OFF PAGE ONE
Thursday, July 7, 2022
Water:
Continued from Page A1
McKenzie Rose/Contributed Photo
McKenzie Rose of Echo stands next to her National History Day
project on the Trent Aff air. The Smithsonian Learning Lab’s
virtual showcase included Rose’s project, which the National
Museum of American History also honored on June 18, 2022.
History:
Continued from Page A1
An experienced
historian
For Rose, the project was
no new trek; this was the
Echo High School juniors’
fi fth time taking part in NHD
and her fourth time attending
nationals. Rose’s fi rst appear-
ance at nationals was in the
sixth grade. While other
works have come naturally
to her, this year’s project idea
did not.
“Honestly, I just started
looking up historical events
on the internet and kept
coming across the Trent
Aff air,” Rose said.
The Trent Aff airs — an
American Civil War confl ict
that nearly saw the Brit-
ish side with Confederate
Soldiers after a naval dispute
— fi t the project’s theme well,
and Rose decided to go with
it.
A new documentarian
Texidor had never partici-
pated in NHD. She had never
even made a documentary.
As part of a required history
class she took at Griswold
High School, she had to make
a documentary as an assign-
ment.
After initially being inter-
ested in the Cuban Missile
Crisis, Texidor decided to
narrow the scope and present
on the Executive Commit-
tee of the National Secu-
rity Council meetings that
occurred during the crisis.
While only four of the 10
students in the class fi nished
the presentations, Texidor
pushed through, learning the
software the week before and
turning in the project on time.
Though she got it in, Texidor
admitted she did fall a bit
behind at points.
“There was a lot of
procrastination involved
with this project trying to fi nd
information because it was
way harder than I thought it
would be,” Texidor said.
The process
Rose found newspaper
clippings from 1861 and
memoirs containing fi rsthand
information about the Trent
Affair. She would stay up
until 11 p.m. working, miss-
ing time with friends.
“Often I would wonder
if it was really worth all the
over-scheduling and stress to
compete,” Rose said.
Texidor struggled to fi nd
sources on the EXCOMM
council. Because President
John F. Kennedy’s council
regarding the Missile Crisis
was secretive, there weren’t
many around to talk about it.
“Finding someone to inter-
view about EXCOMM was
almost impossible.” Texidor
said, “I reached out to a lot of
people trying to discuss the
crisis with them but almost no
one responded.”
Event u ally, Texidor
contacted local Bonnie
Harper, and the two talked
about Harper’s crisis expe-
rience as a teenager. They
compared the crisis to the
Russian-Ukraine confl ict, an
element Texidor used in her
project.
National History Day
After all of their hard
work, the two sent their proj-
ects off to the national compe-
tition. NHD was online due to
the pandemic, with three full
days of activities. Neither one
was present.
While Texidor was on a
family vacation, Rose was
in Washington, D.C., for a
school trip — the same city
she would normally be for the
in-person festivities.
Neither may have been
there, but both projects
received rave reviews. One
judge said of Texidor’s
work, “that this documen-
tary was your fi rst attempt
at video-making is astonish-
ing to me. I sincerely hope it
won’t be your last.”
Meanwhile, Rose’s project
earned a spot in the Smithso-
nian Learning Lab’s virtual
showcase.
What’s next?
Despite her back-to-back
honors, Rose is unsure if she
will return for competitions
next year. With so many other
activities, the soon-to-be-se-
nior knows that her schedule
won’t get any lighter.
Even if her future is doubt-
ful, Rose has discovered
a new passion. She writes
history pieces for the Herm-
iston Herald.
“History is a love of mine,”
Rose said, “We can learn so
much from the past, and it’s
just downright fascinating at
times.”
Texidor may have taken
the class as a requirement for
school, but she, too, devel-
oped a love for the process.
“Being able to gather and
process historical informa-
tion, interviewing people and
working with advanced soft-
ware are all very benefi cial
skills,” Texidor said, “NHD
is hard but it’s worth it.”
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She added she and other
people at the school are
providing water to people
who are unsure about
whether their water is
contaminated, perhaps as
they wait for a test result.
Sanchez said she identi-
fi es as Latinx. This group,
she said, “hasn’t largely
known about this issue” and
has not been fully informed.
Fluent in English and Span-
ish, she said she can commu-
nicate with people who only
know a single language.
Ana Maria Rodriguez,
community organizer,
agreed with the importance
of communicating facts in
multiple languages. Work-
ing at Sam Boardman with
Sanchez, she said most of
the people she encountered
only know Spanish. Without
the assistance of other Span-
ish speakers, these people
would not be provided with
information.
Ana Pineyro, Morrow
County communicable
disease and emergency
preparedness coordina-
tor, was working alongside
Sanchez and Rodriguez. She
said she frequently encoun-
ters people who do not have
all the facts, regardless of
whether they speak Spanish
or English.
Some people, she said,
inaccurately believe boiling
water will make it safe for
drinking. The truth, Pineyro
EOU:
Continued from Page A1
“Diff erent things such as
econ or music or whatever
the major is — grab one or
two of their really dynamic
classes and be able to allow
students to take those here
or online,” Brown said.
“You always have classes
that have a few extra spots in
them, so why don’t we allow
our high school students to
go in those?”
High school students who
pass classes through those
dual credit pathways would
be able to apply the credits
East Oregonian
A7
said, is very diff erent.
“With nitrates, this is
not true,” she explained,
because boiling water
increases nitrate concentra-
tion.
Also, she said, many
people don’t think about all
the ways that they use water.
They will avoid drinking
glasses of water, but they use
it for cooking or preparing
coff ee. These uses, she said,
still are dangerous.
She said she wants people
to take this issue seriously.
Nitrates, Pineyro said, are
infamous for adversely
aff ecting children and preg-
nant people. What people
might not know, however, is
that nitrates can be bad for
other people, too, especially
if the nitrates are consumed
in high quantities over a long
period of time.
Deanna Camp, Board-
man Foods safety and
t r ai n i ng ma nage r, is
helping people, too. At
her company, she meets
people, gives them bottles
for collecting their drink-
ing water and then instructs
them to gather their water
and bring it back to her
company.
Camp said she often
clears up misconceptions.
Often, she said, people don’t
know about proper water
collection.
Drinking water, she said,
should be collected from
the same taps from which
people drink.
“We’re looking for water
samples from the kitchen
sink,” she said.
Camp stated she has
had to correct people who
have thought they should
be getting samples directly
from their wells.
She said, too, that it
doesn’t take much water to
create a sample. According
to Camp, a lab can detect
nitrate levels in 4 ounces of
water.
They do, however, need
to process the sample
quickly, according to Camp.
“The lab has to test it
within 48 hours,” she said.
Once people br ing
samples to Boardman
Foods, Camp said, the
samples are sent to Kuo
Testing Laboratories, whose
nearest offi ce is in Umatilla.
Results can take a week or
more.
Camp said she has
received tests back already,
and some nitrate results are
more than 40 ppm.
Given the level of some
of these tests, Camp said it
is important for people to
have full understanding of
their well water. Knowledge,
however, is just one step, she
said; there must be action, too.
to a degree at EOU, Brown
said. And for students who
enroll at EOU, a big focus
will still be making sure that
students are acclimated to
college and have the support
they’re used to coming from
smaller communities.
“One of the things
that we have is a bunch of
students will take these dual
credits, but then they come
to a university and it’s like,
‘Whoa, I don’t have the
exact same supports that I
had before because I had my
mom, and I had my dad, and
I had my counselor and all
my teachers,’” Brown said.
At EOU, Brown said,
there’s a recognition that
rural students are coming
from tight-knit, small
communities and might
have diff erent experiences
than students from larger
cities.
“We want to just basi-
cally have this smooth tran-
sition from all these loving
people that have put an inor-
dinate amount of time into
you, and this is going to be
the next group of people that
do the same thing,” she said.
“So, we want to be able to
have that same feel, and I
think that Eastern is primed
for that because we are a
small institution and we
have small classrooms.”
EOU President Tom
Insko said the grant funding
will help the school fulfi ll its
mission.
“EOU’s work as Oregon’s
Rural University will be
greatly enhanced through
this grant,” he said. “Our
strategic goal is to intensify
rural student recruitment
and outreach, and provid-
ing access and support for
educational and career
pathways will help build
and sustain our communi-
ties. We are grateful for the
support of Oregon’s U.S.
senators.”
— Oregon Public
Broadcasting reporter
Meerah Powell contributed
to this report.
UMATILLA COUNTY ALSO TESTING WELLS
The Lower Umatilla Basin
Groundwater Manage-
ment Area covers northern
Morrow County as well as
the west corner of Umatilla
County, home to Umatilla,
Echo, Hermiston, Stanfi eld
and Echo. The county
health department recently
announced it is launching a
program to assist residents in
those ZIP codes in obtaining
free water quality tests for
their domestic wells.
Participation in the program
will provide test results
regarding coliform, nitrate
and arsenic. The county
intends to use the results to
better understand the scope
and scale of any existing or
potential concerns to public
health.
The pilot program kicked off
June 22 and remains active
until June 30, 2023. The focus
is on the four areas, but ad-
ditional funding could lead
to the county expanding the
testing.
To participate, pick up test
kits from Kuo Testing Labo-
ratories, 1300 Sixth St., Suite
J, Umatilla, or either Umatilla
County Public Health loca-
tion: 435 E. Newport Ave.,
Hermiston, or 200 S.E. Third
St., Pendleton.
Kuo Testing is handling
the testing analysis and
accepting samples Mondays
through Wednesdays, 8 a.m.
to 5 p.m. (the business is
closed noon to 1 p.m.). Sam-
ples must be delivered to the
lab the same day they are
collected. The lab will deliver
results to individuals listed
on the lab form and send a
copy of the results to Uma-
tilla County Public Health for
epidemiological analysis.
Helping people at
Boardman Foods