Spring 2005
At the annual business meeting, on January 26, the Association elected Tom Dahl of Sioux City Inspection and Weighing Service as president, Larry Kitchen of the Missouri Department of Agriculture as Vice President, Kevin Bredthauer of Central Iowa Grain Inspection Corporation and Mark Fulmer of Lincoln Inspection Service to serve as two year directors, and Randy Deike of the Washington State Department of Agriculture to serve as a one year director.
Barry Hibbets of Enid Grain Inspection Company remains as secretary and Dave Reeder of Fremont Grain Inspection Department remains a director, both with another year to serve on their terms
Proposed User Fees
Dave Orr, Director of Field Management for FGIS, announced at the meeting in Las Vegas that GIPSA will propose new user fees on official agencies providing inspection and weighing services. The new fees will be set based upon metric ton involved in the inspection.
Currently GIPSA is charging 8 tenths of one cent per metric ton. The proposed fee would be approximately 1.1 cents per metric ton. Railcar user fee would increase from $0.95 per hopper to approximately $1.14. OCIS truck inspections would have a proposed fee of approximately $0.21 per sample. A docket with the fee proposal will be published in May.
Lincoln Inspection Service had a request for service to probe seven railcars at a country elevator. A part-time employee that provided sampling services to this elevator reported in to the elevator's office and went to probe the railcars.
The railcars were located away from a structure and no fall protection was available. The sampler fell between two railcars and suffered fatal injuries. OSHA was notified and performed their investigation the next morning.
LIS was issued a Citation and Notification of Penalty from OSHA on January 31, 2005.
The violation was listed as serious and issued under the General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1) for: "The employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to the hazards of falls when walking the tops of rail cars to sample the grain in the cars.
Specifically, on November 18, 2004, and at times prior to, employees were exposed to a fall hazard greater than 4 feet above a lower level, while walking the tops of rail cars to sample grain, without the use of fall protection."
Among other methods, feasible and acceptable methods to control the hazard would be to:
1. Install approved fall protection equipment to prevent falls.
2. Train employees on the use of the fall protection and the hazards associated with falls.
3. Develop work rules and disciplinary procedures prohibiting the walking on rail cars without the use of fall protection.
4. Work with grain elevator employers where inspections are performed to ensure that fall protection equipment is in place and used by employees accessing the tops of the cars for inspection purposes.
An informal conference was conducted between OSHA and LIS on February 10, 2005.
The compliance officer was given copies of OSHA's 1996 - Letter of Interpretation -Enforcement of Fall Protection on Moving Stock, FGIS's Program Notice FGIS PN-02-09, FGIS's Rail Sampling Safety CD and a letter from AAGIWA expressing the impracticability of providing service if fall protection is mandatory.
The abatement portion of the citation was discussed without any agreement as to how LIS could provide fall protection in all circumstances when employees are on top of railcars.
Subsequent to the meeting, conversations and letters were exchanged and a settlement was not reached.
On February 23, a Notice of Intent to Contest was delivered to OSHA. The case will be forwarded to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission in Kansas City.
AAGIWA held its annual meeting in Las Vegas at the Monte Carlo Resort on January 23-24. The attendance was among the best ever!
Those who attended heard a very interesting array of speakers and subjects. Bob Smigelski, of the Andersons in Maumee, Ohio, gave advice to official agencies on how to better market themselves to the grain industry.
AAGIWA members Tom Dahl of Sioux City Inspection and Weighing Service, Kevin Bredthauer of Central Iowa Grain Inspection Corporation and Mark Fulmer of Lincoln Inspection Service, along with Byron Reilly of GIPSA's Office of International Affairs, discussed their travels in Mexico to promote official inspection.
David Ayers of Champaign-Danville Grain Inspection joined with Randy Deike of the Washington Department of Agriculture, Jeff Keller of Michigan Grain Inspection Services, and Mark Fulmer to discuss railcar safety and incidents that their agencies have had to deal with regarding hopper cars.
Albert Schatzke of the Canadian Grain Commission gave a report on what our colleagues north of the border have been working on.
As many of you probably know by now, the state of California did issue their letters of intent to USDA terminating grain and rice inspection services effective April 30, 2005.
The letters also state that services will continue until a replacement entity is in place, although CGFA (California Grain and Feed Association) understands that the state would like to be completely done no later than June 30.
On January 18, USDA advertised an open bid process for official grain inspection services for California. The deadline for applications was February 18, 2005.
If you have any questions or concerns about this matter please call Kevin Clutter at 916-441-2272.
The association received great support from its supplier members at the Annual Meeting. Those who spoke on new products included Joe Hyde of Adams.Net and Jeff Jackson and Gayle Lewis of AgTrax Technologies, Howie Nelson of Envirologix, Kathy Hill and Mark Most of Foss North America, Rich Flaugh of GSF/Dickey-john, Rob Clancey of Neogen, Jim Sobeck and Gabe Faubert of R-Biopharm, Lauren Hottesand Stephanie Tinsley of Romer Labs, Kathy Reading of Seeedburo Equipment Company, and Patricia Jackson of Vicam.
Tom Sliffe of Perten Instruments on Tuesday gave a presentation on a new moisture meter that his company has developed, and also on Perten's falling number instrumentation.
Mike Adams, Vice President of North Dakota Grain Inspection, Inc. was elected an Associate Member Director for the Transportation, Elevator and Grain Merchants Association (TEGMA) at their Annual Meeting in February of 2005.
TEGMA, headquartered in Washington, D.C. is the National Association representing terminal grain elevator operators, unit train shippers, transportation companies and others involved in grain marketing. TEGMA members include global grain companies, grain shippers and receivers, storage facilities and inspection agencies. The association was founded in 1918 and was originally known as the Terminal Elevator Grain Merchants Association.
The Federal Grain Inspection Service sent a large contingent of its key people to the annual meeting in Las Vegas. It's representatives included Dave Orr, Director of the Field Management Division, John Sharpe, Director of the Compliance Division, John Giler, Deputy Director, Field Management Division, Diane Palacek, Field Management Division, Roger Friedrich, Technical Services Division, Byron Reilly, Office of International Affairs, and Chuck Smith, IT Specialist assigned to the Office of the Administrator.
The topics they covered included changes to the NQDB, progress towards a central lab, progress on GIPSA's information technology system, issues involved in GIPSA's reauthorization, agency fee schedules, contracting of services at export locations, FGIS user fees, technologies for inspector calibration, and the status of a pilot program involving the Champaign-Danville agency, allowing inspectors to record estimates of damage, given certain parameters.
AAGIWA agreed at the Annual Meeting to sponsor an awards banquet at the Annual Agency Meeting hosted by Clyde Steves, Field Office Manager of FGIS's Stuttgart Field Office. At the banquet, FGIS will give awards and grant recognition to agencies and their employees who have been outstanding in various categories during the past year.
The Agency Meeting will be held April 5-6 at the Airport Hilton in Cincinnati, Ohio. Contact the Stuttgart Field Office for further details at 870-673-2508.
Grain loading facilities in Northern Illinois are taking advantage of a new shipping route to Asia that recently opened for containers. A new Intermodal Center opened two years ago in Elwood, IL. The Center Point Intermodal Center transfers cargo containers from rail to truck for regional distribution and from truck to rail for long distance shipping.
Newspaper reports indicate about 400,000 containers are expected to be unloaded at the facility this year. The facility is hoping to eventually reach 1.4 Million.
The BNSF Rail Road delivers the loaded containers to the facility. The rail line's new partnership with area grain companies provides cheaper transportation for grain shippers and an added source of revenue for BNSF's cargo containers that were being sent back empty.
Two GIPSA private official agencies have been affected so far by the new Intermodal Center. Kankakee Grain Inspection and Eastern Iowa Grain Inspection have been working with the GIPSA Cedar Rapids Field Office to develop procedures for sampling, inspection, weighing, and certification of bulk grain in containers. Official personnel should review new GIPSA Directive 9180.78 to learn more about procedures for Bulk Grain Exported in Containers.
Ron G. Metz, GIPSA
GIPSA proposes changing the definition of Contrasting Classes for Hard Red Winter wheat and Hard Red Spring wheat such that Hard White wheat is not a contrasting class in these two red wheat classes. One comment was received from the aggregated industry group in support of the proposal. No comments were received opposing the proposal.
Therefore, as set forth in the proposal, GIPSA is amending the Grain Standards to change the definition of contrasting classes in Hard Red Winter wheat and Hard Red Spring wheat such that Hard White wheat is not a contrasting class but is considered as wheat of other classes. The grade limit will remain unchanged. For kernel identification, Hard White wheat kernels would be determined by visual assessment and would include the dark colored, amber, white wheat kernels.
GIPSA proposes to amend the wheat standards to specify the amount of wheat upon which sample grade factor determinations are made. This change will show one kilogram.
U. S. Standards for Wheat (Revised) Federal Register Dated 2/18/2005 Effective Date: May 1, 2006
Effective January 2, 2005 the Kansas City, MO Field Office was closed. The office will now be a duty point for quality control and inspection issues, area licensing, and commodities. Agencies once supervised by Kansas City will now be under the Wichita Field Office.
The 12 agencies supervised by the Wichita Field Office will be undergoing changes in the QAQC program. Wichita is looking at opening up the AMA agreements to agencies that currently have customers in their area. Kenneth Critchfield is the Field Office Manager for the Wichita Field Office. Diane Palecek of the Kansas City Field Office is working in Field Management Division with the NQDB program.
Dear Members:
I would like to thank everyone for attending the annual meeting in Las Vegas. As those of you that attended know - we had major issues to address. They included the following:
reauthorization of GIPSA
user fees increase
privatization of exports
fall protection
the emergence of ethanol plants.
I'm sure you will all agree how important these topics are to the well being of the official system.
I welcome everyone to offer suggestions and comments on the direction we, as an association, need to proceed during my term as President of AAGIWA. I look forward to serving AAGIWA and will devote as much time as needed to address everyone's concerns. See everyone in Cincinnati in April.
Tom Dahl, AAGIWA President
Sioux City Inspection & Weighing Service
The CHAFF newsletter is published four times a year by the American Association of Grain Inspection and Weighing Agencies. Please email any suggestions or stories (including photos) by June 1, 2005 to Sandra Bredthauer at sbredthauer@fbx.com or mail to P.O. Box 250, Iowa Falls, Iowa 50126.
Thank you!
www.aagiwa.org
Be sure to visit the AAGIWA web-site as the grain-gram is posted on the site along with other information. If you have news of interest and would like to share it with other AAGIWA members send it to one of the officers or board members and it will be sent to be posted on the site.