“Port of Morrow allows thousands of gallons of wastewater to leak and fails to alert DEQ”

March 29, 2023 Oregon Rural Action

By Alex Baumhardt | Oregon Capital Chronicle | March 29, 2023

The Port of Morrow, the state’s second-largest port, faces a new violation over contamination in eastern Oregon that may have been going on for some time. The violation is linked to a spill of port wastewater in an area reeling from years of water contamination from the port and other sources. The Department of Environmental Quality, which failed for years to act, is now negotiating a settlement with the port over previous violations. DEQ appears to have been slow to act again, waiting weeks until two people complained about the spill. The agency, which regulates the port’s wastewater system, asked the port about the leak in mid-January after a second area resident complained to the agency that they’d heard about a leak or seen pooling water around the port’s main pipeline. DEQ officials asked port officials the day it received the second complaint whether its main pipeline carrying contaminated water from its industrial facilities in Boardman to nearby storage ponds was leaking atop an already contaminated aquifer.