BAKER CITY HERALD • SATURDAY, JULY 9, 2022 A5
STATE
Boardman tells residents: Drinking water is safe
BY ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
BOARDMAN — Board-
man is working to ensure its
residents know they can drink
the city’s water as the Port
of Morrow deals with a $2.1
million state fine for exces-
sively spreading nitrogen-rich
wastewater as fertilizer on area
farmland for years.
The city even posted this
message on a sign near city
hall: “The city’s water is safe to
drink.”
City Manager Karen Petti-
grew explained city of Board-
man residents receive safe and
dependable water supplied
from local aquifers different
from their rural neighbors.
“This isn’t a new issue for
us,” she said.
Pettigrew said she drinks
city water and has done so for
years and does not filter the
water she receives from the
tap.
Things were different, she
said, when she was living “in
the county.” Back then, she
bought and consumed bottled
water.
Pettigrew said city water is
on a quarterly testing schedule.
The most recent test results are
from Jan. 20, she said, which
show nitrates at 4.77 parts per
million. According to the Or-
egon Department of Environ-
mental Quality, nitrate levels
above 10 ppm “may present a
serious health concern for in-
fants and pregnant or nursing
women.”
Pettigrew said many people
do not know the facts about
their drinking water and some
people believe mistruths that
have been popularized on so-
cial media.
Over at Sam Boardman El-
ementary, workers have been
filling up water containers
from a fire hydrant. This wa-
ter, sourced from the city of
Boardman, is safe to drink,
they said.
Zaira Sanchez, director of
community organizing for Or-
egon Rural Action, was among
the helpers at the school.
Erick Peterson/East Oregonian
Community organizer Ana Maria Rodriguez adjusts water flow June
24, 2022, at Sam Boardman Elementary in Boardman. Clean wa-
ter was made available at the school during Morrow County’s water
emergency.
“We’re here, ready to distrib-
ute water to the community
for people who have private
wells, who might have water
contaminated by nitrates,” she
said.
She added she and other
people at the school are pro-
viding water to people who are
unsure about whether their
water is contaminated, perhaps
as they wait for a test result.
This issue, she said, is mean-
ingful to her.
“I work here in Morrow
County,” Sanchez said, “know-
ing that our community’s af-
fected by this concerns me.”
Sanchez said she identifies
as Latinx. This group, she said,
“hasn’t largely known about
this issue” and has not been
fully informed. Fluent in En-
glish and Spanish, she said she
can communicate with people
who only know a single lan-
guage.
Ana Maria Rodriguez,
community organizer, agreed
with the importance of com-
municating facts in multiple
languages. Working at Sam
Boardman with Sanchez, she
said most of the people she en-
countered only know Spanish.
Without the assistance of other
Spanish speakers, these people
would not be provided with
information.
Ana Pineyro, Morrow
County communicable dis-
ease and emergency prepared-
ness coordinator, was working
alongside Sanchez and Rodri-
guez. She said she frequently
encounters people who do not
have all the facts, regardless of
whether they speak Spanish or
English.
Some people, she said, inac-
curately believe boiling water
will make it safe for drinking.
The truth, Pineyro said, is very
different.
“With nitrates, this is not
true,” she explained, because
boiling water increases nitrate
concentration.
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 coffee. These uses,
she said, still are dangerous.
She said she wants people
to take this issue seriously. Ni-
trates, Pineyro said, are infa-
mous for adversely affecting
children and pregnant people.
What people might not know,
however, is that nitrates can be
bad for other people, too, es-
pecially if the nitrates are con-
sumed in high quantities over
a long period of time.
Measure to avert legislative walkouts qualifies for Nov. 8 ballot
BY PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Voters will decide on
a measure aimed at deterring leg-
islative walkouts by disqualifying
lawmakers from seeking reelection
if they have 10 or more unexcused
absences.
The measure will appear on the
Nov. 8 statewide ballot.
The Oregon Elections Division has
announced that the proposed consti-
tutional amendment qualified with
155,343 signatures, more than the
149,360 required under the Oregon
Constitution. Sponsors submitted
184,680 signatures on May 27. Verifi-
cation is usually done via sampling.
The measure will join two oth-
ers referred by the 2021 Legislature.
One would declare health care a
right under the Constitution. The
other would remove constitutional
language allowing slavery, known as
“involuntary servitude,” as a punish-
ment for crime.
A pending measure would set new
requirements for firearms permits
and limit ammunition magazines to
10 rounds. The deadline for submit-
tal of signatures is Friday. The mea-
sure requires 112,020 signatures to
qualify, and state officials would have
30 days to verify them.
The Oregon Constitution sets dif-
ferent requirements for signatures to
qualify constitutional amendments
(8%) and proposed laws (6%), based
on the votes cast for governor in the
most recent election.
Walkouts prompt action
The Constitution requires the
presence of two-thirds of the mem-
bers in each chamber — 20 of 30
in the Senate, 40 of 60 in the House
— to conduct any business. In most
other legislative chambers through-
out the nation, the requirement
is usually a simple majority of the
members.
The measure was launched with
the support of public employee
unions opposed to walkouts by Re-
publican minorities in the 2019, 2020
and 2021 legislative sessions.
Andrea Kennedy-Smith, a welfare
worker from McMinnville, is a chief
petitioner for the measure.
“If I didn’t show up to work or if I
made it impossible for other people
to do their jobs, I would lose my job,”
she said when the signature-gather-
ing drive began last year. “Republican
senators even staged a walkout this
year (2021) — in the middle of the
pandemic — as families were strug-
gling with job loss, extra caregiving
duties, and the fear of illness just
from going to the grocery store. This
is why we have to come together and
take a stand with these measures.”
Advocates floated other proposals
but concentrated on one.
Senate Republicans walked out
in 2019 to stall a vote on a proposed
corporate activity tax earmarked
for school improvements. The vote
went ahead after majority Democrats
shelved some of their other legislative
priorities for the session, and the bill
passed despite Republican opposition.
Senate Republicans walked out in
2019, and Senate and House Repub-
licans did so in 2020, to stall votes on
proposed climate-change legislation.
Senate Republicans returned in 2019
after Democrats announced they did
not have the votes to pass it. But in
2020, the walkouts in both chambers
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prompted Democrats to shut down
that session a few days before the
deadline — and blocked action on a
host of bills, not just climate change.
Democratic Gov. Kate Brown then
issued an executive order for the En-
vironmental Quality Commission to
come up with a plan to reduce green-
house-gas emissions.
Senate Republicans walked out
again in 2021, but only for a single
day — and it was in protest of some
of Brown’s executive orders during
the coronavirus pandemic.
In the past
House Democrats walked out for
a week in 2001, when the Republi-
can majority attempted to pass redis-
tricting plans via resolution, which
is not subject to a veto by the gover-
nor. Democrats returned after Senate
leaders from both parties said they
would have nothing to do with the
House’s proposed action.
Both chambers, then controlled
by Republicans, passed redistricting
plans that were vetoed by Demo-
cratic Gov. John Kitzhaber.
The Supreme Court ruled later in
the year, when it largely upheld a leg-
islative redistricting plan drawn up
by Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, that
legislators could not enact a redistrict-
ing plan via resolution, only through
the normal process of legislation.
In 1971, during a fight over
whether 18-year-olds should be al-
lowed to vote in state elections, Sen-
ate Democrats walked out to block
an attempt to undo the legislation.
Advocates seized their chance when
the Senate president became acting
governor in the absence of Tom Mc-
Call, who was out of state, and could
not preside over the Senate. (The line
of succession changed in 1972 — the
secretary of state is now next in line
— and the governor remains gover-
nor during out-of-state travels.)
The Senate president was one of
two Democrats who joined 14 Re-
publicans in what became the most
recent coalition to run the Sen-
ate. The coalition lasted from 1957
through 1972.
The legislation passed, just before
ratification of the 26th Amendment
to the U.S. Constitution, which set
the national voting age at 18.