s willingness to limit these reintroductions to Oregon tributaries, the agreement would result in reintroduced fish entering Idaho waters,” Otter wrote.
Idaho Power spokesman Brad Bowlin said the company has filed a petition asking FERC to step in and resolve the dispute between the states. Bowlin said the company believes the federal government has authority under the Federal Power Act and the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
“Idaho Power’s position is not to support or oppose fish passage,” Bowlin said. “Our position is that resolving this issue of passage is a federal question, especially given that we have two states whose positions are diametrically opposed.”
Bowlin said Idaho Power owns and finances four hatcheries and releases millions of fish below the dams.
Both the IWUA and Idaho Irrigation Pumpers Association have filed to intervene in the case before FERC. Lynn Tominaga, executive director for the pumpers, said his members are primarily concerned about increased power rates to run their wells if Idaho Power has to bear such a large new expense. Semanko explained his members are concerned the agreement could create water shortages, as more water could be demanded downstream for salmon, and cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in new regulatory requirements.
FERC staff members have agreed reintroduction “could be warranted but is premature at this time.” They note degradation due to agricultural and municipal uses have made water quality upstream of the complex inadequate for steelhead and salmon. FERC has also referenced the lack of a written plan to guide reintroduction and fears mortality during migration could outweigh the benefits.
Fonseca said her department and its Idaho counterpart are working with partners, including Idaho Power, to address water-quality concerns including dissolved oxygen levels, high water temperature and excessive phosphorus loads.
