“Morrow County declares emergency over groundwater nitrate pollution”

By Alex Baumhardt | Oregon Capital Chronicle | June 9, 2022

“Oregon Rural Action, a nonprofit based in La Grande, has teamed up with the Morrow County Health Department to test 60 taps in an area just south of Boardman off of the city’s water system and in the nearby town of Irrigon. Both areas sit atop the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Area. 

The county estimates about 1,300 homes in Morrow County rely on well water that draws from this tainted groundwater area. Oregon Rural Action would like the county to eventually test the tap water at all of them. ”