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.