“Why is eastern Oregon’s groundwater contamination crisis still unresolved after 30 years? Beat Check podcast”
By Gosia Wozniacka | The Oregonian | June 24, 2024
“Authorities in Oregon have known for over three decades that groundwater in the eastern part of the state, a rural region where many people rely on domestic wells for drinking water, is contaminated with high levels of nitrates and unsafe to drink – yet, until recently, have done little to address the problem.
Until 2022, many people in the region had no idea they had been drinking contaminated water for years. Some still don’t know it because the state has tested only about half the affected domestic wells despite a 2023 deadline to finish the testing.”
Listen to the Podcast below.
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“Governor Tina Kotek responds to Lower Umatilla Basin nitrate crisis, ORA calls for emergency declaration”
By Thomas Metcalf | NonStop Local News - Tri-Cities & Yakima | June 24, 2024
“Oregon Governor Tina Kotek responded on Fri., June 21 to a letter sent by Oregon Rural Action (ORA) in May that called for action against nitrate contamination in wells in the Lower Umatilla Basin.
The letter, signed by over 30 local organizations, said that the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) had not met a Sept. 30, 2023 deadline to test all rural wells, stating that only 30 percent had been tested. Since that deadline, ORA alleges that about half of all wells are still untested.
In a response letter, Gov. Kotek states that the State of Oregon is working with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on “providing safe drinking water and remediation of the underlying aquifer contamination.””
“Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek lays out new nitrate goals amid criticism”
By Antonio Sierra | OPB | June 24, 2024
“Two months after her return visit to the Lower Umatilla Basin, Gov. Tina Kotek has released goals on how the state can better help residents hurt by the ongoing nitrates crisis.
Kotek detailed her new plans in a Friday letter to Oregon Rural Action after the La Grande-based nonprofit led a coalition demanding the state government do more to test wells for nitrates and connect residents with clean drinking water.
Kotek wrote that she was directing the Oregon Health Authority to hit a number of new benchmarks, including:
- Publishing a web map presenting well test results by July 31
- Surveying all households receiving water deliveries by Sept. 20 to “confirm their needs are being met”
- Completing testing of 30% of the wells that remain untested by June 30, 2025 “with the understanding that well testing is not compulsory”
The letter also set 2024 and 2025 deadlines to send out additional at-home test strips, retest homes at risk of going above federal nitrate limits and address the backlog of homes that need water filters.”
“'Fragmented' structure key hurdle in Lower Umatilla Basin water issues”
By Berit Thorson | East Oregonian | June 15, 2024
“The committee responding to contaminated groundwater in the Lower Umatilla Basin needs to improve communications with the public. But that’s no easy task given the nitrates in the groundwater come from different sources and the problem intersects with multiple regulators and requires solutions of varying levels.
That was the thrust of the message outside liaison Jane Hill delivered Friday, June 14, to the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area Committee.
“Everything you have to work with here is fragmented,” she said in her presentation to the committee.
Hill, who the National Policy Consensus Center hired in January as a liaison to help with interagency coordination, gave a review of what she has noticed in the six months since joining the team.”
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“Our view: Letter criticizes state for being slow to react”
Editorial | Hermiston Herald | June 4, 2024
“The old adage “there is always room for improvement” is an apt description regarding the ongoing effort by the state, local officials to address the lingering water contamination issue in Umatilla County.
Not enough is being done and last week, a group of nonprofit groups — including Oregon Rural Action — penned a letter to Gov. Tina Kotek to declare an emergency over the contamination and for the state to act more decisively on the problem.
The letter was signed by 27 organizations along with two former staff members of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
The letter called the nitrate contamination in the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater area “among the most pressing environmental justice issues in Oregon.”
The letter also criticized the state for being too slow in responding to the needs of residents.”
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“28 groups, former DEQ staff ask governor to intervene urgently in east Oregon water contamination”
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.”
‘The Evergreen’: Eastern Oregon’s polluted drinking water
By Jenn Chávez, Monica Samayoa, & Antonio Sierra | OPB - The Evergreen Podcast | May 6, 2024
““A water pollution crisis has been unfolding in Eastern Oregon for decades. Contamination of the Lower Umatilla Basin’s groundwater with excess nitrates — a naturally occurring chemical also found in fertilizer — has meant residents of Morrow and Umatilla Counties who get their water from private wells are struggling to access clean drinking water. Though the issue has been a known problem for over thirty years, nitrate pollution there is only getting worse, and some residents are still just learning about the risks to their health.
Monica Samayoa, OPB’s climate and environment reporter, and Antonio Sierra, OPB’s rural communities reporter, have been covering the area’s worsening nitrate pollution for years. They join us to talk about how we got here, what’s being done about it, and what locals without clean water still need.”
“Governor, EPA administrator meet with local leaders on nitrate issue”
By Berit Thorson | East Oregonian | April 26, 2024
“Gov. Tina Kotek and Environmental Protection Agency Region 10 Administrator Casey Sixkiller met Wednesday, April 24, with local leaders and organizers to hear what challenges they face in addressing the water nitrate pollution in Morrow and Umatilla counties.
”We’ve been trying to be partners with you from the state to work on the issues here in the community, and there’s been a lot going on,” Kotek told the community-based organizations in her opening remarks. “Not saying we have solved every problem, but our state agencies have been directed to work more closely with everyone. I think we’ve seen some success there.”The meeting at the Boardman campus of Blue Mountain Community College came less than a week after state agency directors from the Department of Environmental Quality, Department of Agriculture and the Water Resources Department held a question-and-answer public meeting.”
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“Kotek returns to Oregon’s Umatilla Basin as locals grapple with nitrate response”
By Antonio Sierra (OPB) and Monica Samayoa | OPB | April 25, 2024
“A year ago, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek promised a “new day” for the Lower Umatilla Basin’s decades-long nitrates crisis. When she returned to Boardman this week, Kotek told community leaders that there are many more days of work ahead before the crisis can be solved.
Since Kotek’s last visit, the state has conducted hundreds of well tests and provided filters or bottled water deliveries to many homes with high nitrate levels. Kotek’s 2023 visit was a milestone for residents of Morrow and Umatilla counties, where nitrate pollution had been a known issue for more than three decades by the time she arrived.
Wells are the primary source of drinking water in the region, and testing has shown nitrate contamination levels increasing, with some wells exceeding the federal standard for safe drinking water limit by five times.
Community members and state agencies have been working to begin to address the decades-long challenge. But local residents have grown impatient as levels continue to increase and little has been done to begin to clean up the issue.”
“More fines for Port of Morrow as unpermitted wastewater dumping continues”
By Alex Baumhardt | Oregon Capital Chronicle | April 8, 2024
“The Port of Morrow continued this winter to spread more nitrogen-contaminated wastewater across eastern Oregon farm fields than permitted, further harming an already contaminated aquifer supplying drinking water to thousands of residents in Morrow and Umatilla counties.
Officials at the state’s second largest port, which sits along the Columbia River in Boardman, knew this would happen. So did regulators at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality who slapped the port with a $727,000 fine on Thursday for more than 880 permit violations over 80 days from November 2023 through February 2024.
“DEQ is continuing to hold the port accountable by issuing penalties when violations occur. It often takes time for facilities to construct necessary pollution control systems to bring them into compliance,” Antony Vorobyov, a spokesperson for the department, said in an email. Vorobyov added that the bulk of excess wastewater was applied to fields deemed at low risk for leaching nitrogen and nitrate into the aquifer.”