“Eastern Oregon likely to get fraction of money requested from state for drinking water emergency”

September 16, 2022 Oregon Rural Action

By Alex Baumhardt | Oregon Capital Chronicle | September 16, 2022

Doherty said the $882,000 now being considered will not be sufficient to ensure that all of the wells in the counties are tested and that every resident in need will have filters for safe drinking water this year. Doherty, the Morrow County Public Health Department and Oregon Rural Action, a nonprofit focused on social justice and the environment, have conducted the bulk of the water testing. He said the health authority should have been doing that and paying for it for years. OHA is not responsible by law for water safety in private wells, but it has been responsible for coming up with a plan to help with contaminated well water in Morrow and Umatilla Counties. In 2021, it submitted a plan to do so to the federal Environmental Protection Agency after several organizations petitioned the agency to do something about the area’s water pollution. EPA is still considering whether or not to intervene in the region.