A Hermiston water tower in Hermiston, Ore., on Jan. 16, 2025.
Antonio Sierra / OPB
It’s been two years since Hermiston officials revealed Eastern Oregon’s largest city had “forever chemicals” in its water supply. It may be years more before Hermiston residents get more information about the discovery.
Exposure to PFAS has been linked to cancers, impacts to the liver and heart, and immune and developmental damage to infants and children, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Sometimes referred to as “forever chemicals” because of their resistance to degradation, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are a group of thousands of chemicals often associated with manufacturing and industrial products. Under orders from state and federal governments, Hermiston was among a slate of Oregon cities that tested for PFAS for the first time in 2023.
The city tested again in 2024 and the results are reflected in the city’s 2024 water quality report. The report shows that Hermiston’s water consistently tested above the federal maximum containment level for a PFAS called perfluorooctane sulfonate. Other PFAS chemicals were also detected in the water in the 2024 report.
Hermiston Assistant City Manager Mark Morgan said Hermiston’s water is safe to drink.
Nationwide, environmental regulators have warned of the health risks and set guidelines for maximum levels of PFAS. But the chemicals remain unregulated by federal clean water laws. Under the Biden administration, the EPA finalized rules setting firm limits for public water supplies, but that process stalled under President Trump.
Hermiston city officials said they don’t want to overreact to a trend with limited data and unclear direction from environmental regulations. But in a region long plagued by water quality issues, both locals and people far outside of Eastern Oregon are starting to raise alarms, while state regulators have set a near-term goal to expand PFAS testing and cleanups in Oregon.
‘A wait-and-see’ approach
Although PFAS has been around for decades, Oregon only began formally monitoring the chemicals in drinking water within the past few years.
Kari Salis, a technical unit manager for the Oregon Health Authority Drinking Water Program, said the state started testing for PFAS in select communities in 2021, a follow-up to limited testing mandated by the EPA in 2013. Oregon expanded the scope of testing in 2023 and 2024 to cover roughly 20% of the public water systems in the state.
Hermiston was one of 25 communities to test above the maximum containment level for at least one PFAS. But exceeding that level doesn’t come with any penalties. Salis said the state is waiting on final ruling from the EPA before proceeding with regulations.
Morgan, the Hermiston assistant city manager, said the city hasn’t identified where the PFAS are coming from.
He said the city is taking a “wait-and-see” approach to conducting more testing or addressing any contamination.
“We’re gonna be diligent in implementing what mitigation measures are necessary, but part of being efficient with operating these systems is that we’re not gonna knee jerk into some expensive solution,” Morgan said.
Salis said some equipment, like granulated carbon filters, have proven effective in removing PFAS from water supplies. She added that federal money is available for communities in need of treating their water. Morgan said the city has not yet considered grant opportunities to address PFAS contamination.
Morgan said he suspects that politicians will get involved in the future and the issue could lead to more expenses for the city.
“As far as I know, PFAS is odorless,” he said. “But politically I can smell the unfunded mandate coming.”
It may be a while before Hermiston residents can get an updated picture of their drinking water quality. The city’s next water report won’t include new data, Morgan said, and they don’t have immediate plans to retest. Until then, the city hopes PFAS contamination will be held in check by varying sources feeding into the city’s water system, which draws from both groundwater at different depths, and the Columbia River.
In the meantime, the state is working toward having every water system in the state test for PFAS by 2027, Salis said.
Water quality a growing concern
Hermiston’s PFAS levels were “one of the biggest, brightest flashing lights” in the city’s water data, according to clean water advocate Kaleb Lay. He’s the director of policy and research for Oregon Rural Action.
For the past several years, the nonprofit has advocated for cleaner groundwater as nitrate levels continue to rise due to groundwater pollution in the Lower Umatilla Basin, an area that includes Hermiston.
State and local governments have responded by funding projects to connect residents on domestic wells to municipal water systems, which are more strictly regulated by the federal Clean Water Act. Unlike PFAS, nitrate levels in city water supplies are subject to federal law.
Lay said his organization has fielded questions about whether city water is cleaner than water from domestic wells. After the PFAS detections in Hermiston, Lay has some concerns that its city water is safe to drink.
According to the EPA, studies have linked PFAS exposure to decreased fertility, high blood pressure during pregnancy, developmental delays in children, several different types of cancer, a reduced response to vaccines and increased cholesterol levels. Research is still ongoing and is now focused on how PFAS can accumulate in the body over time.
Without federal rules, Lay said local and state governments could still take some action by collecting more data and identifying potential polluters. A definitive source of PFAS in Hermiston has yet to be identified. Lay said the chemicals found in the water have been linked to agriculture and data centers, two growth industries in the region.
“I worry that the instinct that we’ve observed in the Lower Umatilla Basin to promote industrial growth — damn the cost — is going to make this worse,” he said.
Oregon Rural Action isn’t the only group taking notice.
Marin, Barrett, and Murphy, a national law firm that has experience with lawsuits against companies like 3M and DuPont for PFAS pollution, has a page on their website advising Hermiston residents about the dangers of PFAS exposure. The law group did not return requests for comment.
There is also an active lawsuit against agricultural producers in the Lower Umatilla Basin over nitrate pollution in domestic wells. After a federal judge in Pendleton allowed the lawsuit to move forward, it was transferred to a district court in Portland.
