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Great things
j?'
................ to read in this
New Express Photo owners...page 3
Letters...page 4
Year in review.
,.page 10
I
week's paper
10 Pages -- Price 50¢
Thursday, January 1, 2004 • Goldendale, Washington 98620-9526
BB
One hundred and twenty-fifth year-- no. 1
F
Approximately 300 miles of said Marilyn Meehan, spokes-
~h-volume natural gas
~eline in Washington state Utilities and Transportation
~ast be replaced, and hundreds
.~Mfles more need to be exam-
~, according to state and fed-
officials.
Some of the 26-inch-wide gas
[~line in need of close scruff-
~J runs through the Columbia
J River Gorge and up near
%ldendale.
Government safety officials
~11 Dec. 19 ordered the
~klahoma-based Williams
¢~rnpany to work on its massive
~rthwest Pipeline system, fol-
h~ing a series of ruptures in
v~stem Washington. The most
r~ent rupture happened just
°~e week prior, on Dec. 13,
~en the pipe leaked outside
ledo, near Interstate v5,
~fway between Vancou er
aad Olympia. _ ,
i_ The federal Office of Pipefine
! ,~fe,~,. issued the order follow-
~g the safety concerns the
t~te) commission expressed,
woman for the Washington
Commission (WUTC).
The work will take place on a
large scale, to include replace-
ment of the underground
pipeline between Washougal
and Sumas - on the border
with Canada -- over the next m
years, according to a WLrFC
statement. Pipeline sections in
densely populated areas must
be replaced in three years. In
the immediate future, the 1956-
era steel pipeline must be
turned off; customers won't
likely notice any interruptions,
though, because Williams owns
a parallel, 197os-era pipeline,
the WUTC said.
Steve Royall, plant manager
at Calpine's Goldendale Energy
Center, said that on the word of
government officials, he expect-
ed no loss of natural gas supply
to the facility. The gas-fired
energy plant should be operat-
ing by July, he said.
Williams supplies about 80
percent of the natural gas to
Avista, Northwest Natural Gas,
Cascade Natural Gas, and Puget
Sound Energy. Its Northwest
Pipeline is actually a system of
lines that runs north-south
between Canada and Mexico.
The system includes spur lines
that run east-west through the
gorge, past Stevenson, White
Salmon, Goldendale and
Roosevelt. Other sections of line
carry gas into Idaho, and as far
south as New Mexico.
Williams' spokeswoman, in
Salt Lake City, did not return
telephone messages seeking
comment.
The federal order demands
that, in addition to replacing its
western Washington line,
Williams inspect the 3o-inch
gas pipeline that parallels it, and
"the portion from Washougal to
Goldendale needs to be evaluat-
ed for safety" within in the next
six months, said the WUTC's
Meehan.
The Washougal-Sumas
pipeline that federal safety offi-
cials ordered turned off had
experienced nine ruptures or
other failures in the past m
years, according to Meehan.
Two of those occurred in the last
two months, and were appar-
ently caused by "stress cracking
and corrosion," she said.
The 26-inch-diameter
Washougal-Goldendale
pipeline was also built in 1956,
but has remained relatively
trouble-free, said Kim West,
senior pipeline safety engineer
with the WUTC. West said the
most recent rupture in that line
took place near North
Bonneville in February 1999,
when a landslide cracked the
pipe.
What has caused other sec-
tions of the pipeline to fail, said
West, remains unclear. She
noted that Williams has greatly
reduced the pressure in its sys-
tem following recent ruptures.
-- Dan Richardson
THE YEAR IN REVIEW
File photo
Goldendale Energy Center manager Steve Royall
greets citizens during a public hearing last January.
For month-by-month reflections on events of 2003,
see page 10.
iCritical lands
hearing
xtended
I ost who testify are
Vary of state
r quirements
. Trying to persuade local
"eSidents that an amended
critical lands ordinance was
!he best they could hope for,
.the Klickitat County board of
~rnmissioners made little
~eadway at a hearing on
l~esday afternoon.
In'response to an almost
tl~nimous request for more
i~f ~le.-- the commissioners
ided to allow three and a
extra weeks for residents
to review the ordinance, com-
Pare it to the current one, and
sub~it written testimony.
• The proposed amendment
~a re-draft of an ordinance
~e county adopted in 2OOl,
hich defined development
~eStrictions for wetlands,
tirlkin~-water aquifer
recharge areas, special fish
~ad wildlife habitat, flood-
~r0ne lands, and geologically
~aZardous areas in Klickitat
Uo~r
lty
.. Several state agencies and
~e Yakama Indian Nation
PPealed the earlier ordi-
r~a~ee in 2OOl Details of the
1:~. " . .
~r draft were negotiated w~th
~t~ agencies that appealed.
&t the hearing, about m
ioeS!dents, mostly from Lyle
~ld White Salmon, objected
the concept of an ordi-
aaee which, in their view,
~Uld restrict their use of
~e~r land, possibly without
s~ern knowing it. "It looks like
:U~aething the [Columbia]
j~.rge Commission wrote,"
~a!d Jim Fritchey of White
°~On.
Individuals will net know
Whether their land is affected
until they apply for a permit,"
~ad Lyle community council
~r~e~l da e;:e p aBae~ib::a~ e ::~ ? n
fi 8everal of those who testi-
er threatened to hold the
~Unty liable for any loss
of
value they might suffer
i~ a result of the ordinance's
"~lementation.
most also wanted to see
~aps telling them which
ds Would be affected. "1
ant to see the big picture,"
See HEARING, page 7
~allesportPhoto by Sam Lowry
resident Mike
~lith,
T, among others at
U~-,-, ,
.. =uays public hearing,
Persuaded county commis-
~i~r~ers
for to allow more time
review of a revised criti-
Cal iand~ ordinaPce.
USDA issues
new rules-
and seeks
the lost herd
By DAN RICHARDSON
Publisher
Federal officials ordered
new rules for cattle slaugh-
tering and disease surveil-
lance on Tuesday, one week
after the nation's first mad-
cow-infected animal was
found in Mabton, just a few
miles from Klickitat County.
The new US Department
of Agriculture (USDA) rules
are designed to strengthen
protections keeping meat
from mad-cow-infected cat-
tle from entering the human
food chain. (See side bar.)
"While we are confident
that the United States has
safeguards and firewalls need-
ed to protect public health,
these additional actions will
further strengthen our protec-
tion systems," said Agriculture
Secretary Ann M. Veneman at
a Tuesday press briefing.
Veneman said the USDA
policies had been under con-
sideration for some time,
especially since the discovery
of a case of mad cow disease
in Canada in May.
Mad cow is the common
term for bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE). The
disease perforates an animal's
brain and causes its nervous
system to degenerate. BSE is
invariably fatal to animals and
was also linked in Europe in
the 199os to eases of a related,
rare human brain disease.
While the new rules may
increase future protections
against BSE, federal and
Washington state investiga-
tors still have a large job:
Tracking down 81 cows that
came from Canada, as did
the one which tested posi-
tive for BSE at the Sunny
Dene Ranch in Mabton.
"Our job one is to find those
8~ anhnals," said USDA vet-
erinarian Dr. Ron DeHaven,
during the briefing. He said
See USDA, page 2
Contributed photo
COW MADNESS -- Dairy cows, like this Holstein, are the
focus of the federal investigation.
Why do they call it "mad cow" disease?
Because of the way that infected animals lose their ability
to walk as the disease destroys their brains and nervous sys-
tems.
Q: What is BSE?
BSE is short for bovine spongfform encephalopathy, the
technical name for what we call mad cow disease. BSE is
always fatal. BSE is related to scrapie in sheep, chronic
wasting disease in deer and elk, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob dis-
ease (CJD) in humans. Researchers believe that mad cow
disease can, rarely, cause a variant of CAD (vCJD) in people
who eat beef with particles from infected cow brains or
spinal cords. In Europe in the ~99os, about ~8o,ooo cattle
were found infected with BSE, and about ~5o'people died
from vCJD.
Q: How is BSE spread among cows?
Researchers believe BSE spreads in cattle through feed
contaminated with ruminant brain particles-- feed that the
US and Canada banned in ~997. The infected cow from
Mabton was born several months before the feed rules went
into effect.
Q: So they found an infected cow from Mabton.
What's being done noW?
State, federal and Canadian offidals are attempting to
See COW FAC'IS, page 3
Locals react
to
scare
By SAM LOWRY
News Reporter
As the fact sinks in that a
six-year-old dairy heifer with
mad cow disease came from
Mabton, just over the hill
from Bickleton, Klickitat
County. cattlemen and women
are holding their breath.
That's because mad cow
(the common term for bovine
spongiform encephalopathy,
or BSE) has shown it can
wreak havoc not just with
cows' bodies, but with cattle
markets, international rela-
tions, and especially, with
people's livelihoods.
According to rancher Kay
Cameron of Centerville, "It's
kind of a scary time."
"It could have a devastat-
ing effect on the market,"
said Washington
Cattlewomen's president
Jane Lee of Goldendale.
But cattlemen and others
contacted by The Sentinel
think - at least they hope -
that the U.S. can avoid the
deep and long-lasting disrup-
tions endured by the British
and French cattle industries
in the ~99os, and by Canadian
producers this past year.
Canada's experience is par-
ticularly frightening.
Discovery of a single mad cow
in Alberta, in May (meat from
which did not even get into
the food stream), instantly
cost Canada 69 percent of its
market as every foreign bor-
der closed overnight.
Ironically, that sent U.S.
cattle prices soaring during
summer and fall. "Every
segment was able to make
money," said Harlan Carr,
owner of G2 Cattle Co. in
Goldendale. "That's almost
unheard of."
Now, the boot is on the
other foot.
Here, people pin their
hopes on the fact that unlike
other beef-producing coun-
tries, especially Canada, the
U.S. consumes most of the
beef it produces, even as it
strives to step up exports to
See REACTION, page 2
Money is usually thought of as an
impersonal gift, but if there's enough
of it, it can brighten a holiday like
nothing else.
Enough of it, as in $422,000.
That's the size of the cheek that
Washington Casualty Insurance Co.
wrote to the Kliekitat Valley Hospital
district shortly before the holidays.
"The cheek was, of course, immedi-
ately taken down to Dalai Burton, the
county treasurer, and put in the cor-
rect fund," said Keith Mesmer, the
interim hospital chief.
The money was issued under the
errors and omissions dause of the
hospital's insurance policy. The check
will reimburse the health district, less
a $m,ooo deductible, for the money
it lost in a failed November 2oo2 con-
struetion contract with Milora
Developments of Victoria, B.C.,
Canada.
To receive the money, health dis-
trict commissioners had to sign a sub-
rogation clause, giving the insurance
company the right to pursue damages
to recover the money, said Ross
Rakow, hospital district attorney. The
insurance company is investigating its
potential for recovering the money,
said Rakow. "The hospital will'coop-
crate with its insurer," he added.
In other hospital news, according to
Mesmer:
• Architects working on a new acute
• II
The Central Klickitat
County Parks and
Recreation District, which
built and operates the com-
munity swimming pool
near E'kone Park, still
plans to find a way to cover
it.
The city is holding about
$500,00o that was given
for that purpose in the will
of late Goldendale resident
Wihna Olsen. "We still need
another $200,000, or
more," said outgoing dis-
trict board member Ray
LaFond. There is a possible
source, he said, "but if that
doesn't pan out, it will have
to come from other donors
or from grants."
Said outgoing board
member and newly-eleeed
city councilman Tom Oaff,
"The city is waiting for a
proposal from the Rec
District board. I am hoping
Dennis [Goodrich] and the
new board will get on that
when they get settled." He
said he believes the mayor,
council and city manager
feel the same.
"The Rec Board will take
the matter up after new
members are sworn in,"
said Goodrich the week
before last. "We want to do
it well."
The swearing-in took
place on Dec. 19.
Olsen's heirs also con-
veyed to the city, on Nov. ~9,
about $8,000 that had been
collected from donors after
Olsen's passing, earmarked
for pool maintenance. The
funds had been held by the
heirs until the city could cre-
ate an account specifying it
would be used for pool
maintenance only. "It will
eventually require an inter-
local agreement with the
district," said city adminis-
trator Larry Bellamy.
-- Sam Lowry
care wing plan should have their
design completed by mid-January.
• A contractor will soon remove the
large dirt mound left over from exca-
vating the lot next to the hospital.
• The commissioners will have a
new bulletin board placed near the
hospital entrance for posting agendas
and other documents; officials are
considering posting those documents
online, too.
-- Dan Richardson