“Troubled by inaction, Morrow County commissioner makes safe water a top issue”

June 17, 2022 Oregon Rural Action

By Alex Baumhardt | Oregon Capital Chronicle | June 17, 2022

There are at least 1,300 private domestic wells in Morrow County. In May, Doherty and Pineyro expanded their testing effort with help from Oregon Rural Action, a nonprofit based in La Grande. The group has tested the tap water in 59 homes that rely on wells around Boardman and nearby Irrigon. Only 17 had reverse osmosis filters. More than 80% of the water had nitrate levels above the EPA safe drinking water limit. Even among the 17 with reverse-osmosis filters, 11 tested high, meaning it’s possible the water is too hard for the filter to properly work, or the homeowner hadn’t replaced the membrane inside the filter frequently enough. Zaira Sanchez is director of community organizing for Oregon Rural Action. She recently delivered test results to a number of people. “One woman was very much pregnant, due anytime now, and her results were 41” parts per million, Sanchez said. “They were drinking that water. I felt bad delivering that news and seeing that genuine fear.” One man whose water was more than double the federal nitrate limit said his wife had suffered two miscarriages. “He wondered if the water could be the cause,” Sanchez said. On June 9, Morrow County declared an emergency over the groundwater nitrate issue.