OFF PAGE ONE
Saturday, May 21, 2022
East Oregonian
A9
East Oregonian, File
A composite panorama image Jan. 11, 2022, shows a portion of the Port of Morrow Industrial Park near Boardman.
Water: ‘They knew they were in violation. I never excused a violation’
Continued from Page A1
operation flowed year after
year onto farmland and onto
one of the most nitrate-pol-
luted basins in Oregon — the
Lower Umatilla Groundwater
Basin.
More than 30 years ago,
authorities decided degrada-
tion of that water supply had
to be arrested. The DEQ in
1997 joined in a regional plan
to cut that pollution, with the
agency warning that “manda-
tory” actions might be neces-
sary.
The groundwater contami-
nation instead worsened.
Broken agreements
The port can only dispose
of its nitrogen-rich wastewa-
ter under conditions set by the
DEQ.
When the port’s permit
to do so expired in 2006,
the DEQ did what it often
does and advised the Port of
Morrow to carry on until the
state could work up a new
permit.
In the ensuing years, the
port violated its permit by
dumping more polluted water
than was legally allowed.
State regulators caught on
in 2011, when port officials
sought permission to spread
even more of the nitrogen-rich
wastewater onto area farm-
land.
Duane Smith, a DEQ water
quality specialist assigned
to Eastern Oregon, discov-
ered the port had violated its
permit 42 times from 2007
through 2009, resulting in
thousands of pounds of excess
nitrogen being spread over
fields on three farms. Agency
officials didn’t impose penal-
ties as allowed under the
law, but instead negotiated
Diesel:
Continued from Page A1
As essential employees
delivering food, Medelez
managed to hold onto
his employees during the
pandemic. Many have
worked for the company 20
to 25 years. He said he wants
to keep the business going
for them and his family, but
times are tough.
Medelez truckers do what
they can to save fuel, such
as turning off their engines
while parked and relying on
GPS to improve navigation.
“I pray for prices to come
down,” Medelez continued.
“Even a little bit. We need $3
to $3.50 diesel, but even 10,
15, 20 cents would help. I pray
for peace in Ukraine.”
Medelez said he feels
responsible for everyone
depending upon the business,
not just employees but grow-
ers and grocers.
“I feel that people are put
on this Earth to help others,”
he concluded. “I want to be
able to keep doing that.”
Other local trucking
companies’ differing busi-
ness models have allowed
them to adapt to $5.58 diesel.
Amanda McLaughlin of
Bennett Truck Transport,
Pendleton said, high fuel
prices have had a slight effect,
and some customers are care-
ful about taking their units
into high-cost states, such as
California.
California has the nation’s
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 sup-
plies 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 peri-
ods. Nitrate levels over 10 parts per million may result
in serious health defects that can affect all ages, but are
especially harmful to infants and pregnant women.
Health risks: Research from the National Cancer Institute
reports that consuming water with nitrate up to even five
parts per million over long periods of time can increase
the risk of colon cancer, stomach cancer and several
other cancers
a “mutual order and agree-
ment” with the port.
The purpose of such a deal
is to give both the DEQ and
the port legal cover against
lawsuits over the violations,
according to Smith, who
retired from the agency in
2019.
Such documents “are
interim agreements that
someone promises to do
something and if you do that
we’ll hold off on enforcement
actions,” he said.
In the agreement signed
May 26, 2011, by Gary Neal,
the port’s then-executive
director, DEQ settled for the
port’s promise to create a
long-term plan to deal with
wastewater during the winter
months. The port continued
to produce millions of gallons
of wastewater from Novem-
ber to February that had to go
somewhere, but farm fields
were often frozen or had too
few crops to absorb the nitro-
gen-loaded water.
The port also agreed to
submit wastewater monitor-
costliest diesel, at an average
price of $6.57 per gallon. The
state’s fuel tax is 51.1 cents
per gallon, but will rise to
53.9 cents on July 1. Oregon’s
tax on diesel is relatively low,
at 38 cents per gallon.
“It’s insane, but people
are compensating to keep
products moving to where
they need to go,” McLaugh-
lin said.
And in the long run, she
explained, producers will
have to raise prices, so trans-
port costs will worsen infla-
tion in general.
Diesel prices vary in
Pendleton, from below the
national average to over it,
according to app GasBuddy,
which tracks fuel prices.
One reason for diesel’s
higher rise than gas is lack
of refining capacity, due to
closures during the pandemic.
“The U.S. Can’t Make
Enough Fuel and There’s No
Fix in Sight,” shouted a bold
face Bloomberg headline on
May 13. “A shrinking fleet of
domestic refineries is produc-
ing a greater share of the
world’s gasoline and diesel,
setting the stage for a supply
crisis,” the subhead read.
“More than 1 million
barrels a day of the coun-
try’s oil refining capacity
— or about 5% overall —
has shut since the begin-
ning of the pandemic,”
Bloomberg reported. “Else-
where in the world, capacity
has shrunk by 2.13 million
additional barrels a day,
energy consultancy Turner,
Mason & Co. estimates.”
VISIT US ON THE WEB AT:
www.EastOregonian.com
ing reports more frequently
to DEQ. The objective was
to get the port to obey the
restrictions for its wastewa-
ter disposal.
One provision accepted
by the port was that the DEQ
could fine the port up to $250
a day if it detected new viola-
tions.
Budget cuts and
staff reductions
But that agreement took
effect as DEQ was weakened
by budget cuts and left in a
poorer position to enforce
terms of the agreement to
protect the groundwater.
Legislators in 2011
reduced the department’s $52
million water quality program
by nearly $6 million, resulting
in the loss of 37 positions. The
agency’s Pendleton office lost
two jobs and testing of DEQ’s
network of wells in the region
was cut back.
To this day, DEQ hasn’t
returned to full strength.
In an email, Laura Gleim,
a public affairs specialist at
History:
Continued from Page A1
Arizona has had four
women as governor, a
record.
While a trio of candi-
dates for the top office of
any state may be a national
first, Nebraska was the
first state where a woman
defeated another woman
for governor, back in 1986.
Republican Kay Orr, the
state treasurer, defeated
Democrat Helen Boosalis,
a former mayor of the state
capital of Lincoln.
Among those who helped
get Orr elected was Denny
Miles, who took a leave
from the office of Gov. Vic
Atiyeh — the most recent
Republican to hold the
office, from 1979 to 1987
— to help prepare Orr for
debates with her opponent.
Miles said Orr offered him
a job in her new administra-
tion, but he declined. Miles
did help David Karnes, who
was Orr’s surprise appointee
to the U.S. Senate vacancy
resulting from the death of
Ed Zorinsky in 1987, but
returned to Oregon.
Kotek: Legislative
leader aims higher
Tina Kotek of Portland
emerged from a record field
of 15 candidates to win the
Democratic nomination in
Tuesday’s primary.
Kotek, 55, was a human
services advocate before she
won a North Portland seat in
the Oregon House in 2006.
Kotek resigned earlier
this year after 15 years in
the House, a record nine
DEQ, wrote that since 2011,
“DEQ has not recovered those
jobs and has been backfilling
with other program staff as
allowed.”
According to the depart-
ment’s budget requests, DEQ
has proposed for years adding
water quality staff, includ-
ing in Eastern Oregon. The
requests were turned down
by either the governor or the
Legislature.
In the meantime, despite
its legal promise to clean up,
the port carried on polluting.
“When they didn’t meet
the timelines there was little
support for holding their feet
to the fire,” Smith said.
Violations nearly
every winter
Smith said that port offi-
cials struggled nearly every
winter with disposing of the
wastewater flowing from its
industrial clients. Miff Devin,
the port’s water specialist,
said in an email that such
problems didn’t arise until
2017, and that port offi-
cials only last year learned
the subsequent discharges
weren’t allowed.
According to Smith,
Devin would alert him if the
port’s holding ponds were
full and say that he needed to
release more water. Not doing
so would result in the ponds
overf lowing, ultimately
destroying them.
“I said, ‘How can I stop
you? If you don’t irrigate,
you lose a pond,’” Smith
recounted. “Even though they
knew they were in violation
and knew what was coming.
I gave them what advice I
could.”
Smith said he would help
Devin and others identify
fields where dumping excess
nitrogen would have the least
impact.
“They knew they were in
violation. I never excused a
violation,” Smith said.
Smith advised Devin
in one 2019 email how to
proceed.
“It would be best to plan
on a special segment in
the report to identify those
fields that were irrigated in
excess of the winter appli-
cation limits,” Smith wrote.
“I will leave it to you folks
to propose a plan that mini-
mizes the impact of move-
ment beyond the root zone.”
Smith said he worked
largely alone, in an under-
staffed office of an under-
staffed agency, and he
described being in a tough
situation politically. Half of
the jobs in Morrow County
are for the port and its indus-
trial customers, according to
the port’s recent economic
analysis.
Smith said he suggested to
DEQ leaders that the agency
either put a moratorium on
port expansion until it could
get its wastewater under
control or stop the port from
releasing any water in the
winter.
“The Port of Morrow was
a big commercial operation
and it was difficult to get DEQ
management to take a stiff
position,” he said.
Smith said he had to
be smart enough not to be
“asking for outrageous things
that you know are never going
to be approved.” He could not
be seen as “curtailing busi-
ness,” he said.
“You can’t put people out
of work,” Smith said. “You
have to go out of your way to
get people to comply through
agreements, rather than
of them as its speaker. She of Broadcasters, Smith has
would be only the second returned to Pendleton.
former legislative presiding
Drazan: First
officer since the mid-1950s
Republican
in 40
to become governor, after
years?
Democrat John Kitzhaber
— a former Oregon Senate
Christine Drazan of
president — did it in 1994.
Canby emerged from a
The most recent House record field of 19 candi-
speaker to become gover- dates to win the Republican
nor was John Hall,
primary.
D r a za n, who
a Republican from
turns 50 this year,
Portland who was
has been presi-
thrust into the job
dent of the Cultural
after a 1947 plane
Advocacy Coali-
crash killed Gov.
tion of Oregon. She
Earl Snell, the
was elected in 2018
Senate president
Kotek
to the first of two
(then next in line)
and the secretary of
terms in the Oregon
state. Hall lost the
House, and unseated
a sitting Republican
1948 Republican
primary to Douglas
leader after the 2019
McKay, who went
session. She stepped
on to win. Hall later
down from her lead-
became a district
ership position in
late 2021, and from
judge in Lincoln
County.
Drazan
the House earlier
Some recent
this year.
She also was the
Oregon legislative
chief of staff to Mark
leaders have made
Simmons when he
it to the gover-
nor’s office. But
was Oregon House
Senate Republican
speaker in 2001 and
leader Vic Atiyeh
2002.
lost his first bid for
Drazan seeks to
governor in 1974,
Johnson
be the first Republi-
can elected governor
before he won
in 1978. House Majority since 1982, when Atiyeh won
Leader Barbara Roberts a second term. Democrats
and Senate Majority Leader have been elected gover-
Kate Brown were elected nor ever since in the longest
secretary of state before streak by either major party
becoming governor. Senate in Oregon. However, in those
President Gordon Smith, a 10 elections, only Kitzhaber
Republican from Pendleton, won a landslide victory with
was elected on his second 63% against 30% for Repub-
try for the U.S. Senate in lican Bill Sizemore in 1998.
1996; he served two terms (Sizemore ran again this
before Democrat Jeff Merk- year but trailed several other
ley unseated him in 2008. candidates.)
After 12 years as president
The closest a Republi-
of the National Association can has come to winning
monetary penalties and not
talking to them.”
He said he was told
year after year by manag-
ers in DEQ’s water quality
program and eastern region
office to work with the port on
complying with wastewater
requirements.
But not long after agree-
ing in 2011 to limit pollution,
the port again was found to be
spreading excess wastewater
to farm fields.
Smith later documented
the violations, which
occurred from 2012 through
2014. He categorized the
port’s actions as the most
severe environmental viola-
tion — a Class I. That means
the violation carries “high
probability for significant,
direct environmental harm”
which could warrant DEQ’s
maximum fine of $25,000 per
day.
Smith was surprised at
the fine ultimately set by the
agency’s Office of Compli-
ance and Enforcement.
“I thought it was going to
be a lot higher than what it
turned out to be,” he said. “It
seemed to me that it could be
as much as a million.”
The port authority was
fined $129,000 and paid.
Soon, the pollution continued.
— Oregon Capital Chron-
icle developed this story in
collaboration with the Cata-
lyst Journalism Project at the
University of Oregon School
of Journalism and Commu-
nication. Catalyst brings
together investigative report-
ing 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.
in recent years was Chris
Dudley, who lost to
Kitzhaber in 2010 by just
22,000 votes of 1.5 million
cast.
Johnson: Neither of
the above
Awaiting Kotek and
Drazan is Betsy Johnson,
a former Democratic state
senator from Scappoose who
is mounting an independent
bid for governor. Johnson
will need 24,000 signatures
to qualify for a spot on the
Nov. 8 ballot.
Johnson is a former
state aviation director and
owner of her own helicop-
ter company. She was in
the Oregon House from
2001 to 2005, when she was
appointed to the Senate. She
left the Senate at the close of
2021.
Johnson is the daugh-
ter of Sam Johnson — a
sawmill and forest land
owner who himself was a
Republican state represen-
tative from Redmond from
1965 to 1979, and Redmond
mayor from 1979 until his
death in 1984 — and Eliz-
abeth “Becky” Johnson, a
philanthropist.
Johnson also would break
a barrier. Only one Oregon
governor has been elected
since statehood who was
not affiliated with the Demo-
cratic or Republican parties
— Julius Meier in 1930.
Meier came from the family
that established the Meier
and Frank department store
chain, which was sold in
1965. A grand-nephew was
Gerry Frank, a Salem busi-
nessman and former aide
to U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield,
who died March 13 at age 98.