“LUBGWMA well users should retest water for nitrates, OHA offering free well testing”
Hermiston Herald | July 11, 2024
“The Oregon Health Authority is encouraging people in the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area to get their well water retested for nitrates for free, even those who tested it in 2023.
According to a press release from OHA, retesting households with well water close to the health action level of 10 milligrams nitrate per liter of water is especially important because nitrate levels can fluctuate during different seasons of the year.
Nitrate in well water is a potential health hazard, and levels above 10 milligrams per liter are considered dangerous for human consumption. Pregnant people and babies face the greatest risk, and young animals can be affected in the same way as babies.”
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“Kotek responses to demand for action on water contamination”
By Phil Wright | East Oregonian | June 25, 2024
“Activists pushing Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek to take action to help alleviate the contaminated water crisis in Boardman and nearby areas have received a response.
Kotek sent a letter Friday, June 21, to “Oregon Rural Action and Letter Signatories” laying out what the state has done, what she has has directed and what is coming next to help residents who rely on domestic wells for their drinking water in the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area.
”The conversations we have had during my visits to the region to hear from community members have been substantive and informative,” Kotek said in the letter. “As I have said during those visits, my administration is committed to addressing the significant concerns to safe drinking water in the near term as well as making progress towards long-term solutions.””
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“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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