Oregon lawmakers passed governor’s groundwater bill, but not without defections
Antonio Sierra | OPB | June 30, 2025
Gov. Tina Kotek’s attempt to provide the first major update to Oregon’s groundwater law in more than 35 years made it through a challenging legislative session, but not before sacrificing support from environmental groups.
Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 1154 in the waning days of this year’s legislative session after a contentious public hearing process. The bill now heads to the governor’s desk for her signature.
Staff for the governor’s office has said that SB 1154 was supposed to take lessons learned from the current groundwater crisis in the Lower Umatilla Basin and turn them into reforms. For decades, the basin’s groundwater has been contaminated by nitrates, a substance that can cause cancer, respiratory illness and “blue baby” syndrome.
Legislature passes Governor’s groundwater protection bill despite criticism it was watered down
Alex Baumhardt | Oregon Capital Chronicle | June 27, 2025
A groundwater protection bill proposed by Gov. Tina Kotek passed its final vote in the Oregon House Friday and will now go to her desk for signing. The bill passed in the Senate earlier this month.
Kotek said Senate Bill 1154 will provide long overdue updates to the state’s Groundwater Quality Protection Act first passed in 1989, giving state agencies more authority to coordinate and to intervene early in Oregon’s contaminated groundwater areas.
Since 1989, three critical groundwater management areas have been identified in Oregon. They are all still considered to be in critical condition due to nitrate contamination, almost entirely from agricultural fertilizers and animal manure, and none have seen vast improvement in the last two to three decades.
Oregon groundwater protection bill passes despite criticism that it’s too weak
Gosia Wozniacka | The Oregonian | June 27, 2025
Legislators have just passed a groundwater protection bill that many nonprofit groups working on groundwater contamination said was too watered down to make a real difference.
Gov. Tina Kotek backed the bill to modernize Oregon’s failed groundwater pollution laws. Kotek has been active in trying to speed up response to the three-decades-old groundwater contamination crisis in the Lower Umatilla Basin, where many residents with nitrate-contaminated domestic wells must rely on bottled drinking water.
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Oregon revised groundwater quality bill flips some detractors and supporters
Mateusz Perkowski | Capital Press | June 12, 2025
The bill’s original version would’ve addressed problems that led to Oregon’s “systemic failure” to remedy nitrate pollution in the Umatilla basin, said Kaleb Lay, policy and research director at the Oregon Rural Action nonprofit.
“Those provisions were in this bill in earlier stages and they need to be put back,” Lay testified before the Senate Rules Committee, which recently approved the amendment. “Our position at this point is that we have withdrawn our support.”
It’s disappointing that lawmakers have caved in to pressure from opponents of the original version of SB 1154, who have relied on false information and fear-mongering, said Amy van Saun, senior attorney for the Center for Food Safety nonprofit.
Without provisions requiring state agencies to exert their regulatory authority under certain circumstances, which were the “heart” of the original bill, the amended version will not be effective in preventing or correcting groundwater contamination, she said.
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Environment, social justice groups withdraw support for governor’s key groundwater protection bill
Alex Baumhardt | Oregon Capital Chronicle | June 10, 2025
Groups that helped champion one of Gov. Tina Kotek’s key groundwater protection bills this session are withdrawing their support and asking the Legislature to let it die for now, following a last-minute amendment they say effectively neutralizes the intent of the legislation.
Senate Bill 1154 as first proposed in February would provide long overdue updates to the state’s Groundwater Quality Protection Act first passed in 1989, giving state agencies more authority to coordinate and to intervene early in Oregon’s contaminated groundwater areas.
Since 1989, three critical groundwater management areas have been identified in Oregon. They are all still considered to be in critical condition due to nitrate contamination, almost entirely from agricultural fertilizers and animal manure, and none have seen vast improvement in the last two to three decades.
Oregon groups withdraw support for weakened groundwater bill
NonStop Local | June 9, 2025
BOARDMAN, Ore. – Oregon Rural Action and other groups have withdrawn support for SB 1154, a bill initially aimed at tackling groundwater pollution across Oregon. The bill, introduced by Governor Kotek, was amended late in the session, removing key regulatory measures.
Kristin Anderson Ostrom, executive director of Oregon Rural Action, expressed disappointment. “Polluters continue to get whatever they want, while the communities directly impacted by pollution are denied what they need and have been asking for – to enforce the law and stop the pollution,” she said.
Groups rally against bill that would exempt Umatilla County from statewide nuclear ban
Alex Baumhardt | Oregon Capital Chronicle | May 20, 2025
A bill that would exempt Umatilla County from the statewide ban on new nuclear energy facilities has drawn the opposition of environmentalists, tribes, doctors and northeast Oregon community groups who showed up Monday at the Capitol in Salem to rally against it.
If passed, House Bill 2410 would allow the state’s Energy Facility Siting Council to approve development of a modular nuclear reactor in northeast Oregon’s Umatilla County. Oregon voters in 1980 approved a statewide ban on new nuclear development, barring the federal government creates a national repository for nuclear waste or voters decide to appeal. Neither has happened.
The bill’s architects characterize it as allowing a “demonstration project” of modular nuclear that would operate on a microgrid and support “community energy resilience.” Small reactors have about one-third the generating capacity of a traditional reactor, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, and can power individual neighborhoods, factories and facilities such as data centers that consume large amounts of energy.
Nonprofit leader calls LUBGWMA ‘sacrifice zone’ during Senate meeting
Berit Thorson | East Oregonian | May 15, 2025
Going against what state agency representatives and local leaders said, Oregon Rural Action’s Kaleb Lay, director of policy and research, said he’s concerned about the progress in northern Morrow and western Umatilla counties regarding well use and drinking water intervention.
Living in the Lower Umatilla Groundwater Management Area means people using wells for drinking water are at risk of having nitrate contamination at levels above what is safe to consume.
Lay was one of 16 people — including local leaders as well as state agency representatives — who offered testimony Tuesday afternoon, May 13, to the Oregon Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire during an informational meeting to hear about the LUBGWMA. “It’s important to remember that in a sacrifice zone, public health (and) state policy are pushed to the back while industrial growth (and) economic output are made the focus,” Lay said. “That is exactly what has happened in the Lower Umatilla Basin.”
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Oregon leaders agree the Lower Umatilla Basin’s nitrates are a crisis. But the funds aren’t there
Alejandro Figueroa & Antonio Sierra | OPB | May 15, 2025
“For years, Oregon state agencies, local governments and committees have hashed and rehashed plans to clean up a decades-long nitrates pollution problem in northern Morrow and Umatilla counties. While nitrate levels continue to rise, there’s one constant: These groups say they need more resources and money to get the job done.
Whether they‘ll get it in the near future is not clear.
“The challenge is this is obviously a long-term and expensive project,” state Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, told OPB. “And we don’t have much bandwidth for expensive projects right now with taxpayer money.’’
Locals on hand for nitrate reduction hearing
By Griffin Beach | Elkhorn Media Group | May 14, 2025
SALEM – The Oregon Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Wildfire had an informational hearing Tuesday on nitrate reduction plan implementation and nitrate management efforts in the Lower Umatilla Basin Ground Water Management Area.
Several local residents testified at the hearing including Port of Morrow Commissioner Joe Taylor, Umatilla County Commissioner Dan Dorran, Morrow County Planning Director Tamra Mabbott, Isabel Gonzalez who sits on the advisory committee for the Morrow County Clean Water Consortium, and Zaira Sanchez of Oregon Rural Action who is a Hermiston resident.
Several representatives from various state departments also spoke, including a representative from Gov. Tina Kotek’s office.