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Irrigation bill up for Senate vote Legislation prompted by Bear Creek mishap SALEM -- A bill instigated by a 1996 fish kill on Bear Creek and a suit against the Talent Irrigation District is up for a vote in the full Senate. Requested by the Oregon Water Resources Congress, House Bill 2652 continues to exempt irrigators from having to obtain special state permits for herbicide and pesticide treatments in canals. "But we do not feel it affects any of the commitments under the Oregon Plan" for salmon recovery, said executive director Jan Lee. The Senate is likely to vote on the bill this week. Two environmental groups sued TID after a 1996 spill of chemical-laden canal water near Ashland resulted in a fish kill in Bear Creek, a major tributary of the Rogue River. They argued that the state Department of Environmental Quality should have required TID to obtain a water discharge permit under the federal Clean Water Act. They lost the first round in U.S. District Court but have appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition to fines, TID has tightened operating procedures for chemicals and assisted research into alternatives. Though DEQ has not required irrigators to obtain permits for so-called "return flows" and stormwater from farmland, the Senate Water and Land Use Committee amended the bill to let the state do so if federal requirements change. It satisfied an objection by the League of Oregon Cities. Sen. Tony Corcoran, D-Cottage Grove, voted for the bill in committee with some misgivings. "We keep getting this stuff that runs philosophically against our attempts in Oregon to keep the federal government off our backs with (endangered-species) listings and to try to do the right things for salmon," he said. "Yet simultaneously, in my view, we are passing legislation that sends a signal to the federal government that we are loosening our regulations. That bothers me." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA