Oregon Rural Action organizer Nella Parks talks about a well contaminated with nitrates with members of the Legislature's BIPOC Caucus near Boardman, Ore., on Nov. 27, 2023.
Antonio Sierra / OPB
With nitrate pollution in the Lower Umatilla Basin’s groundwater showing little sign of slowing down, Morrow County is moving forward with a more immediate solution: connecting affected residents to public water systems.
Umatilla and Morrow County commissioners met last year to begin putting together a drinking water action plan funded by a $1.7 million federal grant. A new group of Morrow County officials met this week to take the next steps to carry out drinking water projects.
Chaired by Morrow County Commissioner David Sykes, the Morrow County Clean Water Consortium is a partnership between the county and the Port of Morrow. Seeded with $900,000 from the county, port and the Columbia River Enterprise Zone, the group wants to move some residents affected by nitrates off of well water and onto using municipal water sources.
As one of its first acts, the board appointed Morrow County manager Matt Jensen as the consortium’s managing director.
“We’re going to do action,” he said. “I know this meeting might seem like we don’t have a lot of action to do, but just organizing this is the first step.”
Groundwater nitrate pollution has been a known problem in the Lower Umatilla Basin for more than three decades. Closely linked to irrigated agriculture and food processing, the pollution mainly affects people who draw their drinking water from domestic wells, putting them at risk of developing health problems like thyroid dysfunction or respiratory infections. A 2022 emergency declared by Morrow County spurred a lot of attention from the local, state and federal governments, but a recent study showed that nitrate pollution is only getting worse.
While the federal grant was mostly intended to put together plans and identify potential projects, the consortium’s stated goal is “pipe in the ground,” according to consortium documents.
Morrow County planner Tamra Mabbott said the group doesn’t yet have a timeline for when it would start funding water projects because there were still some unknown factors.
The Oregon Health Authority released maps in 2024 that showed nitrate levels in domestic well water in parts of Morrow and Umatilla counties.
Oregon Health Authority
At the meeting, the group discussed the potential of federal dollars disappearing. Nicholas Ducote, the consortium’s contracted grant writer, said the Trump administration’s attempt to enact a federal spending freeze was stressful, but reassured the group that he didn’t expect the administration to take back infrastructure grants.
“There’s some specific grant programs that are being canceled, but most of those are what people assumed would happen,” he said. “They’re DEI related, they’re foreign aid. It’s not infrastructure-related … There’s been no indication that some of these grant fundings are closing down.”
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy did write a memo ordering the department to prioritize birth rates in transportation funding, a move that could potentially disadvantage Oregon, which has a lower birth rate than many states in the South and Midwest.
Mabbott said the consortium plans to prioritize West Glen, an unincorporated community south of Boardman city limits. The neighborhood has become a frequent stop on tours through the Lower Umatilla Basin, with Gov. Tina Kotek and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley among the high ranking officials to visit in recent years.
But even if the consortium identifies a project and raises the money to fund it, Mabbott said they will still need buy-in from residents before they can proceed because connecting to a water system could mean new fees and taxes.
At the meeting, the board debated what public representation should look like in the process. While Sykes, the commissioner and board chair, was quick to approve representatives from the cities of Boardman and Irrigon, and Water for Eastern Oregon, a group that represents basin farmers, he refused to allocate two advisory board seats to resident representatives until the board could vet individual candidates.
State Sen. Khanh Pham, second from left, speaks at a community meeting on nitrate pollution as state Rep. Annessa Hartman, center, listens at the Blue Mountain Community College campus in Boardman, Ore. on Nov. 27, 2023.
Antonio Sierra / OPB
Nitrates are also being debated in Salem. State Sen. Khanh Pham, D-Portland, visited the basin as a member of a delegation from the Legislature’s BIPOC Caucus. The Oregon Capital Chronicle reported that Pham has introduced a bill that would require large Oregon farms to track how much fertilizer they apply to their fields.
The bill has drawn opposition from many farmers and farm groups, who say it would lead to fertilizer restrictions. The opposition includes state Rep. Bobby Levy, whose district covers a part of the basin and farms in the area.
Despite the political conflict, Mabbott said the consortium’s intentions are “pure” and focused on solutions.
It was a sentiment echoed by Sykes.
“People need to know our goal is righteous,” he said. “Clean drinking water for them on a permanent basis. What’s better than that?”
