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Saturday, January 18, 2020
East Oregonian
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Groundwater: Group hopes to ban new CAFO permits
Continued from Page A1
the money to do anything.”
She said reading the peti-
tion’s language describing
the health effects of nitrates
above the EPA’s recom-
mended limit of 10 mg/L “hit
hard.” The EPA has stated
that young children exposed
to high nitrate levels can
experience dangerous “blue
baby syndrome” from too-
low oxygen levels in their
blood.
Research on other possi-
ble health effects cited in the
petition, such as cancer and
thyroid disorders, has been
less conclusive. The Oregon
Department of Environmen-
tal Quality states that “some”
research has supported a
link, but “little is known
about the long-term effects
of drinking water with ele-
vated nitrate levels.”
Cities must conduct tests
on their drinking water each
year for a variety of sub-
stances, including nitrates,
and the city of Hermiston’s
water reports for 2017 and
2018 show the highest lev-
els of nitrates were at 5.97
mg/L and 5.11 respectively,
falling below the EPA’s 10
mg/L limit. However, peo-
ple living off of well water
in the area could be drink-
ing water with higher nitrate
concentrations.
Laramore said she doesn’t
want to panic people about
drinking well water or tap
water in the area, but she
does care about improv-
ing water quality in Uma-
tilla and Morrow counties.
So she signed the petition
in the hopes that the EPA
will be able to provide some
“muscle” to implement
the policy proposals from
the LUBGWMA advisory
committee.
NOWA response
JR Cook, president
of the Northeast Oregon
Water Association, said
EO file photo
Holstein dairy cows migrate toward the feed barn from a pasture at the Cold Springs Dairy on
April 26, 2016, east of Hermiston.
there are “hot spots” of high
nitrate levels throughout
LUBGWMA, but provided
a map using data from the
Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality that
shows large swaths of the
area painted in colors indi-
cating nitrate levels below
the EPA’s recommended
limits.
There is still work to be
done, he said, but progress
has been made.
He described dairies as
one of the most highly regu-
lated and monitored indus-
tries in the LUBGWMA,
and said that more localized
data over years shows there
is no “smoking gun” point-
ing to a single cause for the
nitrate levels. He said the
groups that wrote the peti-
tion used cherry-picked
well numbers and over-gen-
eralizations to “attack one
industry.”
“This petition is not
about fixing the nitrate
problems in the area the
NOWA members live and
raise families in,” he wrote
in a statement from NOWA.
“This petition is about try-
ing to stop one specific
development.”
Cook told the East Ore-
gonian that many of the
nitrates in the groundwa-
ter came not from current
operations, but from past
practices that have since
been halted. Those include
unlined washouts at the
Umatilla Chemical Depot,
well construction that didn’t
use modern best practices,
plumes from past unlined
storage locations along the
railroad and old city waste-
water systems that have
since been upgraded.
He said the desert cli-
mate means nitrates aren’t
flushed out by rainwater
regularly, making it “very
hard to get out of the system
without pumping and biore-
mediation or through artifi-
cial recharge and artificial
dilution.” NOWA has been
working with other area
stakeholders on an aquifer
recharge project that would
help with that.
Another development on
the horizon is a bill intro-
duced by Sen. Bill Hansell,
R-Athena, for the 2020 leg-
islative session. The bill
would appropriate money
to the Oregon Department
of Agriculture for gathering
and reviewing research on
LUBGWMA and creating
an “implementation plan to
improve ground water qual-
ity and obtain full or partial
removal of ground water
management area desig-
nation.” The project would
create a task force to help
coordinate the efforts of
stakeholders, such as irri-
gators, the tribes and state
departments to reduce
nitrates in the groundwater.
Hansell said the idea
came from a policy option
package, or POP, from the
Department of Agriculture
in the last session. POPs
are requests that aren’t an
actual part of the budget,
but are a suggestion that
an agency hopes the Leg-
islature will take and find
funding for.
“There really wasn’t
opposition to it, just in the
budget process it got lost in
the shuffle ... The Depart-
ment of Ag already did the
research, they determined
the need, I’m just trying to
build on the work already
done,” Hansell said.
Cook said the bill “mar-
ries up the top down reg-
ulators and agencies with
the bottom up action plan.”
It will place an emphasis
on all the agencies work-
ing with the same, com-
prehensive set of data, and
should help provide some of
the momentum and “mus-
cle” that Laramore said has
been lacking with the LUB-
WMA committee, which
was created strictly as an
advisory committee.
He said new enforce-
ment actions by the EPA
could hurt area farmers and
push everyone to start liti-
gating instead of working
together.
“EPA
enforcement
action is not necessary or
warranted at this time and
would set the basin back
years,” he said.
Petition requests
The petition filed with
the EPA this week asks the
federal agency to take six
actions under the authority
of the Safe Drinking Water
Act:
• Supply free, clean
drinking water to all res-
idents of LUBGWMA
whose well or public
water source contains
nitrate levels above the
safe limit set by the EPA.
• Conduct additional
research to “more accu-
rately trace the sources
and
quantities
of
nitrate-nitrogen pollu-
tion, and work to iden-
tify which CAFOs and
manure
management
practices are causing
nitrate contamination.”
• Issue orders requir-
ing farms and dairies to
modify their practices
to “cease overburdening
the area with nitrogen
pollution.”
• Issue an order to stop
any new CAFOs from
opening in LUBGWMA
until nitrate levels across
the area consistently fall
below 10 milligrams per
liter.
why
• Investigate
Oregon’s best man-
agement practices for
CAFO nutrient manage-
ment have not protected
groundwater, and what
practices would be nec-
essary to do so.
what
• Determine
enforcement
action
would
“effectively
reduce nitrogen pollution
from these sources, and
initiate those enforce-
ment actions as soon as
practicable.”
Amy van Saun, Senior
Attorney with Center for
Food Safety, said in a state-
ment the groups that signed
the petition will not sit by
as mega-dairies “treat com-
munities like a hazard-
ous waste dump and sacri-
fice the health and safety of
neighbors in the pursuit of
profits.”
“Mega-dairies external-
ize their significant public
health and environmental
costs to the people of Ore-
gon, and if our state legisla-
tors cannot protect Orego-
nians, we must enforce our
federal laws to protect com-
munity drinking water,”
she said.
Laramore
said
she
knows that federal agencies
move slowly, and that it will
probably take a long time
for the EPA to gather its
own data and take action.
But she said she hoped the
result would be healthier
drinking water.
First couple: Margaret Gianotti of BMCC named employee of the year
Continued from Page A1
effort to get state money for
a new indoor rodeo arena
and agricultural classroom
facility near the Round-Up
grounds.
Despite his accomplish-
ments, the speech read by
2018 Man of the Year George
Murdock
highlighted
Thorne’s humility.
“Most folks will tell you
he does it quietly,” he said.
“No fuss, no recognition,
no banners or fanfare. How-
ever, tonight we get to fuss
a bit and recognize a man
whose packet of support was
so jammed packed, it took an
entire week to get through all
of his accolades.”
The accolades also came
in for Jill Thorne.
A legal investigator for
a Pendleton law office for
12 years, Jill Thorne also
managed all of her hus-
band’s campaigns for the
Legislature.
Thorne also built a career
in state government in her
own right, serving as an East-
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Jill Thorne delivers her acceptance speech after winning Pendleton’s 2019 Woman of the Year
award at the 64th Annual First Citizens Banquet at Wildhorse Resort & Casino on Friday night.
ern Oregon liaison for for-
mer Gov. Neil Goldschmidt
and chairing the council
responsible for the Oregon
Trail’s Sesquicentennial.
Since returning to Pend-
leton with Mike, Jill Thorne
has been involved in Pendle-
ton’s urban renewal efforts
and the Round-Up Plaza.
But there were also all the
personal stories included in
Thorne’s nomination packet:
getting someone involved in
city projects activities; help-
ing an entrepreneur find a
location for their business;
elevating tribal issues and
people.
“Here’s to a woman who
has and will continue to
shape our community and
leave her fingerprint ever so
gently on each one of us,”
2018 Woman of the Year
Pat McClintock said in the
announcement speech.
The
couple
was
caught off-guard by the
announcements.
“I feel like someone
who’s just won the Academy
Award, but I have no speech
in my pocket,” Jill Thorne
said.
Thorne thanked everyone
who worked with her over
the years, and recalled the
days when she had to remind
locals that she wasn’t from
around Pendleton.
“I married into the right
community,” she said.
Her husband remarked
that he had been complicit
in the scheme to bring Jill to
come to the banquet, so he
was surprised to also get an
award.
“I’m happy to say, we’re
not ready to stop,” Mike
Thorne said.
The Thornes weren’t the
only winners at the First Cit-
izens Banquet. A full list of
Friday night’s winners is
below.
• Man of the Year: Mike
Thorne
• Woman of the Year: Jill
Thorne
• Business of the Year:
Oxford Suites
• Boss of the Year: Mike
McHenry, Pendleton Sani-
tary Service
• Employee of the Year:
Margaret Gianotti, Blue
Mountain
Community
College
• Ambassador of the Year:
Carolyn Pearson
• The Customer Ser-
vice Excellence and Tour-
ism Excellence awards were
not granted this year because
there were no nominees sub-
mitted in 2019.
Cap and trade: ‘Much of what we’re trying to do is bridge the urban-rural divide’
Continued from Page A1
gon Democrats aiming to
successfully pass a cap-and-
trade bill in 2020, Doherty,
who is the association’s
president, said the divisive-
ness of the legislation put
him in an interesting posi-
tion this week.
“You can sense there’s a
difference of opinion,” he
said. “It’s quite interesting
trying to keep all those com-
peting opinions balanced
and try to navigate that to
keep things county-centric.”
As the association’s
elected leader, Doherty
said he is trying to balance
the inherent imbalance that
exists between the state’s
counties.
Of the 36 counties,
Doherty said perhaps up
to 30 are “vehemently
opposed” to cap-and-trade
legislation. However, the
population
differences
between them mean that
one county has more than a
dozen delegates in the Leg-
islature, opposed to the few
representing all of Eastern
Oregon.
Among those concerned
about how it will impact
their own counties was Mur-
dock, who said in general he
doesn’t think the 35-day leg-
islative session will be ideal
for substantial legislation.
“While I think we need
to take care of our environ-
ment, and this caps emis-
sions in the state,” he said.
“I worry that it may place a
cap on the state’s ability to
grow our industries.”
Murdock
specifically
highlighted the rising cost
of fuel and risks of Eastern
Oregon businesses being
negatively impacted by
the legislation, though he
added that the Association
of Oregon Counties won’t
take an official position on
it because it would bring
internal divisiveness.
Instead, the association
originally adopted a set of
11 principles in October
2018 that outline the coun-
ties’ terms for potential
legislation. The principles
include a guarantee of all
transportation fuel revenue
generated going into and
being distributed from the
Highway Trust Fund, ensur-
ing offsets and incentives to
reduce economic impact on
businesses, and no emer-
gency clause included in the
bill.
Doherty said the princi-
ples were reviewed during
a Transportation Steer-
ing Committee meeting on
Monday, and that a cap-and-
trade committee co-chaired
by Morrow County Com-
missioner Don Russell will
be convening to reassess
them.
While cap and trade was
the hot topic, both commis-
sioners spent time on more
than just the potential envi-
ronmental legislation this
week.
According to Murdock,
issues like enterprise zones
and community corrections
came up during the trip, and
Tuesday was also a “legisla-
tive day,” which is an oppor-
tunity for the commission-
ers to meet individually
with state legislators.
“The preference is to
have individual commis-
sioners testify on issues
rather than lobbyists,” Mur-
dock said.
Murdock met with newly
elected house minority
leader Rep. Christine Dra-
zan, R-Canby, on Tues-
day, he said, and believes
she could be a key connec-
tion for the region as a ris-
ing leader in the state. Mur-
dock also mentioned Sens.
Elizabeth Steiner Hay-
ward, D-Northwest Portland
and Beaverton, and Betsy
Johnson, D-Scappoose, as
important resources.
Doherty, on the other
hand, convened a fair com-
mittee meeting and spent the
rest of his Tuesday in nego-
tiations with Gina Nikkel,
who will begin as the Asso-
ciation of Oregon Coun-
ties next executive direc-
tor in March. According to
Doherty, Nikkel is the first
woman to serve in the role
in the association’s 115-year
history.
The fair committee is
focused on lobbying for
funds for fairgrounds strug-
gling to stay open around
the state, and Doherty said
counties like Union and
Baker in Eastern Oregon
are among those that could
hopefully get some assis-
tance. The committee will
first be working on a needs
assessment that will priori-
tize the fairgrounds in most
need of the funds.
Murdock and Doherty
will head to Salem again on
Feb. 6, which will coincide
with a Timber Unity protest
at the Oregon Capitol. Tim-
ber Unity formed in 2019 in
retaliation to the cap-and-
trade bill and consists pri-
marily of rural workers in
Oregon’s timber industry.
According to Murdock,
that day will also focus on
issues primarily impacting
the state’s rural counties.
“Much of what we’re
trying to do is bridge the
urban-rural divide,” Mur-
dock said. “But it will be
interesting and exciting to
be there with the spotlight
on rural Oregon.”