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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Editorial: Department of Agriculture apple maggot rules add to Barr-Tech’s composting costs

It’s almost like apples and oranges.

Because the city of Seattle has begun shipping its food waste 100-plus miles to Quincy, a composting facility one mile outside the Spokane County line could be required to make expensive modifications, with the costs passed on to ratepayers.

The Washington Department of Agriculture has completed new rules to protect the state’s $2 billion apple crop from further spread of maggots that destroy the fruit. Importers, who are important customers, are quick to put up protectionist barriers at the hint – not necessarily the reality – of damaged fruit.

Protecting the industry’s reputation is important and, fortunately, inspections have found no damaged commercial fruit. That’s a record no one wants broken, so when Seattle started depositing its waste in maggot-free Grant County, the Agriculture Department went on alert.

But Spokane, as the owner of the Barr-Tech compost facility says, could suffer collateral damage if the department, which has not yet implemented the rules, does not amend them to recognize the difference between the issues presented by Seattle’s trans-Cascade waste hauling and Spokane’s little step outside home ground.

Look at the map, and Spokane alone among Eastern Washington counties has been designated an apple maggot quarantine area. The Agriculture Department has not surveyed the county for adult apple maggots since 2010, when three were found in two of 18 traps set on the perimeter of Green Bluff. Pest-control measures control them inside the orchards.

The department stopped sampling because Spokane County adherents to the “buy local” movement consume all of Green Bluff’s apples. A few maggots are not a concern as long as the fruit is not grown for export.

If infested fruit existed, it would go no farther than the Barr-Tech composting facility at Fishtrap, unless residents carried apples outside the area in their vehicles. The flies themselves would not get far in Lincoln County.

If maggots do reach the composting plant, the heat in the piles of rotting material should kill them, which should make a facility like Barr-Tech’s the preferred defense against the maggot threat. The department wants to be doubly sure, and would have the composting material chopped up and compressed in a closed building – Barr-Tech is open-air – to assure total maggot annihilation.

Build the $1 million cost of the improvements into rates for hauling garden waste, and Spokane homeowners will think twice about asking for a curbside green bin, even with new, more liberal regulations that allow food waste and some paper along with grass clippings and other yard material.

The state can keep the greenback out of green with just a little more flexibility. The pause taken by the Agriculture Department suggests officials know that a Seattle solution does not fit a Spokane problem; if there is a problem.