KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Editor/Senior Reporter
TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2022
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Time for
solutions
to water
emergency
t shouldn’t be this difficult.
It shouldn’t be a great leap — as the
richest nation in the world — to expect
clean drinking water.
Yet, in Morrow County — as a recent
investigation by Salem’s Capital Chronicle
news outlet showed — clean drinking water
is a bridge too far.
We’ve remained relatively silent editori-
ally on the matter because we expected —
once the facts of this particular case were
made public — a widespread federal and
state response. So far as we can tell, that’s
been lacking.
The crux of the matter is a simple one. As
the Capital Chronicle showed in its inves-
tigative series, the Port of Morrow allowed
more than 600 tons of excess nitrogen from
its wastewater to be applied on farmland
on top of the area’s already contaminated
aquifer in the last decade. At the same time,
the Oregon Department of Environmental
Quality, did little to enforce penalties on the
port when it violated its wastewater permit.
The state eventually laid down a $2.1
million fine on the port.
Recently, voters quizzed U.S. Sen. Ron
Wyden on the matter during a town hall
session. Wyden referred to an idea where a
group of local governments, businesses and
residents could come together and tackle the
issue. That type of plan has worked, to some
extent, for Wyden before. His efforts to
create a diverse group to help solve manage-
ment issues of the Owyhee Canyonlands
in the southeastern part of the state was a
triumph of diplomacy.
However, the water issues in Morrow
County are quite different than the land-use
issues tied to the canyonlands.
Clean drinking water is what sepa-
rates highly advanced, digital-age societ-
ies from the 19th century. To encounter a
clean drinking water issue in the U.S., in
Oregon, in this day and age should be nearly
unthinkable. However, here we are.
Wyden and the rest of the state’s federal
lawmaking delegation need to step in and
prompt federal authorities to take on this
issue. Clearly, the problem evolved out of
the realm of a state or local response almost
immediately. Once federal help is on the
way and visible, then the state must review
the entire case and start asking some very
pointed questions to several state agencies,
starting with the DEQ.
Finally, those who are in charge at
the Port of Morrow need to stand up and
publicly respond to what was an apparent
decade-long plan to ignore state rules.
A clean drinking water issue should
not be occurring in the U.S. early in the
21st century.
I
EDITORIALS
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East
Oregonian editorial board. Other columns,
letters and cartoons on this page express the
opinions of the authors and not necessarily that
of the East Oregonian.
LETTERS
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters
of 400 words or less on public issues and public
policies for publication in the newspaper and on
our website. The newspaper reserves the right
to withhold letters that address concerns about
individual services and products or letters that
infringe on the rights of private citizens. Letters
must be signed by the author and include the
city of residence and a daytime phone number.
The phone number will not be published.
Unsigned letters will not be published.
SEND LETTERS TO:
editor@eastoregonian.com,
or via mail to Andrew Cutler,
211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton, OR 97801
Governor race takes a turn with SCOTUS decisions
RANDY
STAPILUS
OTHER VIEWS
T
he independent gubernatorial
candidacy of Betsy Johnson is
predicated on bringing together
two dissatisfied groups — Republicans
unhappy with the Trumpy side of their
party, Democrats unhappy with the
Portland-style liberalism in theirs —
with independents to form a polyglot
plurality.
She took a useful step in that direc-
tion with her call for a series of debates
around the state in addition to the tradi-
tional Oregon Newspaper Publishers
Association faceoff, and “if possible, it
would be preferable for these debates
to be televised, so that more people are
able to hear directly from the candi-
dates.”
That tactic comes with high risk for
Johnson in this season, not because
of any lack of skill at the podium, but
because of landmine issues.
Three things have happened in the
last month or so, two in the last week,
that has upset that calculation.
One, purely political, came in the
Republican primary election, when
Christine Drazan, a former legislator
who led her party’s House caucus, won
her party’s nomination. She proba-
bly was the most broadly appealing of
the many contenders, even winning
endorsements from news media like
The Oregonian and Bend Bulletin.
The part of Johnson’s strategy based
on breakaway Republican voters, who
might have been more interested in
an independent if the nominee were
weaker, took a hit with that result.
The other two, more recent, develop-
ments were national in origin.
One was the U.S. Supreme Court gun
decision overturning a long-standing
New York law on public guns, swiftly
following a much-noted mass shoot-
ing of school children in Uvalde, Texas.
That has put the whole question of gun
regulation and rights close up.
That’s not a difficult issue for either
Drazan, who, with her A rating from
the National Rifle Association, is in
line with her party, or for the Demo-
cratic nominee, Tina Kotek, who like
her party favors stricter regulation. (She
has called for a debate centered around
gun policy.) Support and opposition for
both are baked in. Johnson, too, has an
A rating from the National Rifle Associ-
ation, which may hurt her with Demo-
crats.
The third development is abortion,
something I noted two months ago, as a
“political issue not top of mind for most
Oregonians but (which) may get there
in coming months.” It seems to have
arrived.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s
(expected) reversal of Roe v. Wade
on June 24, the future of abortion has
become the topic of the moment and
probably of the weeks to come, and it
may affect the upcoming November
elections. Abortion battles coast to coast
are boiling over already. Oregon’s rules
on abortion won’t change — for now —
but will be affected by what other states
do. And national Republican political
figures (notably former Vice President
Mike Pence) have called for a nation-
wide abortion ban, which they likely
would try to pass if they’re able after the
2024 election.
The gubernatorial candidates split on
this opposite to the way they do on guns.
More or less.
Drazan was one of four endorsed
governor candidates of Oregon Right to
Life, which opposes abortion “from the
moment of conception to natural death.”
She tweeted her praise of the Roe rever-
sal and pledged to follow up on it; we
can expect to hear more about where she
would try to take Oregon, and whether
she’d back a nationwide ban. She may
face a tug of war between a base urging
her to commit to reversing the state’s
pro-choice policies, and a broader elec-
torate less accepting of that idea.
Independent Betsy Johnson said
clearly, “I am pro-choice. This is a
bedrock issue for me and, frankly, for
Oregon, a fundamental right.”
That could hurt her with Republicans
— but it’s not all of the story. Within
hours of the Supreme Court decision,
Kotek released a memo pointing out that
Johnson had just welcomed, as chair of
Republicans for Johnson, former gover-
nor candidate Bridget Barton. She, like
Drazan, was a co-endorsee of Oregon
Right to Life, and said of abortion, “My
efforts as governor will focus on support
for all human life, including all of our
most vulnerable from conception.” That
could be enough to make some other-
wise tempted Democrats uneasy. (Kotek
also tied Drazan to several anti-abortion
measures that probably would not sell
well with the Oregon electorate.)
It’s Kotek, the Democrat with strong
pro-choice views (endorsed by Planned
Parenthood Advocates of Oregon,
Pro-Choice Oregon and The Mother
PAC) who has seized the abortion issue
with a parade of statements since the
court ruling, and for good reason: Her
stance is likely close to that of a majority
of Oregon voters.
In 2018 a relatively modest ballot
measure that would scale back (but not
eliminate) public funding for abor-
tions, was rejected by voters 64% to
36%. Support in Oregon for retaining
something like Roe v. Wade may be
even more sweeping. Earlier, in 2014
(if national trends are any indication,
pro-Roe views were less popular than
now) a Pew Research study found 63%
of Oregonians thought abortion should
be “legal in all/most cases.”
Abortion and guns, so often nation-
ally a prescription for conservative
wins, could cut the other way in Oregon
this November.
———
Randy Stapilus has researched and
written about Northwest politics and
issues since 1976 for a long list of newspa-
pers and other publications. This column
lives in town, but nothing was done to
restrain the enthusiastic violators. The
total lack of consideration for the other
people who live in the Helix community
by a few selfish and narcissistic self-in-
dulgent people ruined the evening for
me, and apparently several other people
in town whom I spoke with this morning.
If the state has enacted these regula-
tions for the sake of safety, they should
be enforced. But what has actually
happened is that we have taken the right
to let children play with fireworks that
might injure them and turned it over to
their drunk parents who don’t seem to
care about anyone else as long as they
can do what they want to do without
consideration of others. A sad commen-
tary on today’s society.
Robert Park
Helix
YOUR VIEWS
Firework trouble in Helix
I would like to commend the Pend-
leton community for the nice fireworks
show on July 3. It was good to see people
out and enjoying the show. Even as an
older adult, fireworks always seems to
bring out the kid in everyone, including
myself — it was very good!
Unfortunately, as a resident of Helix,
I had to endure a fair amount of ille-
gal fireworks set off in Helix starting
about 7:30 p.m. and running on and off
until around 11:30 p.m. As a veteran, the
closeness and loud bursts tended to really
bother me, and my dog was going nuts.
We even have a deputy sheriff that
Quit your whining
Rick Rohde is a great complainer.
Fact: The of Pendleton city does own
the larger transit vans, but Elite Taxi
owns the cars. Fact: If Rick Rohde does
not like the current agreement between
the city and Elite Taxi he can certainly
get off his posterior and submit a bid
himself. He could be a part of a solution
and not such a whiner.
Randy Holman
Pendleton