REGION
TUESDAY, MAY 10, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A3
TAINTED WATER
Port of Morrow
pollutes water for
years with little
state action
mittee, tasked with tackling
groundwater issues in the
area for the last 30 years.
Port authorities and reg-
ulators knew all that, yet
the port’s excess pumping
has continued to this day,
according to a three-month
By ALEX BAUMHARDT,
investigation by the Capital
Chronicle involving hun-
COLE SINANIAN and JAEL
dreds of pages of agency
CALLOWAY
Oregon Capital Chronicle
emails, records and more
than a dozen interviews.
BOARDMAN — Gua-
The pollution grew as
dalupe Martinez points to a the port grew, records show.
24-pack of bottled water by Its industrial customers
her kitchen sink with just a
came and expanded fast,
few bottles left, one of thou- and port authorities chose
sands she’s brought home
to continue applying more
over the last 18 years.
of the nitrogen-rich water to
“Ever since we’ve been
more acres of land, rather
living here, we’ve been
than investing in treating
buying water,” she said.
the water and dramatically
The 54-year-old grand-
reducing nitrogen levels.
mother knows she can’t
The nitrogen, originating
drink the water
in crops and
that comes out
the fertilizers
WHAT IS
of her tap. It
put on area
NITRATE?
would make her
farm fi elds,
Nitrate is a naturally
and her family
is washed off
occurring chemical
sick.
produce and
compound.
She is not
fl ushed into
Characteristics: Col-
alone.
the port’s
orless, tasteless and
Thousands
system.
odorless.
of Oregonians
Govern-
Uses: Commonly used
near the town of
ment regula-
in fertilizers and in
Boardman live
tors who could
explosives.
atop an aquifer
have put a stop
Human consump-
so tainted with
to it instead
tion: Nitrate occurs
farming chemi-
dallied for
naturally at safe levels
cals that it’s not
years. They
in some foods and can
safe to drink.
took only
be in drinking water
supplies at levels that
State offi cials
modest steps
pose no health risk.
have known that
to rein in the
Limits: The federal
for more than 30
port’s pol-
Environmental Pro-
years. And so
lution. And
tection Agency set
has one source
health agen-
the limit of 10 parts
of that contam-
cies charged
per million for nitrate
ination — the
with pro-
in drinking water
Port of Morrow.
tecting people
before it becomes
Offi cials
such as Mar-
unsafe to drink over
long periods. Nitrate
at the Oregon
tinez have
levels over 10 parts per
Department of
done little to
million may result in
Environmental
directly warn
serious health defects
Quality have
them their
that can aff ect all ages,
known nitrate
water isn’t
but are especially
pollution in
safe to drink,
harmful to infants and
pregnant women.
area ground-
relying on
water is putting
websites, com-
Health risks: Research
from the National
the health of
munity groups
Cancer Institute
largely low-in-
and their par-
reports that con-
come, Latino
ticipation in
suming water with
and immigrant
local fairs and
nitrate up to even fi ve
families at risk.
public events
parts per million over
An investigation
to do that
long periods of time
by the Capital
work.
can increase the risk of
colon cancer, stomach
Chronicle estab-
For the
cancer and several
lished that little
port, what
other cancers.
has been done
enforcement
about the port’s
was imposed
contribution to
appeared to
area water contamination
be simply the cost of busi-
besides modest fi nes and
ness. Two regulators at
engaging in agreements that DEQ wrote candidly in an
the port in turn violated.
internal memo that it was
For years, port offi cials
cheaper for the port to pay
illegally pumped millions of a state fi ne than to spend
gallons of wastewater con-
millions containing the
taining nitrogen in excess
pollution.
of what was DEQ deemed
As the state prepared
safe. They piped it out from recently to issue its largest
their industrial complex in
fi ne yet to the port, those
Boardman to nearby farms, two DEQ water special-
which used it on their crop- ists wrote the excess nitrate
land. The nitrogen-rich
was likely to impact a com-
water is free — a vital com- munity that is “dispropor-
modity for farmers who
tionately comprised by an
grow onions, potatoes, corn undereducated populus, and
and more. Once applied
also by peoples of color.”
to the farmland, nitrogen
Port’s promise for
transforms into nitrate that
Northeastern Oregon
in turn can make drinking
The Port of Morrow was
water unsafe.
Scientifi c reports show
founded in 1953 with the
groundwater in Morrow
ambition of turning arid
and Umatilla counties has
country on the shoulder of
long been polluted with
the Columbia River into a
nitrates above safe levels,
job-producing mecca about
the majority of which
150 miles east of Portland.
comes from area farms.
It is one of 23 such agencies
The port’s excess dis-
formed in Oregon along
posal, year by year, is sus-
waterways to foster eco-
pected of making the water
nomic expansion.
even worse, according to
The port has acquired
DEQ and the Lower Uma-
12,000 acres of surrounding
tilla Groundwater Basin
land in the decades since.
Management Area Com-
That land now hosts four
industrial parks that include
an ethanol fuel plant,
food processing factories
and a growing number of
data-processing centers.
The port and its industrial
customers account for about
half of the jobs in Morrow
County, according to the
port’s recent economic
analysis.
Operating from head-
quarters in Boardman, a
city of about 4,700, the port
is managed day to day by
an executive director, and
governed by a board of fi ve
who are elected by those
who live within the port’s
boundaries.
Today, that board
includes Rick Stokoe,
chair, Marv Padberg, Jerry
Healy, John Murray and
Joe Taylor. Stokoe has
served for seven years and
is the Boardman police
chief. Padberg, a farmer
and director of the Inland
Development Corp., has
served for 28 years. That
nonprofi t provides fi ber
optic internet in Eastern
Oregon.
Healy has served on the
board for 27 years and also
is president of the Morrow
Development Corp., which
fi nances business and devel-
opment projects in Morrow
County. Taylor, a farmer
and a former director of
the Morrow Soil and Water
Conservation District, has
served for 16 years. Murray,
a pharmacist, was elected
in 2019 to replace Larry
Lindsay, who had been on
the board for 52 years.
Most commissioners
have been in their positions
throughout the port’s explo-
sive growth in size, profi t
and wastewater.
Growing by billions of
dollars and gallons of
wastewater
At the confl uence of the
Union Pacifi c Railroad line,
the Columbia River and
Interstate 84, the port grew
into a main distribution
point for forest products,
grains, root vegetables,
cattle and dairy products
produced in Oregon, Wash-
ington, Idaho, Montana
and Wyoming, according
to the port’s 2021 economic
analysis.
Between 2006 and 2021,
the port’s annual economic
output went from $896 mil-
lion to more than $2.5 bil-
lion, the port reported.
Locally and regionally
grown crops are trucked to
Boardman, where they are
processed into food prod-
ucts. That requires billions
of gallons of water each
year. The nitrogen from
fertilized crops and food
products gets washed into
the processing water that
is then pumped into one of
two storage ponds at the
port, according to port offi -
cials. From there, the waste-
water is pumped out to fi ve
farms through a system of
pipes and pumps.
In 2012, the port handled
about 2.6 billion gallons of
wastewater per year. Now,
it’s up to about 3.6 billion
gallons of wastewater each
year, according to the port.
The bulk of the nitrogen in
that wastewater comes from
two Lamb Weston facilities
at the port where French
fries, hashbrowns and other
potato products are made,
according to the port’s
water discharge reports.
Kathy Aney/Oregon Capital Chronicle
Guadalupe Martinez and her family have lived for 18 years in their Boardman home about 6 miles from
the Port of Morrow’s headquarters. During those years, no one from the port or from any state agency
came to tell them about nitrate, to test their well or provide information and resources related to special
fi lters that can remove the nitrate.
potential trouble with
its wastewater, farmers
receiving the water get a
call from the port.
Madison said such con-
versations start with Miff
Devin, its water specialist.
The water permit
The port’s fi rst permit
from DEQ to discharge
water onto area farmland
came in 1974. Since then,
that government permission
to dump nitrogen-rich water
has been modifi ed and
renewed dozens of times.
Now, the permit requires
port offi cials to monitor
every step in the process to
detect and track nitrogen
and nitrate. That duty falls
to Devin.
He was hired by the
port in 1998 as an IT spe-
cialist. In 2011, he added
water quality specialist to
his duties.
He took on both roles
when the port automated its
water system.
“How a pump works is
basically a giant computer,
and then that evolved,”
Devin explained.
As water quality super-
visor, he is tasked to ensure
the port is within environ-
mental regulations from
DEQ, the Oregon Health
Authority and Oregon
Water Resources Depart-
ment. Part of his job is to
develop ways to improve
and maintain water quality,
according to the port.
Kathy Aney/Oregon Capital Chronicle
Jake Madison crouches in a fi eld of alfalfa, a long-rooted crop that
can absorb more nitrogen than shallow-rooted crops such as corn
and wheat. Along with water from the Columbia River, Madison’s
Echo farm sprays nitrogen-rich water pumped from processing
plants at the Port of Morrow to a holding pond at the farm.
The food processors, like
Lamb Weston, pay the port
to handle the wastewater.
Payments from the pro-
cessors to the port for han-
dling the wastewater make
up 22% of the port’s oper-
ating revenue. In 2001, the
port made about $2 million
from the wastewater. By
2021, the fee was bringing
in nearly $7 million.
The farmers who receive
the water don’t pay for it,
but do share in the costs of
getting it to their farms.
One is Jake Madison,
who owns 17,000 acres in
Echo, about 16 miles from
the port. He’s the fourth
generation on the farm, and
he and his dad, for decades,
have put on their crops
wastewater from a Lamb
Weston French fry plant in
Hermiston.
“I was kind of born and
raised in managing a reuse
farm,” Madison said, using
the reuse term that is pre-
ferred by port offi cials in
describing their wastewater.
Around 2010, he wanted
to get on the port’s waste-
water system as well,
saving him hundreds of
thousands of dollars in fer-
tilizer and providing access
to more water. It took him
fi ve years to strike a deal,
in large part because port
offi cials suddenly had a
pressing need for more
land to use for disposing of
wastewater.
“We said, ‘OK, you
know, given your permit
and the project that we can
build, there should be a
good long-term fi x for you,”
he said.
The port invested $20
million in pipes and pumps
that would move waste-
water to a pond on Madi-
son’s farm to then be spread
over 2,800 acres of, at that
time, onions, potatoes and
grass seed.
But it also meant he
signed up to work within
the limits DEQ imposed
on the volume of nitro-
gen-rich wastewater that
could be applied. He had
to track how much waste-
water he applied and submit
to annual soil and crop
testing. That would tell the
port and DEQ how much
nitrogen the crops were
taking up, and how much
nitrate was making it to the
groundwater.
But the port, not Mad-
ison, is responsible for
seeing the DEQ conditions
were obeyed — and for
facing consequences when
they aren’t.
When the port is facing
MORE ONLINE
A longer version of this story is
available online at www.
lagrandeobserver.com.
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