Bulletin Daily Paper 1-29-12

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Serving Central Oregon since 1903 www.bendbulletin.com

The Bulletin

Lakeviewโ€™s hospital is putting the finishing touches on a $17.3 million face-lift that has added an operating room, 37,000 additional square feet and a geothermal system. But thatโ€™s not the only alternative energy it must install. Because of a state law requiring the implementation of solar energy technology, the hospital must also put in a $250,000 solar array that one hospital official calls redundant. The solar requirement cannot be replaced by other green energy forms like wind, biomass, hydro or geothermal energy. And thatโ€™s got Sen. Doug Whitsett, RKlamath Falls, once again working to amend the law to allow other types of green energy to fulfill the requirement. โ€œItโ€™s somewhat ludicrous when theyโ€™re bringing geothermal to the hospital,โ€ Whitsett said. Last year, Whitsett tried and failed to pass an amended law. He plans to reintroduce the bill in the upcoming legislative session. โ€œI will introduce it, and this time I will do a better job shepherding it through,โ€ he said. Rep. Paul Holvey, DEugene, was the chief sponsor of the original law. See Solar / A7

Greeceโ€™s Olympic trial: debt By Ken Maguire New York Times News Service

ATHENS โ€” What happens if the country that invented the Olympics cannot afford to produce Olympic athletes? As this summerโ€™s London Games approach, that notion is causing angst in Greece, where elite athletes are feeling the sting of austerity measures in the face of a historic debt crisis. The government scrapped a plan to spend nearly $10 million a year on preparation, according to the Hellenic Olympic Committee. Athletes say their financial stipends are often months late, and it is common for coaches to go months without paychecks. Greeks will compete in London, but they will perhaps be limping a bit at the opening ceremony July 27. See Greece / A4

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Adult salmon are set to return to the Upper Deschutes this year after a 40-year absence. To get there, theyโ€™ll have to be hauled around three dams north of Lake Billy Chinook. Achieving that goal has taken time, money and collaboration from several groups.

Salmon (and their stewards) are going

ABOVE & BEYOND

Chemicals injected at Newberry site raise concerns By Dylan J. Darling The Bulletin

Along with millions of gallons of water, a Seattle-based energy company plans to pour tracer chemicals down two 10,000-foot wells east of La Pine this summer during an effort to increase their geothermal power potential. A retired Bend doctor is questioning the safety of the chemicals AltaRock Energy may use Inside in its enhanced geothermal sys- โ€ข How the tems (EGS) experiment, in which process the company plans to use cold works, A5 water to crack hot rock and produce a new geothermal reservoir underground. โ€œMy primary concern is health,โ€ said Stuart Garrett, who helped lead the creation of Newberry National Volcanic Monument in the early 1990s. โ€œSome of that could get into groundwater.โ€ The monument was established to keep geothermal power development out of Newberry Crater, home to Paulina and East lakes. In previous interviews Susan Petty, AltaRockโ€™s president and founder, said the company would be pouring pressurized water down the wells but no chemicals. Last week she said the company would be using tracers, or chemicals used to trace how much underground rock the water was contacting. โ€œWe put them in such minute quantities I didnโ€™t even think of them,โ€ she said. AltaRock plans to use about four gallons of chemicals in the 24 million gallons of water sent down the wells on the Deschutes National Forest outside the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, Petty said. She said the chemicals are also regularly used in groundwater exploration. See Geothermal / A5

Ryan Brennecke / The Bulletin

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife technician Paul Brown transfers a steelhead to a tank at the Pelton Round Butte Dam complex on Friday. Several agencies have worked to restore Deschutes runs. By Dylan J. Darling The Bulletin

A

fter an absence of more than 40 years, adult salmon could be swimming in the upper reaches of the Deschutes River system this year. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs are finalizing a plan for seagoing fish in the river that may include the trapping and hauling of spring-run chinook salmon around the three dams in the Pelton Round Butte complex, said Bobby Brunoe, general manager of the tribesโ€™ natural resources branch. โ€œI think we are really excited about adults getting above the project,โ€ he said. โ€œItโ€™s been one of the goals of all this.โ€ For more than a decade, the tribes have worked with Portland General Electric, which co-owns the power-producing dams, as well as state and federal agencies, water users and conservation groups to restore the Deschutes runs. Once above the dams, the fish will swim into the Upper Deschutes, Metolius and Crooked rivers, as well as Whychus Creek.

The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper

Vol. 109, No. 29, 46 pages, 7 sections

Moving fish upstream

Fish trap While a more than $100 million submerged Reregulating dam tower completed in late 2009 has aided Pelton Dam young salmon and steelhead swimming downstream the Deschutes River, scientists 26 are waiting for more adult fish to return from the ocean before trapping, hauling and releasing them upstream of the Lake dams. The hauling may begin this year. Simtustus

Madras Round Butte Dam

WARM SPRINGS INDIA N RESERVATION

Lake Billy Chinook

Underwater tower

Culver

d ke roo

To Redmond/Bend 97 Andy Zeigert / The Bulletin

The partners and collaborators in the fish committee have the โ€œcommon goal of reintroducing the fishโ€ to the rivers

above the dams, said Brett Hodgson, ODFW district biologist in Bend. See Salmon / A4

Crosswords C7, E2 Dear Abby C3 Horoscope C3

Milestones Obituaries Opinion

Demand strong for ethically iffy GPS car trackers By Erik Eckholm New York Times News Service

Only yesterday it was the exotic stuff of spy shows: Flip on a computer and track the enemyโ€™s speeding car. But today, anyone with $300 can compete with Jack Bauer. Online, and soon in big-box stores, you can buy a device no bigger than a cigarette pack, attach it to a car without the driverโ€™s knowledge and watch the vehicleโ€™s travels โ€” and stops โ€” at home on your laptop. Tens of thousands of Americans are already doing just that, with little oversight, for purposes as seemingly benign as tracking an elderly parent with dementia or a risky teenage driver, or as legally and ethically charged as spying on a spouse or an employee โ€” or for outright criminal stalking. The advent of Global Positioning System tracking devices has been a boon to law enforcement, making it easier and safer, for example, for agents to link drug dealers to kingpins. Last Monday, in a decision seen as a first step toward setting boundaries for law enforcement, the Supreme Court held that under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, placing a GPS tracker on a vehicle is a search. Police departments around the country say they will be more likely to seek judicial approval before using the devices, if they were not already doing so. See GPS / A6

TODAYโ€™S WEATHER

INDEX Business G1-6 Books F4 Community C1-8

Metolius

Riv er

By Sheila G. Miller

GEOTHERMAL PROJECT

Deschu tes R ive C r

Hospitalโ€™s energy bind has some rethinking solar quota

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Sports D1-6 Stocks G4-5 TV & Movies C2

Rain tonight High 55, Low 34 Page B6

TOP NEWS GOP: Cain endorses Gingrich, A3 ST. LOUIS: Iraq War parade, A3


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