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BOARDMAN â Some Morrow County employers are blaming extra unemployment benefits for unfilled positions and say it is time for those pandemic-era supplemental benefits to come to an end.
In a letter to Gov. Kate Brown âon behalf of Morrow County employers,â Kalie Davis, director of workforce development for the Port of Morrow, listed 25 employers in the county that had more than 200 job openings total.
âI receive multiple phone calls a day from both employers and temp agencies who are desperate to find anyone that is willing to work,â she wrote.
She asked the governor to consider ending Oregonâs participation in the federal supplemental unemployment benefits program.
Harnessing the Worth of Water
May 13, 2021 Photo: Winston Ross Cows waiting to be milked at Threemile Canyon Farms near Boardman
A new Portland company sees opportunity in recycling wastewater, as drought and water scarcity present looming social and economic challenges.
For several years, Ben Vitale helped companies monetize their reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions when he worked at the Climate Trust. As president of the Portland carbon asset manager between 2009 and 2013, he managed a $20 million portfolio of carbon-emission reduction projects.
He has now turned his hand to helping companies reduce consumption of a natural resource that is becoming scarcer as the climate changes: water. His new company, Resilient Infrastructure Group, founded in 2019, provides private and public organizations with on-site treatment solutions
BOARDMAN â Cody Easterday is still waiting for the Oregon Department of Agriculture to approve his application, submitted in June 2019, for a Confined Animal Feeding Operation near the city of Boardman.
Easterday, a 49-year-old rancher whose family owns a huge agricultural operation in Washington state, proposes to open a mega-dairy that would be the second-largest in Oregon. The Easterday Dairy would have up to 28,300 animals and use more water than most cities in the state.
The future of Easterday Dairy is in doubt, however. On March 31, Cody Easterday pleaded guilty to a âghost cattle scamâ that defrauded Tyson Foods and another company out of more than $244 million by charging for the purchase and feeding of animals that never existed.
Cheese in the Desert: Why Mega-Dairies are Piping Water onto Oregon’s Shrub-Steppe
An environmental coalition is lobbying for a moratorium on mega-dairies, which have proliferated in a water-challenged area of northeastern Oregon
In Boardman, Bombing Range Road divides a disused U.S. Navy bombing range (left) and large areas of irrigated land. On the right, Sage Hollow Ranch, one of several mega-dairies in the area, is permitted for up to 8,700 cows. Photo by NASHCO
This piece is part of a collaboration that includes the Institute for Nonprofit News, California Health Report, Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism, Circle of Blue, Columbia Insight, Ensia, High Country News, New Mexico In Depth and SJV Water. It was made possible by a grant from The Water Desk, with support from Ensia and INN’s Amplify News Project.