Oregon’s nitrate ground pollution became notably worse in past 10 years, report finds
By Ryan Haas | OPB | Jan. 23, 2025
The last time the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality compiled comprehensive data on nitrate ground pollution in the Lower Umatilla Basin was 2012. More than a decade later, Oregonians have their first fresh look at nitrate levels in the region, and it’s concerning.
The Department of Environmental Quality released an analysis of groundwater nitrate trends Wednesday for the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area, a stretch of around 550 square miles of farming communities in northern Morrow and northwest Umatilla counties.
Groundwater pollution from nitrates is a well-documented issue in that region, first acknowledged by the state in 1990. Since then, Oregon has struggled to control the seepage of nitrates — potentially carcinogenic compounds that can cause various other health issues — through groundwater into wells used for drinking water.
Wednesday’s report documents tests at 33 wells monitored by DEQ across the large geographic area. The majority of those wells are for domestic use, though two are used for irrigation purposes and one is used for commercial business.
Port of Morrow Allowed to Continue Violating Water Pollution Permit
By Madeline Bove | Food & Water Watch | Jan. 21, 2025
Last week, Governor Tina Kotek issued “a state of emergency due to risk of economic shut down,” that allows the Port of Morrow to violate its wastewater permit and dump pollution in ways that present massive risk to local drinking water and public health. The Port has long contributed to nitrate contamination in the area by overapplying its wastewater on nearby fields. And now, despite a pending emergency petition under the Safe Drinking Water Act to the U.S. EPA and rollbacks to the permit’s environmental protections made – at the Port’s behest – within the last three months, the Port will now be allowed to make the problem worse.
Governor Kotek's state of emergency impacts nitrate pollution in Morrow and Umatilla counties
By Brenden Jin | Non Stop Local | Jan. 16, 2025
Lower Umatilla Basin, Ore. – Oregon Governor Tina Kotek declared a state of emergency due to the risk of economic shutdown in Morrow and Umatilla Counties.
The emergency declaration allows the Port of Morrow to release extra wastewater onto fields within the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area. This exception to the current wastewater permit is intended to manage the overflow of wastewater and keep the local economy running.
Governor Kotek said recent above-average rainfall affects the Port of Morrow wastewater site. This decision aims to prevent a shutdown of food processing and agricultural industries in Morrow and Umatilla counties.
Declaracion de emergencia en Oregon
By Felix Amaya | Telemundo Yakima - TriCities | Jan. 15, 2025
La gobernadora de Oregón, Tina Kotek, declara el estado de emergencia por riesgo de cierre económico en los condados de Morrow y Umatilla.
“Los condados de Morrow y Umatilla son clave para la producción agrícola de nuestro estado: emplean directa e indirectamente a miles de habitantes de Oregón”, afirmó Kotek, “y alimentan no solo a los habitantes de Oregón, sino a familias de todo el mundo”.
El estado de emergencia permite una excepción al permiso actual de aguas residuales del puerto de Morrows con el Departamento de Calidad Ambiental. Ahora se autoriza al puerto a aplicar aguas residuales a los campos en el Área de Gestión de Aguas Subterráneas de la Cuenca Baja de Umatilla si es necesario.
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Oregon port temporarily allowed to apply wastewater to fields despite drinking water concerns
By Antonio Sierra and Monica Samayoa | OPB | Jan. 13, 2025
Oregon will allow the Port of Morrow to dump nitrate-rich wastewater on agricultural fields in the Lower Umatilla Basin through the end of February — despite a drinking water crisis linked to nitrates in the region’s groundwater.
In a statement announcing her executive order declaring a state of emergency, Gov. Tina Kotek said jobs would be at stake in the basin if the state didn’t take action.
According to a press release, a wet winter combined with anticipated rain and freezing conditions means the port is set to exceed its current storage capacity in February. If that happens, it won’t be able to accept wastewater from food processors and other businesses in the area.
Gov. Kotek issues emergency order allowing Port of Morrow to violate water pollution permit
By Alex Baumhardt | Oregon Capital Chronicle | Jan. 13, 2025
Oregon’s second largest port is getting another exception to a water pollution permit it’s violated for much of the last two decades.
Gov. Tina Kotek issued an executive order Monday afternoon, declaring an economic emergency and allowing officials at the Port of Morrow in Boardman six weeks of relief — between Jan. 15 and Feb. 28 — from state penalties for violating their wastewater permit and overapplying nitrogen contaminated water on farmland that sits atop an already contaminated underground aquifer.
That aquifer supplies drinking water to thousands of residents in Morrow and Umatilla counties in northeast Oregon, many of whom cannot drink water safely from their taps because of the pollution. Nitrates, which come from nitrogen, is unhealthy to drink for long periods when it’s above 10 milligrams per liter, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Studies have shown high levels of nitrate consumption can lead to higher risk of certain cancers and birth defects.
Port of Morrow gets gov's OK to apply wastewater in winter
By Berit Thorson | East Oregonian | Jan. 13, 2025
BOARDMAN — Gov. Tina Kotek intervened Monday, Jan. 13, letting the Port of Morrow apply wastewater to low-risk fields in the Lower Umatilla Basin during the nongrowing season, when application is normally prohibited.
Kotek’s executive order is to prevent the port shutting down, as its storage lagoon is near capacity after a heavy rainy period since November. The order goes into effect Jan. 15 and lasts through February, the remainder of the nongrowing season.
Precipitation has been above the 95th percentile of the average for the last 23 years, according to a press release announcing the order. The area had about 3.8 inches of rain in recent months, and the increased precipitation is expected to continue. Every inch of rain represents about 222 million gallons of capacity, meaning the port’s capacity to store wastewater is limited due to the higher precipitation.
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Regulators Battle Oregon and Washington Farmers Over Limits to Farm Contamination
By Keith Schneider | Circle Of Blue - WaterNews | Feb. 27, 2025
SUNNYSIDE, Washington – Waters from the snowpack of the Cascade Mountains support orchards, vineyards and dairies here in the Yakima Valley of eastern Washington State, boosting a flourishing farm economy and helping to stock store grocery shelves nationwide.
But as the waters flow, so do a host of dangerous farm pollutants, contaminating drinking water wells in the valley and through the adjacent Lower Umatilla Basin across the state line in Oregon.
Regulators and citizen groups have been pressing crop and livestock producers for years to document and rein in the pollution, tightening restrictions on some of the nation’s largest dairies, and bringing litigation against several seen out of compliance.
The actions put both Washington and Oregon among a growing number of US states leading a controversial national campaign to make agriculture more accountable for its mammoth wastes.
Groups demand state and federal action on nitrate pollution in letters to Oregon governor, EPA
By Alex Baumhardt | Oregon Capital Chronicle | Oct. 31, 2024
Nonprofit community groups in Oregon and nationwide are calling on elected leaders and officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to exercise their regulatory power to stop growing nitrate pollution in drinking water caused by farm fertilizers.
Nitrate, a compound found in fertilizers and in animal manure, has contaminated an underground aquifer in northeast Oregon for decades, drawing outcry and concerns in recent years over the public health threat it poses to residents in the area. Nitrate contamination has become a problem in rural communities and cities in many parts of the U.S., spurring a group of nearly two dozen nonprofits from several different states to band together to demand the EPA do more to regulate farms and sources of nitrate. Ingesting elevated nitrate concentrations over long periods is particularly bad for pregnant people and infants, and has been linked to adverse health impacts including different cancers and thyroid problems.
In an Oct. 29 letter to the EPA’s water administrator, leaders at Oregon-based WaterWatch, Columbia Riverkeeper and Oregon Rural Action, along with 20 other groups from around the country, requested the EPA meet with them to discuss what the agency could do under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act to protect people living in areas with high contamination. Under that act, people can petition the EPA to take “primacy” over state agencies and to regulate and enforce penalties against water polluters that the state has not.
Federal judge warns ‘no roadmap’ in Eastern Oregon nitrates lawsuit
By Antonio Sierra | OPB | Oct. 30, 2024
By suing some of the largest agricultural producers in the Lower Umatilla Basin, a group of local residents are trying to get the federal courts to do what they say state government has failed at for the past three decades: take decisive action against nitrate pollution.
But as he considered Tuesday whether he should allow the lawsuit to move forward, U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Hallman said the court was moving into new waters.
“There is no roadmap for this type of case,” he told the parties assembled at the federal courthouse in Pendleton.
There were so many attorneys in the small courtroom above the Pendleton post office that some sat in the jury box. Even if there wasn’t a lot of precedent to lean on, lawyers for both sides made their case for why Pearson v. Port of Morrow should be heard by the court or be thrown out entirely.