03/24/06 Raw milk dairy to be fined/Murray on rail

Washington Ag March 24 ,2006 The Washington State Department of Agriculture says it intends to assess the maximum civil penalty of eight-thousand dollars against the unlicensed dairy Dee Creek Farm of Woodland. The farm's unpasturized, or raw milk, was the source of an E. coli outbreak that sickened at least 18 people last December, hospitalizing three children. WSDA says Dee Creek Farm was found to be distributing raw milk without the required dairy milk producer or milk processing licenses, the farm's cows did not have required tests for TB or brucellosis, and the operation had brought a cow in from Oregon without proper animal inspection certificates. The farm can request a hearing and contest the findings. A county order has prohibited the dairy from distributing milk since the E coli outbreak. WSDA says the farm has never submitted a license application. A milk producer license is free. A milk processing license costs 55 dollars. Agricultural shippers and other industries support legislation in Congress they say is needed to improve rail service. It's Senate bill 919 and when she was in Moses Lake this week to celebrate the Produce Rail Car Program we asked Senator Patty Murray if she supports this bill. Murray: "There are lot of different things we need to keep on doing and I am going to be looking at that bill, watching its progress and see where it goes." Both the Senate bill and a companion bill in the House have bipartisan sponsorship. I'm Bob Hoff.