“Northeast Oregonians ask governor to declare emergency over contaminated drinking water”

April 18, 2023 Oregon Rural Action

By Alex Baumhardt | Oregon Capital Chronicle | April 18, 2023

This week about a dozen Morrow County residents and community organizers drove 200 miles from northeast Oregon to Salem to do what their state elected officials had so far been unwilling to do: meet face-to-face to talk about the contaminated drinking water that hundreds — and perhaps thousands — of their neighbors continue to live with. They hoped to meet with Gov. Tina Kotek and ask her to declare a public health emergency to unleash resources for Morrow and Umatilla counties where the wells that more than 4,500 households rely on. Many residents relying on wells are low-income and Latino. They also want the Legislature to allocate $10.2 million for testing and water deliveries to residents over the next two years. Kotek did not meet with the residents, and she did not declare an emergency. Instead, she sent her natural resources adviser, Geoff Huntington to meet with them.