Last fall, Oregon activists envisioned cattle fenced
away from riverbanks, and streams tested for purity after a
district court ruled that grazing was polluting water on the
state’s Forest Service lands (HCN, 10/28/96). It hasn’t happened
yet. Instead, state officials are scrambling to draw up “emergency”
grazing rules so ranchers can turn out their cows as usual this
spring.
“I’m not sure where the emergency is,”
says Bill Marlett, executive director of the Oregon Natural Desert
Association. He notes that only about 35 of the state’s thousands
of grazing permits are up for renewal this
year.
To renew a grazing permit under the
emergency rules, a rancher must agree to general conditions that
protect water quality, explains Roger Wood of the Department of
Environmental Quality. The rancher, for example, might have to sign
an agreement not to aggravate erosion or destroy streamside
vegetation. But nowhere will the rancher have to specify how he
will fulfill those promises, Wood says.
Activists
fear that the temporary rules, which will be in force for 180 days,
could become the model for final compliance with the federal Clean
Water Act. Carrie Stilwell, attorney for the Western Environmental
Law Center, says the law requires a detailed determination of water
quality on the site of each grazing permit.
That
won’t happen this year. While the state would like to make the
regulations more specific, Wood says, “we’re not in a position to
watchdog every single grazer in the state.”
*
Danielle Desruisseaux
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline It’s cows as usual in Oregon.
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