Oregon agriculture regulators adopt nitrate monitoring rules for Lower Umatilla Basin

The new rules follow several years and attempts to address and clean up a decadeslong water pollution problem.

People living in northern Morrow and Umatilla counties in Eastern Oregon have dealt with polluted drinking water for at least the last three decades.

The problem has long been linked to the nearby food processors and farms that use nitrogen-rich fertilizers that then seep into the Lower Umatilla Basin.

Local advisory committees, state and local agencies have hashed out plans to clean up the groundwater below, but those measures have mostly been voluntary, with little government regulatory action.

Until now.

On March 13, the Oregon Department of Agriculture adopted a first-of-its-kind set of rules that will require virtually all farmers in the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area to draft up a nitrate management plan, have it certified by an agronomist, test the soil on their fields for nitrate and keep records of those tests for at least 10 years.