Month: January 2017

What does the Ecology CAFO permit mean for you?

/ Scott

The Washington State Department of Ecology recently released the final version of the CAFO permits.

The main question we are getting from producers is this: “Am I required to get one of these permits?”

A CAFO is defined as having 200 or more mature dairy cows (milking or not). A Small CAFO is an operation that has fewer than 200 mature dairy cows and has been designated a significant contributor of pollutants to surface or groundwater by Ecology.

  • If you are a CAFO or Small CAFO and have a surface water discharge, you must apply for the combined permit.
  • If you are a CAFO or Small CAFO and have a groundwater discharge, you must apply for the state groundwater permit.
  • If you have neither a surface water discharge nor a groundwater discharge, permit application is not mandated.

The permit is effective March 4, 2017. Applications may be started at any time.

The Washington State Dairy Federation has analyzed Ecology’s work and developed a comparison of the two permits. This comparison document can be found here, and our letter to members can be found here.

We will also be hosting meetings for our members across the state to discuss the ramifications of the permits.

Producer meetings should last no longer than two hours. The producer meetings are as follows:

  • Feb. 13 11:30 a.m. Sunnyside Snipes Mountain Brewery Restaurant (Lunch provided)
  • Feb. 14 11:30 a.m. Enumclaw VFW Hall, 44426 244th Ave SE (Lunch provided)
  • Feb. 15 11:30 a.m. Lynden Dutch Mother’s Restaurant (Lunch provided)
  • Feb. 15 6:00 p.m. Monroe Qualco, 18117 203rd St SE (Pizza Dinner provided)
  • Feb. 22 1:00 p.m. Chehalis Livestock Market 328 N Hamilton Rd (Snacks & drinks provided)
  • Feb. 23 11:30 a.m. Deer Park Dunrenton Ranch (Littrell), 8524 W. Dahl Rd. (Lunch provided)
  • Feb. 23 6:00 p.m. Othello City Hall, 500 E. Main St. (Pizza Dinner provided)

It is not required to RSVP for these producer meetings, but it helps us to plan if we have an idea of how many will attend. Please email darcel@wastatedairy.com to let her know which producer meeting(s) you will attend. Feel free to bring as many people from your dairy, and any industry associates, as you want. We only ask that you help us anticipate numbers so we can have enough handouts and food.

If you have questions, please feel free to call Dan Wood or Jay Gordon. You can reach them at the Dairy Federation office at 360-482-3485, or you can reach Dan on his cell phone at 360-870-6018 or Jay on his cell phone at 360-951-8419.

WSDF Board of Directors Election Results

/ Scott

Elections for several positions on the WSDF Board of Directors were held last fall. The following dairy farmers were elected to fill positions by the membership.

  • Terry Lenssen, District 1, Position 1
  • Eric Johnson, District 1, Position 4
  • Keith Golob, District 3, Position 7
  • Henry Benthem, District 4, Position 10

Tom DeVries has resigned from his seat on the Board (District 3, Position 6). Members in that district have been mailed biography forms for those interested in running for election. Those forms should be submitted to the WSDF office and should be postmarked no later than this Friday, Jan. 20.

At January’s meeting, President Sybrandy appointed two At-Large positions to the Board — Dwayne Faber for Western Washington and Austin Allred for Eastern Washington.

 

2017 Dairy Day and Other Events Announced

/ Scott

Several dairy-related events will be taking place in Olympia in January. These events are the best way to have face-to-face interaction with our senators and representatives from both political parties.

On Monday, Jan. 23, the WSDF Board of Directors will meet at 10 a.m. at the Ramada Inn, 4520 Martin Way E, Olympia, WA.

At 5 p.m. on Jan. 23, WSDF will host a Legislative Reception at Ramblin Jack’s Restaurant, 520 4th Ave E in downtown Olympia (just 1.2 miles from the Capitol Campus).

Tuesday, Jan. 24, is Dairy Day at the Legislature. The event begins at noon, and WSDF and the dairy ambassadors will serve dairy products on the third floor of the Legislative Building.

All producers are invited to attend these three events.

Legislature Convenes for 2017 Regular Session

/ Scott

Last Monday, Jan. 9, legislators arrived in Olympia to begin a long, 105-day legislative session. The week began with the usual opening ceremonies, swearing in of legislators, and settling in to new legislative offices.

On Wednesday, Gov. Jay Inslee delivered his State of the State Address, in which he focused on his proposal to raise taxes by $4.4 billion. The tax increases championed by Inslee include a new carbon tax (even though voters defeated one at the ballot box last November), a capital gains tax (which could be a step toward a state income tax), and an increase in B&O taxes on business services.

Control of the House and Senate remains unchanged from last year. Democrats hold a two-seat majority in the House, and the Majority Coalition Caucus of 24 Republicans and one Democrat hold a one-vote majority in the Senate. This division of power helps ensure that any bills to pass the Legislature will be bipartisan in nature, and highly controversial legislation will be filtered out through the regular legislative processes throughout session.

The cutoff date for policy committees to act on proposed legislation falls on February 17. The end of the regular session will be April 23, but given high-profile budget issues such as K-12 educational funding, it is likely that there will be special sessions beyond that date.
Committee activity last week and the first part of this week has focused primarily on work sessions in which legislative and agency staff present requested information updates to legislators. The pace of public hearings on bills will increase soon.