NEWS DIGEST
Sunday, July 6, 2008 5:47 PM PDT
GOOD MORNING
OREGON
Brief chinook season opens on two rivers in
Eastern Oregon
LA GRANDE (AP) — Oregon officials have opened a brief season on the Imnaha and Wallowa rivers of Eastern Oregon for hatchery-raised spring chinook salmon. It started Friday and will run through July 13. On the Imnaha, the area is from the mouth of the river to Summit Creek Bridge.
NW wind power was
almost too much of a good thing
PORTLAND (AP) — The wind huffed, and it puffed, and it nearly caused major problems in the Northwest’s electrical grid last week.
Power managers say they have some fixing to do.
A surge of wind last Monday afternoon jumped far beyond levels forecast by operators of Oregon’s burgeoning wind-farm industry, sending more power into the regional grid.
IDAHO
Idaho might change process for proposed feedlots
TWIN FALLS (AP) — The Idaho Department of Agriculture is taking comments this month on a plan to revamp how it determines potential risks to the environment at specific sites when a new feedlot is proposed.
Site inspections are part of the application process for new confined-animal feeding operations. The inspections are intended to give county officials information about the environmental risks a proposed dairy or feedlot might create in the area.
‘‘We want to make it very clear to the counties that it’s up to them to decide what practices they want facilities to use,’’ Brian Oakey, deputy director of the state Department of Agriculture, told The Times-News.
The state is looking for comments from county planners, dairy owners and the public on how the state deals with feedlots, a growing business in southern Idaho that has led to clashes at county commission meetings in the region and lawsuits.
See story, Page A8.
