“Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley tour reveals Morrow County residents’ frustration with groundwater inaction”

By Antonio Sierra | OPB | January 21, 2023

“As U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley peered underneath a sink belonging to Mike Pearson, the Morrow County local told him that the reverse osmosis filter provided by the county still wasn’t getting enough nitrates out of his drinking water to make it safe.

“I had one in, we tested it,” Pearson said. “And if I remember right, the best we could get is 12. And then when I put this new one in, it’s 26.1.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maintains that any nitrate concentration above 10 parts per million is unsafe to drink.”