Port of Morrow continues polluting under new state sanctioned wastewater plan

The state says it will eventually fine the Port of Morrow for continuing to violate its wastewater permit and contaminate a drinking water aquifer

Oregon Capital Chronicle - By Alex Baumhardt - January 26, 2024 6:00 am

The Port of Morrow violated its wastewater permit more than 270 times in the last two months of 2023, overapplying nitrogen rich wastewater to fields atop an aquifer already contaminated by the compound, which is found in farm fertilizers and animal manure. 

Managers at the port alerted officials at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, who expected the contamination and will eventually issue penalties, officials said. But state officials plan to wait several more months as the port likely continues to pollute. In the meantime, business as usual will continue at the state’s second largest port. 

The violations follow years of pollution by the port, which has contributed to the contamination of well water that several thousand local residents rely on, including many low-income, Latino families. The environmental department essentially ignored the situation for years until issuing its first fine of $1.3 million in January 2022. That was bumped up to more than $2 million by June. An investigation by the Capital Chronicle found the port had not just violated its permit for three years, but for most of the last 15 years.

News of the latest pollution disappointed 82-year-old Gary Klinger, a resident of Boardman, where the port is located in eastern Oregon. Klinger had relied for years on his well drawing from the contaminated aquifer until he learned it contained three times the safe limit of nitrates. 

“It’s sad that we have to be put through this, and we have to fight like this to have good water to drink,” he said.