05/09/06 Snow mold; Gulf energy update

Washington Ag May 9, 2006 Some winter wheat in north-central Washington was being reseeded to spring wheat this year because of snow mold. The weekly crop weather bulletin from the Agricultural Statistics Services reports the snow mold was a problem in Chelan, Douglas and Okanogan counties. Because of the high cost of fertilizer and fuel some producers decided not to replant. In Whitman county heavy winter rains leached fertilizer requiring farmers to apply more expensive fertilizer. When it comes to energy inputs, the U.S. Department of the Interior says in an updated assessment of damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita that just over 20% of oil production is still shut down in the Gulf while nearly 13 percent of natural gas production is off line. Chris Oynes with Interior's Minerals Management Service, says pipeline damage remains the main problem. Oynes: "There's some 33-thousand miles of pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico. A huge portion of that has had to be checked because of the path of the two hurricanes. Right now there is an extreme shortage of the resources, divers, supply boats, crew boats, all of those kinds of things, to complete the total underwater assessment of the pipeline." As more pipelines are assessed, industry reports show the number of pipelines damaged has increased from an original report of 183 to 457. I'm Bob Hoff.