OFF PAGE ONE
Tuesday, May 10, 2022
East Oregonian
Water:
years generated no immediate
enforcement actions by DEQ.
During that time, the port also
failed more than 120 times to
meet its obligation to monitor
nitrogen at farm sites.
That changed in 2020,
when port offi cials asked for
state permission to spread
the contaminated wastewater
over more acres, so there was
less potential for improper
application on existing fi elds.
Reviewing the appli-
cation for nearly a year, a
DEQ specialist zeroed in on
the daily water discharge
amounts going from the port
to the farms. In the four years
since the port was last sanc-
tioned, DEQ calculated that
165 tons of nitrogen above
limits was applied to farm-
land over the aquifer supply-
ing drinking water for up to
4,000 people.
DEQ’s patience with the
Port of Morrow was fi nally
exhausted, according to
Director Richard Whitman.
In January, DEQ fined
the port nearly $1.3 million
and put out a sternly-worded
public statement.
“The port is not doing its
part,” DEQ said in a public
statement on Jan. 11.
“We’re making a point —
a serious point — with the
port,” Whitman said. “This is
one of those situations where,
if we see continuing non-com-
pliance by the port, I think
that the next step is going to
court and seeking an order
to curtail operations in some
way. So we’re at that point
with this entity.”
Meantime, the Martinez
family sees no future but
bottled water to live on day
to day.
In the 18 years they have
lived in their home about 6
miles from port headquar-
ters, no one from the port or
from any state agency came to
tell them about nitrate, to test
their well or provide informa-
tion and resources related to
special fi lters that can remove
the nitrate.
Such fi lters for an entire
house can cost $4,000 or
more. A fi lter to go under a
single sink costs from $150 to
$250, and needs fi lter screens
inside of it to be replaced
every six to 12 months.
No state agency regulates
the water quality in domes-
tic wells that people like the
Martinez family relies on. The
Oregon Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality, the state
health authority and local
governments share a duty to
spread awareness about safe
drinking water.
Gleim said DEQ has
participated in annual outdoor
schools to teach students
about ground and surface
water pollution, and periodi-
cally participated in commu-
nity events such as Walmart
Safety Day, Farm Fair and
local gardening symposiums
to get the word out about
nitrate pollution.
OHA, with a nearly $30
billion budget, said on its
website that its mission is
“ensuring all people and
communities can achieve
optimum physical, mental and
social well-being.”
Jonathan Modie, a spokes-
person for the agency, said
in an email that the agency
“provides outreach and educa-
tion to domestic well users
statewide. Since resources
for outreach and education of
this nature are resource-lim-
ited, we have historically been
unable to interact directly
other than via our website,
and through email and phone
requests for information.”
Modie noted the health
authority provides informa-
tion about nitrate pollution in
Spanish on its website.
But after more than 30
years of known pollution
in the Boardman area, the
agency may be ready to act
more aggressively.
“We are in the planning
stage now to work with folks
in Morrow and Umatilla
counties,” Modie said, “to
conduct outreach and educa-
tion, support water testing
and water treatment solutions
around nitrates in groundwa-
ter.”
———
Editor’s Note: Oregon
Capital Chronicle developed
this story in collaboration
with the Catalyst Journalism
Project at the University of
Oregon School of Journal-
ism and Communication.
Catalyst brings together
investigative reporting and
solutions journalism to
spark action and response
to Oregon’s most perplexing
issues. To learn more visit
catalystjournalism.uoregon.
edu or follow the project on
Twitter @UO_catalyst.
made a difference in these
things.”
prevalence of high nitrates.”
Policy making is about
assessing what issues to
address and how serious they
are, Doherty said. And in this
case, he said, it’s about making
a stand.
“This certainly is, ‘a
hill I am willing to die on,’
Doherty said, “if only that
my friends and neighbors
don’t face that literal peril.”
Doherty also touched on
environmental justice. He said
the very people who provide
the labor force for the region
are same people bearing the
brunt the nitrate problem, yet
they have been “discarded”
from the environmental
discussions, and they must
have a voice in this.
“This is the missing
community,” Doherty said.
“This is a barrier that we
must eliminate.”
Continued from Page A1
When the port is facing
potential trouble with its
wastewater, farmers receiv-
ing the water get a call from
the port.
Madison said such conver-
sations start with Miff Devin,
its water specialist.
The water permit
Kathy Aney for Oregon Capital Chronicle
The port’s first permit
from DEQ to discharge water
onto area farmland came in
1974. Since then, that govern-
ment 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 specialist. 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 supervi-
sor, he is tasked to ensure the
port is within environmen-
tal regulations from DEQ,
the Oregon Health Authority
and Oregon Water Resources
Department. Part of his job is
to develop ways to improve
and maintain water quality,
according to the port.
Each day, the port records
the nitrogen levels in the
wastewater and how much
goes out to area farms. Its state
permit restricts how much
water can go out given the
amount of nitrogen in it and
what crops it will be applied
to. The amount allowed on
a fi eld of onions is diff erent
from the amount that can go
onto alfalfa.
With those repor ts,
crop testing and yearly soil
sampling, DEQ can track
how much nitrogen goes
out, how much the crops are
taking in and, potentially, how
much nitrate is leaching into
the groundwater. The port
contracts outside companies
for soil and crop testing and
reports their fi ndings to DEQ.
For most of the port’s
permit history, such reports
including hundreds of pages
of data on daily nitrogen
levels and water discharge
amounts to each farm, would
be sent quarterly or annually
to DEQ. Violations could be
detected in the monthly aver-
ages for water nitrate levels
and the amount that went out.
Regulators typically
review those compliance
reports only when permits
get modified or renewed
“due to staffi ng shortages and
Stand:
Continued from Page A1
“I sadly have received that
dreaded call for every sample
submitted,” Doherty said.
The maximum level for
nitrates in water is 7 parts per
million, he said, and shared
the result of 25 samples. One
sample was .33 ppm. The
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, the Echo farm sprays nitrogen-rich water pumped from pro-
cessing plants at the Port of Morrow to a holding pond at the farm.
Kathy Aney for Oregon Capital Chronicle
Four industrial parks with data processing centers, an ethanol plant and food processors surround the Port of Morrow in
Boardman.
prioritization,” according to
Laura Gleim, a public aff airs
specialist at the department.
The reports were submit-
ted in hard copy until 2017
and subsequently electroni-
cally. DEQ offi cials said they
routinely were stored and then
reviewed in detail when it was
time to update the permit.
Specialists otherwise look at
reports “as they can” outside
of those renewals and modi-
fi cations, Gleim wrote in an
email.
The port’s permit expired
in 2006, but DEQ offi cials let
the agency run on it, largely
unchanged, for the next 11
years.
According to Gleim, more
than half of the permits DEQ
has for wastewater discharge
issued in the state are on
“administrative extension.”
Under the conditions of its
permit, the port was required
to alert DEQ if a violation had
occurred or appeared immi-
nent. According to records
of correspondence between
the port and DEQ, this was
communicated by Devin and,
until recently, the port’s long-
time executive director. Ryan
Neal, who died in January,
had managed the port since
2018.
And year after year, the
port dumped illegal amounts
of nitrogen-rich water, accord-
ing to violations documented
by the DEQ.
In the last decade alone,
the port applied at least 628
tons of excess nitrogen to area
farmland.
The DEQ repeatedly
imposed modest penalties
— if any at all — and usually
made no public announce-
ments about the violations to
alert people like Guadalupe
Martinez and her family.
Through the 10 years ending
in 2017, the DEQ fi ned the
port just once for over apply-
ing nitrogen — $129,000 —
less than 2% of the port’s
revenue in one year from food
processors for handling their
wastewater.
DEQ records showed
Devin on occasion did alert
the agency when storage
ponds were nearing capac-
ity but no document released
under a public records request
showed he directly alerted
regulators over the thousands
of times the port was pump-
ing excess nitrogen onto area
farmlands.
“We never felt like we were
technically out of compli-
ance,” Devin said.
The port’s current execu-
tive director, Lisa Mittelsdorf,
agreed.
“I think that we’ve had
growth, and regulations have
changed at the same time, and
I think we’re both still study-
ing the science,” she said.
“Not everyone comes to the
same conclusions.”
In 2017, port officials
announced a plan to install
new equipment that could
remove some of the nitrogen
and create more storage. But
by 2021, just part of the infra-
structure had been built and
none of it was functioning.
Accordi ng to DEQ
records, the port contin-
ued to dump illegal amounts
of nitrogen-rich water. But
reports documenting more
than 1,000 violations in those
second lowest was 8.24. The
highest of that lot was 51.22
ppm. The average was 30.77.
The majority of the homes
tested had nitrate fi lters, he
said, albeit not generally the
more expensive ones that
work, but instead the more
disposable, more aff ordable
variety.
More alarming, he said, is
what the residents reported on
a questionnaire asking if they
had experienced any of a short
list of nitrate-related health
concerns.
“For a small sample, 70
tests to date, I was quite taken
aback by the prevalence of
persistent headaches, devas-
tating cancers and failed preg-
nancies,” Doherty said. “This
weighs incredibly heavy on
my heart as I search my soul
and wonder if I had only
started earlier, could I have
A history of violations
2022
I
WHAT IS NITRATE?
Nitrate is a naturally occurring chemical compound.
Characteristics: Colorless, tasteless and odorless.
Uses: Commonly used in fertilizers and in explosives.
Human consumption: Nitrate occurs naturally at safe levels
in some foods and can be in drinking water supplies at levels
that pose no health risk.
Limits: The federal Environmental Protection Agency set
the limit of 10 parts per million for nitrate in drinking water
before it becomes unsafe to drink over long periods. Nitrate
levels over 10 parts per million may result in serious health
defects that can aff ect all ages, but are especially harmful to
infants and pregnant women.
Health risks: Research from the National Cancer Institute re-
ports that consuming water with nitrate up to even fi ve parts
per million over long periods of time can increase the risk of
colon cancer, stomach cancer and several other cancers
A hill worth dying on
Correlating responses to
the question with the extremely
high nitrate results is almost
impossible. But Doherty
said he think it is “abun-
dantly fair to suggest that in
those numbers, the responses
we got could certainly be
attributed to the increasing
No warnings for those
who rely on wells
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