Eastern Oregon food processor points fingers in nitrate pollution lawsuit

A food processor is pointing fingers over who should pay up for contributing to a decades-long nitrate pollution crisis in Oregon’s Morrow and Umatilla counties.

A group of Eastern Oregon residents is suing Lamb Weston Holdings in a federal lawsuit, accusing it of contaminating the groundwater thousands of people rely on for drinking water. Now the company has alleged J.R. Simplot Co. and Shearer’s Foods also contributed to the nitrate problem, and has asked a court to include them in the case.

Attorneys representing Lamb Weston still deny it polluted the groundwater. But they argue the other two food companies should “bear their equitable share of any liability,” if Lamb Weston is also found at fault, according to court records.

Defendants don’t usually go this route until after they’re found liable, Steve Berman, an attorney representing residents who initially filed suit in 2024, told OPB. That’s because they don’t want to admit in the first case there was a problem.

“Here, Lamb Weston is, in my view, admitting it polluted and saying,‘If we did so, we weren’t alone.’ Usually, defendants don’t like to admit that,” Berman said in a statement.

The residents suing Lamb Weston told the court that adding these additional companies to their lawsuit could complicate their case — including their effort to get class-action certification — and could delay a jury trial scheduled for June 2027.

“What Lamb Weston is trying to do with this complaint is get a ruling that it only has to pay its percentage share,” Berman said. “If the court grants that, and some of the other responsible parties can’t pay or aren’t in the case, the class members — not Lamb Weston — absorb the shortfall.”

Through their attorneys, the residents are asking a federal judge handling the case to dismiss Lamb Weston’s request that it should only be responsible for its share of compensation if it’s found liable. They also asked to keep the scheduled 2027 trial date.

A spokesperson for Lamb Weston told OPB it cannot comment on pending litigation, as did a spokesperson for J.R. Simplot and Shearer’s Food.

“We are reviewing the filing with counsel and will respond through the legal process as appropriate,” the spokesperson for Shearer’s wrote in an email.

Lamb Weston allegations

Idaho-based Lamb Weston is one of the nation’s largest producers and processors of frozen french fries. In Oregon, Lamb Weston grows potatoes in Umatilla County and operates a processing plant at the Port of Morrow, according to court documents.

In their federal case, residents accuse the food processor of knowingly over-applying nitrogen-rich wastewater on farmfields and contaminating the groundwater below for years. They are also suing the Port of Morrow, Threemile Canyon Farms, Portland General Electric and Columbia River Processing.

Madison Ranches, a Umatilla County farm, was also a named defendant, but residents recently agreed to drop those legal claims after the company agreed to pay $6.2 million in a settlement.

In court filings, Lamb Weston suggests J.R. Simplot, another major producer of french fries, farms on fields adjacent to or near Madison Ranches and has also applied nitrogen-rich wastewater on those fields since at least 1977. Lamb Weston even suggests that at one point in 2000, J.R. Simplot applied more nitrogen-rich wastewater on its fields than it did, according to court documents.

Earlier this year, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality levied a $31,800 civil penalty against J.R. Simplot for applying nitrogen-rich fertilizer in excess on its fields in Umatilla County.

Similarly, Lamb Weston suggests Snack Alliance Inc., a subsidiary Shearer’s acquired, operated a potato chip and cheese puff processing plant that generated wastewater that was then applied to 300 acres northeast of Madison Ranches from at least 1997 until 2022.