New Oregon bill proposes stronger state action on nitrate pollution in groundwater
By EHN Curators | EHN | May 7, 2025
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has introduced a bill to give the state more authority to regulate groundwater pollution, drawing both support and widespread opposition from private well owners and the agricultural industry.
Antonio Sierra reports for Oregon Public Broadcasting.
In short:
Senate Bill 1154 would overhaul Oregon’s 36-year-old groundwater protection law, empowering state agencies to enforce pollution controls, particularly against agricultural polluters.
Critics, including hundreds of private well owners and agricultural groups, argue the bill threatens rural water rights and property access, while supporters emphasize the public health dangers posed by rising nitrate levels.
The bill introduces a three-tiered system — green, yellow, and red — to classify groundwater safety and determine regulatory responses, with the strictest measures applied to heavily polluted areas like the Lower Umatilla Basin.
Governor turns ‘lessons’ from Eastern Oregon nitrate crisis into a reform bill
By Antonio Sierra | OPB | May 5, 2025
When Morrow County declared a state of emergency in 2022 over the high levels of nitrates found in the Lower Umatilla Basin’s groundwater, the long-term response to the crisis was a jumble of local committees and state agencies that had made no discernible progress on lowering nitrate levels in more than 30 years. Nearly three years later, the governor is behind a bill that would put the state firmly in charge of groundwater quality across the state.
Senate Bill 1154 is an attempt to rework the 36-year-old Oregon Groundwater Quality Protection Act so that the state relies more on regulation and less on good intentions to fix groundwater pollution. This includes giving state agencies the authority to take action against agricultural polluters, a departure from the current policy that mostly promotes voluntary measures.
Despite being sponsored by Gov. Tina Kotek, the bill does not face a glide path to passage. The agricultural industry is mostly opposed to the bill as it’s written. Hundreds of well owners across the state also have lined up to stop the bill, which they view as an existential threat to rural life.
While the fate of the bill is still uncertain, the governor’s office has indicated that the status quo isn’t working anymore.
Oregon lawmakers punt on bill to prohibit new livestock farms in state’s most polluted areas
By Alejandro Figueroa | OPB | April 9, 2025
The biggest livestock farms could have been prohibited from building new or bigger facilities in some of Oregon’s most polluted groundwater regions under a state legislative bill environmental groups were backing. But it won’t happen this year.
The bill won’t make it to the legislative floor, following a contentious hearing in Salem.
For years, many residents living in the Lower Umatilla Basin in Eastern Oregon have demanded the state government rein in the sources of pollution that have caused a decades-long nitrates crisis in the area, primarily by nitrates from irrigated agriculture and nearby food processing facilities.
That area sits on what’s known as a Groundwater Management Area — designated by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality because of elevated levels of nitrate pollution in groundwater. There’s another area with such designation in the southern Willamette Valley and one in northern Malheur County.
Opposition packs hearing on Gov. Kotek proposal to update critical groundwater area protections
By Alex Baumhardt | Oregon Capital Chronicle | April 9, 2025
Gov. Tina Kotek’s proposal to give state agencies more authority to intervene earlier in Oregon’s contaminated groundwater areas met massive opposition at its first public hearing.
Two rooms and two separate hearings were scheduled Tuesday to accommodate all of the people who went to the Capitol to offer testimony on Senate Bill 1154 during a meeting of the Senate Natural Resources and Wildfire Committee. The bill was sent to the Senate Rules Committee without recommendation, where it will receive another public hearing in the weeks ahead.
Bill advocates say it would provide much-needed updates to the state’s Groundwater Quality Protection Act first passed in 1989. That act was meant to conserve groundwater resources and prevent contamination following well-testing across the state that showed many contained water with high levels of agricultural chemicals.
Merkley encourages crowd to stay engaged, hold government accountable
By Yasser Marte | East Oregonian | March 18, 2025
BOARDMAN — Before stepping into his town hall meeting, Oregon U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley criticized President Donald Trump’s actions with a clear message: “You do not stop a bully by handing over your lunch money and you don’t stop a tyrant by handing them more money.”
Merkley in an interview before his town hall March 18 at the SAGE Center in Boardman said the primary reasons he did not vote with Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer’s support for a budget bill Republicans wrote to avoid a government shutdown were the significant challenges Trump poses to the republic.
Merkley pointed to Trump’s actions, such as firing inspectors general who are meant to prevent corruption, firing FBI officers, intimidating the press and pressuring members of Congress through threats involving Elon Musk’s money and primary challenges.
Group alleges Port of Morrow misled Kotek for permission to dump toxic water
By Kendra Chamberlain | The Oregonian | March 5, 2025
A group of 26 conservation nonprofits, grassroots organizations and community leaders have signed a letter sent to Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek alleging the Port of Morrow, located along the Columbia River in northeastern Oregon, intentionally misled the governor about its wastewater storage capacity while seeking an emergency order earlier this year.
The Feb. 21 letter, authored by advocacy group Oregon Rural Action and undersigned by a former Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) administrator and a former Morrow County commissioner, among others, requests that the governor rescind an executive order she made in January that allows the Port of Morrow to violate its wastewater permit.
“We believe this decision was misguided and may have been based on incomplete, misleading, or inaccurate information,” the letter reads. “[The executive order] needlessly allows for increased pollution during the high-risk winter season when the risk to the public is highest, threatening to worsen an already severe crisis.”
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Federal nitrate pollution lawsuit against Eastern Oregon farms moves forward
By Antonio Sierra | OPB | Feb. 27, 2025
A federal lawsuit accusing agricultural businesses of polluting groundwater in the Lower Umatilla Basin is moving forward and changing venues.
In an 80-page recommendation released Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Hallman mostly favored a group of Eastern Oregon residents, who filed the lawsuit a year ago. Hallman referred the case from Pendleton to a U.S. District Court in Portland.
The state first recognized the public health threats of high nitrate levels in the Lower Umatilla Basin more than three decades ago. Recent studies show the problems have gotten worse. Consuming high levels of nitrates has been linked to a variety of health issues, like cancer, thyroid disease and kidney disorder. Dangerous levels of nitrates in the Lower Umatilla Basin have long been connected to fertilizers and animal waste leaching into the soil.
Group alleges Port of Morrow mislead governor for permission to dump toxic water
By Kendra Chamberlain | Columbia Insight | Feb. 27, 2025
By Kendra Chamberlain. February 27, 2025. A group of 26 conservation nonprofits, grassroots organizations and community leaders have signed a letter sent to Ore. Gov. Tina Kotek alleging the Port of Morrow, located along the Columbia River in northeastern Oregon, intentionally misled the governor about its wastewater storage capacity while seeking an emergency order earlier this year.
The Feb. 21 letter, authored by advocacy group Oregon Rural Action and undersigned by a former Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) administrator and a former Morrow County commissioner, among others, requests that the governor rescind an executive order she made in January that allows the Port of Morrow to violate its wastewater permit.
“We believe this decision was misguided and may have been based on incomplete, misleading, or inaccurate information,” the letter reads. “[The executive order] needlessly allows for increased pollution during the high-risk winter season when the risk to the public is highest, threatening to worsen an already severe crisis.”
The letter also requests the governor declare a public health and environmental emergency in the Lower Umatilla Basin due to nitrate pollution in groundwater within the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area.
Report: Nitrate levels continue to rise in eastern OR groundwater
By Isobel Charle | MSN - Public News Service | Feb. 5, 2025
A new study by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality found nitrate levels have continued to rise across the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area.
The report found about 40% of the wells tested exceed the limit of safe nitrate levels for drinking water. Exposure to nitrates can lead to blue baby syndrome, birth defects, thyroid problems and cancer, among other things.
Kaleb Lay, director of policy and research for the advocacy group Oregon Rural Action, said the state has known about the high levels of nitrate in the area for decades but has not done enough to address the issue.
Morrow County forms new group to connect residents to safe drinking water
By Antonio Sierra | OPB | Feb. 5, 2025
With nitrate pollution in the Lower Umatilla Basin’s groundwater showing little sign of slowing down, Morrow County is moving forward with a more immediate solution: connecting affected residents to public water systems.
Umatilla and Morrow County commissioners met last year to begin putting together a drinking water action plan funded by a $1.7 million federal grant. A new group of Morrow County officials met this week to take the next steps to carry out drinking water projects.
Chaired by Morrow County Commissioner David Sykes, the Morrow County Clean Water Consortium is a partnership between the county and the Port of Morrow. Seeded with $900,000 from the county, port and the Columbia River Enterprise Zone, the group wants to move some residents affected by nitrates off of well water and onto using municipal water sources.
As one of its first acts, the board appointed Morrow County manager Matt Jensen as the consortium’s managing director.