“28 groups, former DEQ staff ask governor to intervene urgently in east Oregon water contamination”

May 28, 2024 Oregon Rural Action

By Alex Baumhardt | Oregon Capital Chronicle | May 28, 2024

The nonprofit Oregon Rural Action, along with former state environmental regulators and a large coalition of nonprofit groups, is again calling on Gov. Tina Kotek to declare an emergency over drinking water contamination in eastern Oregon and to intervene urgently. The nonprofit sent a letter Tuesday to Kotek that was cosigned by 27 organizations and two former staff of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. It called the nitrate contamination in the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater area “among the most pressing environmental justice issues in Oregon,” and said the state continues to be far too slow in responding to the needs of residents who deserve safe drinking water. Nitrogen from farm fertilizers, animal manure and food processing facilities in the area has for decades seeped into a groundwater aquifer that supplies water to thousands of household wells in Morrow and Umatilla counties, disproportionately serving many low-income and Latino residents. Once bound with water, nitrogen becomes nitrate, which is harmful to consume at high levels over long periods.