Public Comment On Coal Export Facility & Far West Washington Winter Conference

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

More than 165 thousand comments have been received by the Washington State Department of Ecology concerning the proposal for a coal export facility at Longview. The scoping period ended November 18 after five public meetings across the state drew thousands of people, many opposing the $650 million coal terminal being proposed by Millennium Bulk Terminals to export coal from Montana and Wyoming to Asia. The coal would be carried on trains to the dock, which ultimately would be able to export 44 metric tons of coal a year. Ecology, the Army Corps of Engineers and Cowlitz County will be using public comments to help decide which environmental effects should be reviewed.

Registration is open for the Far West Agribusiness Association 2013 Winter Conference to be held at the Red Lion Hotel in Pasco December 9 through the 11. Far West's Executive Director, Jim Fitzgerald.

FITZGERALD: One of the sessions will be on fraud prevention in today's business. For years we've done things by a handshake and that was good enough, but the world is changing and it is important to be aware that fraud can exist and how do you prevent against it. And so we'll have some real live scenarios - we have a panel put together with an accountant and a prosecuting attorney and a county auditor and a former U.S. attorney, so I think it will be very interesting for employees as well as employers.

Some of the other topics to be covered at the conference include EPA's RMP Program, Precision Management to increase N use efficiency in dryland wheat, controlled release nitrogen fertilizers, investment profitability, and farming with precision ag technologies.

For registration information visit fwaa.org.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray on the Ag Information Network.