OFF PAGE ONE
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
East Oregonian
BMCC:
Continued from Page A1
Kathy Aney for Oregon Capital Chronicle
A pivot sits in a crop of canola on land owned by Madison Farms near Echo. Along with water
from the Columbia River, the farm sprays nitrogen-rich water from processing plants at the
Port of Morrow.
Water:
Continued from Page A1
agriculture – fertilizer runoff
from irrigated crops and waste
from large cattle feeding oper-
ations. Industrial operations
such as the food processors at
the port’s Boardman complex
also were identifi ed as adding
to the problem.
Studies came to a head in
1997, when evidence of that
contamination was so compel-
ling that a committee includ-
ing government and private
interests recommended imme-
diate action. The hope was to
see improvement within about
a decade, by 2009.
Among the recommenda-
tions was that food proces-
sors reduce their wastewater
and cut the nitrogen content
of that wastewater before it
was pumped to area farms.
The groundwater commit-
tee also recommended that
facilities develop better meth-
ods to measure the amount
of nitrogen from wastewater
that was absorbed by crops
and how much was leaching
into the soil and groundwater
as nitrate.
“If after a scheduled evalu-
ation point, DEQ determines
that the voluntary approach is
not eff ective, then mandatory
requirements may become
necessary,” the 1997 report
said.
Nine years later, the results
weren’t encouraging.
“Nitrate results compared
between years 1992 and 2003
at ~130 wells: concentrations
are increasing at most wells,”
according to 2006 meeting
minutes of the committee
pursuing reforms.
Another 14 years later, in
2020, the committee updated
its action plan with sobering
fi ndings.
In more than half of the
wells DEQ had been test-
ing since the early 1990s, the
nitrate levels had gone up. Just
about one-third of the wells
had nitrate levels that were
decreasing.
“Nitrate concentrations are
going up more than they are
going down,” the 2020 report
said.
The average concentration
of nitrate in a third of the wells
was above the EPA’s thresh-
old of 10 parts per million, and
some were as high as 76 parts
per million.
The committee again
planned how to reduce nitrate
levels, outlining voluntary
steps that could be taken. The
report recommended that the
port and the food processors
continue studying best prac-
tices for land application of
the water and to “continue to
follow their permit conditions
and requirements and meet or
exceed all requirements.”
DEQ made no move to
invoke the mandatory changes
it had raised as a prospect
A HISTORY OF VIOLATIONS
2007-2009: The Port of Morrow violates its permit 42 times, ap-
plying an excess of 3,670 pounds of nitrogen per acre on fi elds
across three farms. No fi ne is imposed.
2011: The port gets DEQ permission to expand the acreage
used for disposing wastewater. DEQ and the port agree to a
mutual order and agreement, which spares the port from fi nes
as it promises to deliver a new plan for wastewater disposal.
2012-2014: The port applies more than 200 tons of excess nitro-
gen across farm fi elds through nitrogen-rich wastewater.
2015: DEQ fi nes the port $129,000 for violations in 2012-2014 as
the port again seeks to expand acreage for its disposal program.
2016: DEQ fi nes the port $8,400 for building a wastewater stor-
age pond without state permission.
2015-2017: The port applies 263 tons of excess nitrogen
through wastewater disposal on farm fi elds.
2017: DEQ identifi es port’s past violations but settles for a new
mutual order and agreement that imposes no fi nes. DEQ renews
the port’s permit, restricting the types of crops that can get the
nitrogen-rich wastewater in the winter.
September 2020: The port asks DEQ for permission to add
more acreage for wastewater disposal, triggering a detailed
review by DEQ of port operations.
November 2021: DEQ concludes the port applied 165 tons of
excess nitrogen to area farms over four years, violating its permit
1,100 times.
January 2022: DEQ fi nes the port nearly $1.3 million for the
violations
SOURCE: Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
30 years earlier.
Instead, records and inter-
views establish, they left the
polluters to act voluntarily —
and little happened.
More than 1,100
violations
Meanwhile, Por t of
Morrow offi cials had stalled
on the construction of the
digesters proposed in 2017
and none were operational. In
September 2020, Miff Devin,
the port’s water specialist,
asked the DEQ for permission
to expand the acreage where
wastewater could be dumped.
By then, a new team was
handling permit reviews in
Eastern Oregon. Chad Gubala,
a hydrologist and chemist, had
joined the agency a year earlier
to manage DEQ’s water qual-
ity program out of the Pend-
leton offi ce. He was joined by
Justin Sterger, an environmen-
tal scientist who came aboard
in January 2019 as a senior
water quality permit writer,
based in Bend.
Sterger had the task of
viewing the port’s latest
request to amend its permit.
That involved, in part, review-
ing years of compliance
reports submitted to DEQ
since its permit was renewed
in 2017.
In all, Sterger docu-
mented port violations over
three years that resulted in
165 tons of excess nitrogen
being spread. He and Gubala
prepared to alert the Port of
Morrow to the fi ndings and
potential enforcement.
On June 9, 2021, Sterger
and Gubala got an internal
email marked “URGENT”
that said the agency’s deputy
director, Leah Feldon, wanted
them to hold up issuing the
notice to the port.
The message arrived too
late.
Sterger already had sent
the 15-page “pre-enforcement
notice” to Ryan Neal, who had
succeeded his father as execu-
tive director of the port.
Sterger had ranked the
violations as Class I, the most
severe.
As a fi ne was being evalu-
ated, DEQ’s Offi ce of Compli-
ance and Enforcement asked
Sterger to review not just
monthly, but daily wastewater
discharge data. That’s when he
found the port had violated its
permit more than 1,100 times
since 2018.
Gubala, who left the agency
earlier this year, told the Capi-
tal Chronicle that he, Sterger
and the employees that worked
with them at DEQ’s Offi ce of
Compliance and Enforcement
fi gured a maximum $25,000
per day of violation could be
coming, resulting in a nearly
$29 million fi ne.
“That’s when things really
got more of the attention of
upper management of Leah
and Richard, on this matter,”
Gubala said, referring to the
agency’s deputy director and
to Richard Whitman, who had
become director in 2017.
But as regulators were
considering their enforcement
action, DEQ offi cials faced
political pressures as they
moved on a separate track to
impose new operating limits
on the Port of Morrow.
— 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.
sional development, for a
savings of about $250,000,
and reducing faculty over-
load pay by $100,000 to
$200,000. Finally, four full-
time faculty members would
take early retirement, which,
with the internal transfer of
a fi fth member, would total
$450,000 in savings.
In return for these conces-
sions, the association asked
the college only to retract its
plan to layoff faculty.
“We came very close to
reaching an agreement,”
Hernberg continued, “but
the college was unwilling to
budge on a minimum of two
layoff s.”
The association asked the
college to consider giving up
some of its budget increases
to preserve educational off er-
ings, but, according to Hern-
berg, BMCC administration
refused to discuss the matter.
Those budget increases
included $100,000 in travel
expenses, $165,000 in
supplies and $258,000 in
repairs and maintenance,
according to Hernberg’s
statement. The adminis-
tration also is proposing an
increase of $116,000 in equip-
ment and furniture, $100,000
in professional services and
$265,000 to hire two new
administrators.
“Unfor tunately, the
college was unwilling even
to discuss these unneces-
sary increases to the budget,”
Marigold:
Continued from Page A1
Farm II — Facility
for Agriculture Resource
Management — has received
millions of dollars of state
support for Blue Mountain
Community College and
partners to construct a facil-
ity providing education and
performance areas related to
agriculture.
Pendleton Round-Up
according to Hernberg’s
statement. “Nor could they
explain why faculty must
be laid off to make way for
higher travel expenditures or
more consultants and admin-
istrators. We could not accept
arbitrary layoff s because we
know BMCC’s mission is to
educate its students.”
Browning pointed out
that some of the proposals
the faculty union would not
accept had been their ideas
in the fi rst place, such as the
salary freeze they volun-
teered.
“Freezing salaries for one
year doesn’t solve our budget
shortfall,” Browning said,
and off ering incentives for
early retirements for teachers
would require doing so for the
other two classes of employ-
ees as well, which would cost
the college more money.
know what we have to off er?”
The other position is for a
data analyst, and the goods
and services line item is for
new computers for an infor-
mation system, which faculty
themselves complain is horri-
ble, according to Browning.
“They can’t have it both
ways,” he said.
The travel budget is an
increase over 2021, but that
was an unusually low mile-
age year due to pandemic
restrictions, Browning said.
And as with instruction,
professional development
sessions are better in person.
Both sides say it’s
about the community
Some of the apparent
budget item increases aren’t
real, while others are needed,
Browning commented. For
instance, the apparent athlet-
ics budget increase isn’t real,
but an accounting change,
switching the director’s pay
into that department from
another item.
He also said the two new
administration positions are
vital jobs the prior budgets
had unwisely eliminated.
The marketing and commu-
nication position is needed to
attract more students, he said.
“How are we going to get
more students,” Browning
asked, “without letting them
“I’m proud of the service
we provide to our communi-
ties,” Browning concluded.
“We’ve worked hard to
reduce layoffs from 10 to
(fewer), but with declining
enrollment, we just can’t
keep the same number of
teachers.”
“We know that students,
parents, alumni, taxpayers
and community members
rely on BMCC to provide
an education that we can
all be proud of,” Hernberg
continued in his statement.
“We believe that we have
made every eff ort to reach an
agreement with the college
administration and we have
no choice but to resume our
campaign of public advocacy.
Hernberg also asked for
supporters to join faculty
at the June 1 board meet-
ing. The association plans to
gather at BMCC’s Pendleton
campus at 4:30 p.m. that day.
Holdings, an arm of the
Pendleton Round-Up Asso-
ciation, wants to take down
the structure at 1816 S.W.
Byers Ave. to open the
space for FARM II. Pendle-
ton Round-Up Holdings then
will lease the vacant land to
the college.
According to the memo
to the commission, the
estimated demolition cost
is $73,000, and the urban
renewal program covers the
entire cost of demolitions.
Pendleton Round-Up
Holdings contacted numer-
ous demolition companies
before fi nding one that could
handle the large amount of
asbestos in the building
and take it back to dirt this
year, according to a memo,
3 Kings Environmental, of
Vancouver, Washington,
got the job. The project may
occur in July.
The PDC will meet
June 14 to consider alter-
ing its grant-giving process
to i mprove f i na ncial
sustainability.
Browning defends
increases
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