FIRE CHIEF LISTS
SIX POSSIBLE
STATION SITES
CAVS STAY
ALIVE IN
GAME SIX
Philadelphia
approves
soda tax
REGION/3A
NBA FINALS/1B
NATION/9A
FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 2016
140th Year, No. 175
Your Weekend
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
SCHOOL DISTRICTS DECIDE IT’S TIME TO
CHECK THE LEAD
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Pendleton Relay for Life
at Sunridge track
‘Milton’ at McLoughlin
High School auditorium
Louis Romanos Jazz
Quartet at PCA
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Eastern Oregon schools will test
their water taps for lead, joining a
scramble of other Oregon districts
who are doing the same.
How long it will take and how
much it will cost is unknown — as
is the presence of lead in the water.
Federal law does not require
schools test for lead, and Oregon
law only requires schools with their
own water supply to do so. Most
districts in Oregon use city water
systems, which handle their own
testing.
On June 8 the East Oregonian
asked Blue Mountain Community
College and 12 school districts in
Umatilla and Morrow counties for
test result records and policies. The
response was almost universal: with
no law requiring on-site testing,
there have been no tests nor policies.
Mark Mulvihill, superintendent
of the InterMountain Education
Service District, said a state law is
coming and schools will test this
summer.
“It isn’t a good answer to say
it wasn’t a state requirement, but
that is what the answer is,” he said.
“This is all new for us, and we have
to do it right ... and we have to be
transparent with those results.”
Schools are hurrying to test in
the wake of large amounts of lead
found in the Flint, Michigan city
water supply and, more recently,
in Portland public schools. The
ESD in a written statement Tuesday
reported the Oregon Department of
Education and the Oregon Health
Authority in mid May requested
that all school districts that get
drinking water from public systems
test for lead in school buildings.
While public systems test on a
regular basis and treat water to help
reduce corrosion, lead in pipes and
fi xtures can enter the water at the
tap and later into anyone who drinks
from it.
“As a parent, I think, ‘Why didn’t
they have their act together?’”
Mulvihill said. But before Flint and
Portland “were any of us thinking
about lead levels?”
Now local districts will test every
tap, he said, from drinking fountains
in hallways to the faucets in cafete-
rias and teacher lounges. Outdoor
school sites also are the on the
list, and the districts might have to
check places such as the Pendleton
Round-Up Grounds, which hosts
school events.
Umatilla School District already
For times and places
see Coming Events, 6A
Catch a movie
Pixar/Disney via AP
Everyone’s favorite blue
fi sh returns to the big
screen in “Finding Dory.”
For showtime, Page 5A
Weekend Weather
Fri
Sat
Sun
76/53
72/44
75/43
Home visit
between
Courtney,
Brown a
mystery
By HILLARY BORRUD
The Oregonian
SALEM — Two weeks
before Gov. Kate Brown
unveiled her plan for
spending billions of dollars
in new revenue, assuming
a controversial corporate
tax measure passes this fall,
she did something unusual.
On a Sunday, she dropped
by Senate President Peter
Courtney’s home for an
informal meeting.
Did they discuss Brown’s
spending plan for the tax
measure, known as Initiative
Petition 28? What about a
special legislative session
meant to provide an alter-
native to the union-backed
measure? Neither camp will
say yes. Or no.
“We talked about life, and
I’m gonna leave it at that,”
said Courtney, D-Salem,
See MEETING/10A
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
No area school districts were testing for lead in the water, until recent news reports from Portland.
Pendleton without Peterson
Superintendent
retiring after
26 years in district
ODOT asks for
moratorium on
oil train traffi c
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
When Jon Peterson wakes up
July 1, it will be the fi rst time in
26 years he won’t be employed
by the Pendleton School
District.
Peterson announced his
retirement as superintendent
more than a year ago, and with
a successor now in place, his
seven-year tenure atop the
district is drawing to a close. But
Peterson’s hiatus won’t last long
— a newly created position with
the InterMountain Education
Service District is waiting for
him at the start of the new year.
While Peterson is now an
infl uential voice in Oregon
education, it’s a far cry from
his original ambitions. The son
See LEAD/10A
leton in 1990 and taught math at
the high school.
Although Peterson began to
ascend the administrative ladder,
he was a reluctant climber.
SALEM — The Oregon Department of
Transportation has asked the federal govern-
ment to put a moratorium on oil trains in
the Columbia Gorge and certain other parts
of the state over concerns about inadequate
inspections.
The request follows the oil train derailment
in Mosier June 3, which sparked a fi re, forced
the evacuation of 100 people and spilled oil
into the ground and the city’s sewer system.
Union Pacifi c offi cials have concluded
that the metal fastener system that connects
the railroad tie to the rail failed, causing the
railway to break apart and derailing 16 oil
tanker cars. The federal railroad administra-
tion is conducting its own investigation into
the cause.
Inspections and tests by the state and
Union Pacifi c in the days leading up to the
See PETERSON/10A
See TRAINS/10A
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Pendleton schools superintendent Jon Peterson, who will
retire June 30, stands near the entryway for the brand new
Hawthorne Early Learning Center.
of a Pendleton superintendent,
Peterson said his main profes-
sional ambition as a young man
was to become a teacher.
He realized that ambition in
1983, and after a few years in
Gresham, he returned to Pend-