February 2025: Letter to Gov Kotek
Oregon Rural Action
P.O. Box 1231
La Grande, OR 97850
Phone (541) 975-2411
www.oregonrural.org
Feb. 21, 2024
To: Oregon Governor Tina Kotek
From: Oregon Rural Action and the directly impacted
community of the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area,
and the undersigned 25 organizations and leaders
Dear Governor Kotek,
We write to express our extreme concern regarding EO 25-02, issued on January 13, 2025, which declared a “state of emergency due to risk of economic shutdown” at the Port of Morrow in the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area (LUBGWMA).
This order was requested by the Port and granted under threat of mass layoffs from polluting industries. The Port claimed that it would be unable to continue operating without violating its permit, and essentially argued that thousands of workers would be laid off unless it was granted permission to violate its permit with relative impunity for the rest of this winter season. The Port invoked the order on February 17 and, presumably, has been spreading wastewater in violation of its permit since then.
We believe this decision was misguided and may have been based on incomplete, misleading, or inaccurate information. EO 25-02 needlessly allows for increased pollution during the high-risk winter season when the risk to the public is highest, threatening to worsen an already severe crisis.
We therefore ask that you immediately rescind the order and finally declare a public health and environmental emergency in the Lower Umatilla Basin, as those directly impacted by this crisis have been asking for more than two years.
In requesting the emergency order, the Port made the following misleading arguments:
Lagoon storage space was quickly running out;
Extreme and unexpected levels of rain and snow made permit compliance difficult;
Wastewater volumes were outpacing the Port’s wastewater storage capacity; and
Allowing it to violate its permit in the way it requested would not pose any additional risk to groundwater or drinking water.
In truth, none of these claims withstand even the gentlest scrutiny. Forecasts, data, and reports from state agencies – and even the Port itself – contradict the Port’s own arguments. This inconsistency raises serious questions about why the Port truly made this request and why it was granted, and it also raises broader questions about whether the state is willing to prioritize the health and wellbeing of rural Oregonians over the profits and politics of big industry. This order continues the unjust legacy of prioritizing the economics of big industry over the public health of their workers and communities.
Failure to Use Wastewater Storage
In its request for this emergency order, the Port asserted that it was quickly running out of storage space for its wastewater, implying that it would have no choice but to either shut down or violate its permit by overloading local fields with wastewater. That assertion was false, as evidenced by the Port’s own monthly reports to DEQ.
Based on the Port’s monthly monitoring reports, it is clear that the Port had used only a fraction of its available wastewater storage capacity leading up to the emergency order. As of December 31, 2024, less than two weeks before the order was issued, the Port had utilized less than half of its total wastewater storage capacity. The Port’s lagoons were just 44% full at that time, leaving roughly 335 million of its current 600 million gallon lagoon capacity available to store additional wastewater this winter.
In fact, the amount of wastewater being stored in the Port’s lagoons declined from November to December. Records show that the lagoons fell from roughly 49% full on Nov. 30 to 44% full by Dec. 31, just two weeks before the emergency order was declared. The December 31 figures described here were not provided to DEQ in the Port of Morrow’s monthly monitoring report until late on the afternoon of January 15, 2025, two days after the emergency order was issued.
(Above) Based on Port of Morrow Facility Monitoring Reports for Nov. & Dec. 2024,
obtained by public records requests to DEQ
The Port had also utilized its 600 million gallons of lagoon storage capacity significantly less this winter compared to last winter. As of December 31, 2023, the Port’s lagoons were roughly 56% full, compared to just 44% full at the same time this year. Note that this does not appear to be due to a reduction in wastewater production.
Notably, the Port spread some 314 million gallons of untreated industrial wastewater on fields in November and December under the permit – significantly less than the 335 million gallons of lagoon storage space still available at the end of December. And, as detailed below, drier conditions and reduced wastewater production were predicted for the rest of the winter, both of which would reduce demand for lagoon storage space, raising the question of why the Port could not simply use its remaining storage capacity to avoid dumping pollution this winter.
And finally, the most recent monitoring report from the Port of Morrow – which DEQ received on Feb. 14 – indicates that as of January 31, the Port’s lagoons still had more than 197 million gallons of lagoon storage available for the month of February. However, with roughly one-third of its lagoon capacity still available just two weeks earlier, the Port invoked EO 25-02 on February 17. The Port could arguably fit one month’s worth of wastewater into the remaining lagoon space available with ease, especially considering the wastewater volume reductions and dry conditions described below.
Reports from the Port itself directly contradict its argument that it was running out of storage space, which was a cornerstone of its request for this emergency order and the justification for invoking the order.
2. Precipitation was Expected and Manageable
It’s common knowledge that winter is the wet season in the Lower Umatilla Basin, and it should have come as no surprise to the Port that it would have to contend with wet fields prone to leaching. Wetter than average conditions were long forecasted for the Basin in late 2024, and were not expected to persist for the rest of this winter. However, the Port’s request for this emergency order raises questions about whether it had properly planned its wastewater management for the high-risk winter season.
Public records requests of emails between the Port, DEQ, and the Governor’s office show that the Port argued permit violations would be unavoidable because unexpectedly wet conditions had saturated fields where the Port is allowed to dispose of its wastewater. The Port’s permit prohibits overloading fields with either contaminants or moisture because doing either increases the risk of leaching nitrate to groundwater.
In truth, this winter was long predicted to be somewhat wetter than average, and levels of precipitation were far from unprecedented in November and December. Conditions have also been far drier than normal overall through January, and precipitation is forecasted to be far below average in February.
Forecasts from the National Weather Service, Department of Agriculture, and others had long predicted La Nina conditions this winter. ODA’s seasonal climate forecast called for higher than average precipitation for the final months of 2024, predicting 9% above-average rain and snow for the months of October through December. Actual rainfall ended up being slightly higher at 19% above average, according to ODA’s seasonal climate forecast verification, which was published just days after the emergency order was issued on January 17. At less than 20% above average, precipitation in the final months of 2024 was far from unprecedented.
Critically, wetter-than-average conditions have not persisted and the remainder of this winter is predicted to be extremely dry. Conditions in January ranged from drier than average to extremely dry, and the weeks immediately following the emergency order saw remarkably little rain or snow. According to the Oregon Water Resources Dept., the entire state of Oregon saw less than 25% of average precipitation from Jan. 13-26, including the Lower Umatilla Basin.
The Port’s monthly monitoring report from January, however, indicates that wastewater applications at the Port’s farms ceased on January 9th and did not resume in January due to “freezing weather and snow precipitation for the remainder of the month.” However, data from the National Weather Service also shows that nearly no precipitation was seen in the Boardman area since the first week of January, and low overnight temperatures did not begin until Jan. 20.
…the beginning of the month saw some irrigation within compliance and then the system was shut down due to freezing weather and snow precipitation for the remainder of the month.”
Port official to DEQ, January 2025 FMR
(Above) Source: OWRD Oregon Water Conditions Reports - Jan. 27. 2025 and Feb.10, 2025
Overall, February was also expected to be extremely dry. ODA forecasted that rain and snowfall will reach only 52% of average for the month. That forecast from ODA was released within days of the emergency order and directly contradicts the Port’s argument that unprecedented levels of precipitation would continue for the rest of the winter.
(Above) Source: based on Oregon Dept. of Agriculture Seasonal Climate Forecast & Verification, Jan. 17, 2025
To summarize: precipitation was somewhat above average before EO 25-02 was issued, as was predicted, and conditions have ranged from relatively normal to extremely dry since then. Conditions were well within the Port’s ability to plan for and manage, and did not stop it from spreading contaminated wastewater during wetter conditions in November and December. This directly contradicts the Port’s argument that abnormally high precipitation would make permit violations unavoidable, and raises the question of whether poor planning by the Port should merit an “economic emergency” declaration to shield it from accountability.
3. Expected Cuts to Wastewater Volume
While the Port argued that wastewater production would outpace storage capacity, the facts on the ground indicate a different story. In truth, the Port’s wastewater volume in November and December was relatively normal overall compared to the year before, fell in January, and is expected to be much less in February.
Monthly reports to DEQ show that the Port operated largely as normal in November and December 2024 compared to a year before. During the previous non-growing season in 2023-24, the Port produced an average of roughly 196.4 million gallons of wastewater per month. During the first two months of the 2024-25 non-growing season, that production had remained largely unchanged at an overall average of 194 million gallons per month.
Additionally, no increase in wastewater volume was expected for the rest of the winter – to the contrary, the Port expected a decrease in wastewater production. Oregon Rural Action obtained emails between Port officials and DEQ staff, in which the Port claimed it could expect a decrease in wastewater volume by tens of millions of gallons – less pollution created, therefore less pollution that needs to be stored or dumped on farmland.
In communications with DEQ, the Port said it expected wastewater reductions of 48% in January and a 100% reduction in February at the Lamb Weston “West” facility due to a pre-scheduled maintenance shutdown. The Lamb Weston “East” facility also planned a shutdown from Dec. 29 - Jan. 12, and the Oregon Potato Co. had pledged a 19-32% reduction for the rest of the winter, according to public records of emails from the Port. All of these actions would increase storage availability and decrease the need to dump untreated wastewater on local fields. These reductions can be seen in data reported by the Port, with wastewater volume falling by just over 11 million gallons from December to January.
Another effort to decrease wastewater volume pumped to storage lagoons was at the Tillamook dairy processing facility. According to Port communications, that facility is “diverting” 50% of its contaminated wastewater away from the Port’s wastewater system. DEQ staff recently confirmed that Tillamook’s diverted wastewater is being hauled by truck to the massive manure lagoons at the nearby Threemile Canyon Farms mega-dairy complex, where it will ultimately be disposed of via permitted land application just a few miles west of the Port’s fields.
While the dissonance of allowing wastewater to simply be spread on Threemile’s fields rather than the Port’s is frustrating, the relative reductions mean that the Port’s system will have to manage significantly less wastewater for the remainder of this non-growing season. And, as mentioned above, the remainder of this winter is expected to be far drier than average. The Port was already well-positioned to minimize land applications of wastewater for the rest of the season before the emergency order was even issued.
(Above) This aerial image, taken by Oregon Rural Action staff, shows just some of the lagoons and confinement pens at the mega-CAFO complex known as Threemile Canyon Farms, located just west of Boardman.
4. Increased Risk to Groundwater
Perhaps most disturbing of all of the Port’s arguments for the emergency order was the claim additional winter dumping would pose no risk or harm to groundwater or domestic drinking water. This is an absurd claim that not only flies in the face of common sense, but also contradicts a recently published DEQ study.
The findings of the long-awaited update to DEQ’s analysis of nitrate trends in the Basin was released just days after the Governor’s emergency order was declared. It shows that nitrate pollution in groundwater continues to increase across the LUBGWMA and it confirms that nitrate levels have risen steadily for at least 35 years. A number of findings from that analysis contradict the notion that the emergency order would not allow further groundwater pollution.
The analysis found that land use decisions appeared to have a direct impact on groundwater (i.e., what you do on the land affects the water underneath it). Another key finding was that nitrate levels are highest in springtime. This suggests that increased nitrate leaching occurs during the winter months, builds, and peaks in the spring. In short, the analysis found that nitrate in groundwater is getting worse, adding more pollution to the land makes it worse, and winter is the worst time to pollute the land.
EO 25-02 threatens to allow the Port to increase the amount of pollution spread on farmland in the winter with no repercussions. This decision clearly and unambiguously increases the risk of groundwater contamination by the Port.
Individually, each of the facts detailed thus far raises doubts about the reasons cited for issuing the order. Taken together, they raise serious concerns about whether EO 25-02 is necessary, proper, or well-informed, and support our call to revoke the order immediately.
5. Excusing DEQ & Industry Failures
This order not only excuses decades of failure by the Port of Morrow to invest in responsible management of its wastewater, but also DEQ’s failures to effectively regulate sources of pollution like the Port and enforce state laws like the Groundwater Quality Protection Act of 1989.
The Port has created its own pollution problem through decades of failure to invest in wastewater treatment, poor and rushed planning, exposing its farm partners to legal risk through permit violations, and more. It has polluted with relative impunity for decades due to DEQ’s “customer service” approach to polluters. The state has failed to enforce the law, failed to do sufficient due diligence on polluters’ permits, and failed to protect and prioritize the polluted public.
DEQ has repeatedly granted the Port’s requests to modify its permit since the significant changes made in November 2022, which were the result of a legal settlement with the Port. Since then, DEQ has modified the permit 4 times – each of those modifications were requested by the Port of Morrow, approved by DEQ, and vigorously opposed by dozens of community members (when given the opportunity to provide public comment by DEQ). During the Port’s most recent permit modification, some three dozen individual community members with contaminated wells submitted public comments in opposition – many were forced to provide public comments anonymously, and many more chose to withhold their comments due to fear of retaliation from their polluter employers.
This emergency order raises troubling questions about DEQ’s approach to managing pollution from the Port, particularly in the context of the most recent permit modification in October 2024. That modification included changes that, DEQ argued, would make it easier for the Port to comply with its permit this winter. This included stripping away permit conditions the Port had struggled to meet in the past such as the 30-lb rule, which accounted for many of the 881 permit violations the Port accrued last winter, and the addition of 5,300 new acres for wastewater disposal, known as Farm 6.
DEQ defended the Port’s proposal to expand to Farm 6, the former Easterday Dairy site, which was shut down following hundreds of CAFO permit violations and nitrate pollution in 2019. The site is a large swath of farmland upgradient of Boardman where the Port wanted to start spreading its wastewater this winter. In theory, DEQ claimed this would allow the Port to spread the pollution over an even greater area, reducing the load in any one field and reducing the risk of further groundwater contamination during the high-risk winter season. This approach has been tried repeatedly for decades and has never proven successful; however, DEQ officials repeatedly indicated that this addition was critical to alleviating the risk of pollution this winter.
However, since DEQ approved Farm 6 in late October, it has become clear that the Port did not have the permissions it needed to actually use those acres this winter. As it turns out, DEQ approved the Port’s expansion at Farm 6 before it had cleared basic hurdles to being able to use the land for untreated wastewater disposal.
Correspondence records show that Farm 6 was already leased to another agricultural operator at the time of approval, and the Port has not only struggled to obtain permission to spread wastewater from that operator, but also had not obtained a Land Use Compatibility Statement (LUCS) from Morrow County before DEQ approved the site. The Port was then slow to obtain a LUCS due to appeals from a small neighboring dairy, which cited concerns in public meetings that its cattle and workers would be exposed to potential health risks from wastewater spread at Farm 6, and that the well it uses to supply drinking water would be contaminated by nitrate or other contaminants. Farm 6 sits upwind, upgradient, and directly across a fenceline from the neighboring dairy, meaning that spray in high winds and leaching due to overloading may present a serious risk. DEQ approved the expansion despite this concern.
It would appear that DEQ rushed to approve Farm 6, and as a result, the promise of using Farm 6 to mitigate the risk of groundwater contamination this winter has thus far been broken. The Port’s poor planning and forethought on Farm 6 and DEQ’s lack of due diligence into the polluter’s assertions contributed to the ongoing pollution this winter. Local public and environmental health bear the brunt of their haste and mistakes.
DEQ met with directly impacted community members to discuss the proposed modifications, and dozens then submitted public comments in opposition following that meeting. DEQ approved the Port’s request against their wishes almost immediately after public comment closed and, to date, has not responded to community members’ comments. Once again, their input was simply disregarded.
This is just the latest in a long and ever-growing string of broken promises by the Port that have received DEQ’s blessing. The October 2024 permit modification also allowed the Port to delay construction of a desperately needed wastewater treatment system by four years, and DEQ’s commitments to meaningfully involve the input of those directly impacted in decision-making have manifested as symbolic public comment periods at best.
Furthermore, correspondence records suggest that the Port may have requested the emergency order for other reasons – specifically, to alleviate tensions between the Port and farmers who apply untreated wastewater on their land. The operator of at least one of those farms – Farm 4 – is a defendant in a federal class action lawsuit over nitrate pollution, along with the Port of Morrow and other sources of pollution in the area.
“Because the Port’s farmer partners are unwilling to apply wastewater in violation of the Permit, this would force the Port to cease accepting wastewater from the industries that it serves.”
Dec. 6, 2024 letter from the Port of Morrow to DEQ
The above statement from a Port official to DEQ raises doubts about whether the request was truly made due to unmanageable winter weather and a shortage of wastewater storage space. Correspondence instead suggests that the emergency order may have been needed to convince farms to continue to take wastewater because they had become reluctant to violate the permit on behalf of the Port. The Governor’s emergency order eliminates the permit restrictions, allowing farms to apply wastewater without fear of breaking the law or being held accountable.
6. Economics over Health
EO 25-02, for all its faults, lays bare the truth behind decisions about how the State of Oregon approaches pollution in the Lower Umatilla Basin – which the state has allowed to become a sacrifice zone.
In its request for this emergency order, Port officials wrote the following:
“To avoid industrial shutdowns while still ensuring the protection of groundwater and groundwater users, the Port requests that DEQ modify the Permit’s restrictions on the winter (“non-growing season”) application of wastewater as follows.”
Port of Morrow letter to DEQ permitting staff, Dec. 6, 2024
The text of EO 25-02 is nearly a copy of the language in that request:
“To avoid a shutdown of food processing and agricultural industries in Morrow and Umatilla Counties and the resulting economic consequences while ensuring the protection of groundwater and groundwater users, the restrictions… are waived for the duration of this Executive Order.”
Executive Order 25-02, issued January 13, 2025
Polluters asked for special treatment based on misleading claims, and polluters received. Those affected by pollution were not consulted on this decision, and when consulted in the past, have not been listened to. The emergency order shows trust in chronic polluters but does not verify their claims or seriously consider impacts to our health or environment.
There is a reason why the Lower Umatilla Basin is a sacrifice zone. There is a reason why the Basin is home to a 35-year-long drinking water pollution crisis. There is a reason why nitrate levels have relentlessly increased across the Basin for decades; why 43% of the entire state’s emissions from large industry are concentrated in the Basin; why working-class and Latino families are on the frontlines of some of the State’s worst pollution.
Those reasons are simple – money, power, politics, racism, classism, and greed. The reason is a lack of will to enforce the law, fight for rural Oregonians, and stand up to powerful corporations who profit by polluting our communities.
Tillamook is a $1.3 billion dollar corporation and one of the largest manufacturers of processed dairy products in the United States, according to its own press releases. The mega-dairy complex outside Boardman where Tillamook gets milk for its plant at the Port – Threemile Canyon Farms – is one of the largest confined animal feeding operations in the United States. Lamb Weston, which boasts about selling $6-7 billion in processed potato products each year, operates two large factories at the Port of Morrow and one in Hermiston. Portland General Electric, which runs two massive fossil gas power plants in the Basin, has a reported market value of over $4 billion. Amazon, one of the largest and most powerful corporations in the history of the world, operates five massive data centers at the Port of Morrow alone. And the Port of Morrow claims around $2.3 million in daily economic output.
All are sources of pollution in an area called home by around 45,000 people. Those people are disproportionately low-income, non-english speaking, and working class. They are actively marginalized.
There is indeed an emergency in the Lower Umatilla Basin, but it is not an economic one. The true emergency is about public health and justice for the victims of pollution, and it persists because the profits of billion-dollar corporations continue to be prioritized over the health and wellbeing of Oregonians.
Governor Kotek, we need your leadership to reverse the unjust status quo that has allowed our communities to become some of the most polluted places in the State. We ask that you immediately rescind the Port’s emergency order to pollute, and we once again ask that you finally declare a public health emergency in the Lower Umatilla Basin.
Unlike the million- and billion-dollar corporations polluting our water while claiming poverty and threatening our jobs, we desperately need an emergency declaration. We need a surge of resources to the area to finally complete domestic well testing and re-testing efforts, to increase oversight and accountability of polluters, to fully assess the health impacts nitrate pollution has had on our communities, and at long last, to empower those affected by industry’s pollution to chart the future of their communities.
We ask that you act with speed – pollution grows worse with each passing day.
Sincerely,
Oregon Rural Action and the directly impacted communities of the Lower Umatilla Basin, and the undersigned organizations and leaders
Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN)
Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project
Center for Biological Diversity
Center for Food Safety
Beyond Toxics
Verde
Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC)
Greater Hells Canyon Council
Disaster & Climate Resilience, Oregon Synod of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America)
Mitch Wolgamott, former Oregon DEQ Eastern Region Administrator
Jim Doherty, former Morrow County Commissioner, past president of the Association of Oregon Counties, and an eastern Oregon rancher
Food and Water Watch
Columbia Riverkeeper
Rogue Climate
Coalición Fortaleza
APANO
Latino Network
Friends of Family Farmers
Oregon Wild
Plaza de Nuestra Comunidad
Farmworker Housing Development Corporation
Evolve Workforce Development & Multifamily Housing
Capaces Leadership Institute
Oregon Just Transition Alliance (OJTA)
The Next Door Inc.