BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2022 A5
OREGON
EPA urges Oregon to take action against nitrate polluters
pleted by the three agencies, the
plan including initiatives for ni-
trate contamination education, free
drinking water tests and alternative
water sources where necessary. He
also gave plaudits to the agencies’
plans to seek funding for these ini-
tiatives at the Oregon Legislature
Emergency Board’s September
meeting and the long session in
2023.
But Kowlaski wrote the state could
no longer rely on voluntary practices
and had to address the source of ni-
trates. According to a 1997 study by
the state Department of Environ-
mental Quality, agricultural and in-
dustrial operations were among the
top sources of the chemical.
Kowalski encouraged the state to
regulate industrial discharge and an-
imal feeding operations through a
permitting system established by the
EPA’s National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System.
Before ending the letter, Kowalski
left the door open to the EPA taking
emergency action in Eastern Oregon.
“The Agency will continue to
closely monitor the situation and
continues to assess options for addi-
tional Agency intervention if neces-
sary,” he wrote.
BY ANTONIO SIERRA
Oregon Public Broadcasting
BOARDMAN — The U.S. Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency is urg-
ing state officials to take more action
on nitrate pollution in Eastern Ore-
gon’s Lower Umatilla Basin.
A July 29 letter from the EPA to
the Oregon Health Authority, the
Oregon Department of Environ-
mental Quality and the Oregon De-
partment of Agriculture praised the
state for some of the measures it’s
taken to provide clean water to res-
idents in Morrow County, but said
that’s not enough.
“EPA expects the state to hold
nitrate sources accountable by re-
quiring them to assume some of the
responsibilities set forth above and,
more importantly, to change their
practices to reduce the amount of
nitrate they discharge to groundwa-
ter,” wrote Edward Kowalski, direc-
tor of EPA Region 10’s enforcement
and compliance division.
Nitrates are a chemical com-
monly found in fertilizer. In excess
amounts, they can affect the health
of people’s lungs, thyroid and blad-
der.
High nitrate levels in Morrow
County and western Umatilla Coun-
ty’s groundwater supply has been
on the state’s radar for more than 30
years, but a recent round of water
testing of private wells in the Board-
man area found many residents
had unsafe levels of nitrates in their
drinking water.
Kowalski highlighted a Lower
Umatilla Basin work plan com-
Drazan
Continued from A1
“I’m running for governor
because I want to fix it. I don’t
want people to leave, I want
to fix it.”
Drazan told the Herald in
an interview after the meet-
and-greet that bridging the
divide between the state’s ru-
ral and urban counties is a
priority.
“We can’t have a vibrant
I-5 corridor and an abused,
forgotten, left behind Eastern
Oregon,” Drazan said. “It’s got
to be a focus.”
Despite the daunting recent
electoral history, Drazan told
the audience that the current
political environment is favor-
able for Republicans.
“This year is different, be-
cause it’s a true open seat in
a midterm election with an
opposing party in the White
This April 15, 2022,
photo shows Sil-
via Hernandez’s
private well in the
outskirts of Board-
man. The Environ-
mental Protection
Agency lauded the
state’s efforts to de-
liver clean drinking
water to Morrow
County residents
affected by ni-
trate pollution but
wanted more action
to address the issue
at its source.
Monica Samayoa/Oregon
Public Broadcasting, File
barriers to expanding it further.
DEQ’s Laura Gleim reiterated the
agency’s position on enforcement: It
would take action where it could, but
its reach was limited.
“DEQ is using what regulatory
authority we have to reduce ni-
trate contamination from specific
sources, including enacting stricter
limits on food processing wastewa-
ter facilities,” she wrote in an email.
“However, DEQ only has regulatory
authority over a small portion of the
identified sources of nitrate in
State agencies
outline their efforts
Responding to requests for com-
ment, representatives from the Ore-
gon departments of environmental
quality and agriculture explained the
enforcement work they already were
doing while also emphasizing the
House,” Drazan said. “The
last time that happened was
2010.”
Gov. Kate Brown, a Demo-
crat, is not eligible to run for
reelection due to term limits.
Drazan served in the Ore-
gon House of Representatives
from 2019 to 2022 and was
minority leader until 2021.
She represented the 39th dis-
trict, which includes parts of
Clackamas County.
She hopes to defeat Demo-
crat Tina Kotek, who served
as the speaker of the Oregon
House from 2013-2022, and
independent Betsy Johnson, a
longtime Democratic Oregon
legislator.
“You recognize that the
people in Salem — Kate
Brown, Tina Kotek, Betsy
Johnson — have not served
your needs,” Drazan said.
A late June poll sponsored
by the Republican State Lead-
ership Committee had Dra-
zan leading Kotek by one
point, with Johnson further
behind.
Drazan won May’s crowded
GOP primary with 23% of the
votes, defeating more than a
dozen other candidates in-
cluding Baker City Mayor
Kerry McQuisten.
Although Drazan hopes to
garner a large voter turnout in
November from counties in
Eastern Oregon, she will still
inevitably need votes from the
other side of the state as well.
During her speech Tuesday
in Baker City she mentioned
drugs and homelessness in
Portland.
Recently Drazan vowed to
declare Oregon’s homeless-
ness crisis a state of emer-
gency should she take office,
something she repeated in
Baker City.
She offered an anecdote to
this area.”
Liz Beeles of ODA said her agency
would continue to monitor and regu-
late groundwater pollution from an-
imal feeding operations and certain
irrigated agriculture. But the latter
could be difficult
to track.
“The current monitoring frame-
work makes it difficult to identify
specific irrigated agricultural nutrient
sources and link them to water qual-
ity outcomes in groundwater,” she
wrote.
the crowd, describing a time
when she did a police ride-
along in Portland and wit-
nessed, for the first time, peo-
ple taking hard drugs on the
streets. She vowed to re-crim-
inalize meth, heroin and fen-
tanyl, a statement that drew
loud applause.
In 2020 Oregon voters ap-
proved a ballot measure mak-
ing possession of relatively
small amounts of those and
other drugs similar to a traf-
fic infraction, rather than a
crime.
A majority of Baker County
voters rejected that measure.
After her opening remarks,
Drazan fielded questions
from the crowd, which were
delivered by notecard. Ques-
tions addressed taxes, abor-
tion, voting laws, medicare,
gun laws and agriculture.
“If I’ve learned anything
from traveling our state, it’s
Beeles added the department was
looking into ways to “support or en-
hance” voluntary measures proposed
in a 2020 plan.
Instead of focusing on enforce-
ment, Oregon Health Authority
spokesperson Jonathan Modie de-
tailed his agency’s legislative efforts.
In an email, Modie wrote that
OHA will seek money from the
Emergency Board for well treatment
systems and replacement water fil-
ters for affected households through
June 2023.
that every single part of our
state is unique,” said Dra-
zan, who grew up in Klamath
County. “I want to be a part of
having a conversation where
you guys tell me what you
want fixed and what you want
me to work on for you.”
Drazan headed to John Day
Tuesday night to continue her
campaign trip through East-
ern Oregon.
Baker
County
Veterans
Baker
County
Baker
County
Service Office office
will be
Veteran’s
Veterans
closed
from
has
moved!
Service Office
December 20, 2021
2200
4th closed
Street
will through
be
Baker City, Oregon
May
12th-20th,
2022
97814
December
27, 2021
Hail damages Union County crops
BY DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Farmers
in Union County are de-
scribing the hailstorm that hit
Union County late last week
as among the worst they
have seen.
“It was pretty significant,
pretty severe,” said Matt Insko,
a farmer in the Imbler area.
Insko said he and many
farmers were just getting
ready to start harvesting their
wheat when the hailstorm hit
at about 4 p.m. on Thursday,
Aug. 11.
“It would have been nice if
it had been a couple of weeks
later. It did a lot more damage
because of when it hit,” he said.
Insko lost about 30% of his
450-acre wheat crop. Fortu-
nately, he had purchased hail
insurance.
“That will definitely take
some of the sting away,”
he said.
Insko has been farming in
the Grande Ronde Valley for
23 years and said he has seen
few storms drop so much
hail over such a wide area so
quickly. This made driving
during the hail storm difficult.
“My windshield wipers
could not move fast enough,”
Insko said.
The hail hit during a thun-
derstorm that started south of
La Grande and moved north-
east through the Wallowa
area. Insko said he always fears
thunderstorms because of the
hail they can bring. He said
thunderstorms are more likely
when there are temperatures
in the 90s, as was the case
last week.
Seth Hassinger, a farmer in
the Cove area, said that the
hailstorm missed his fami-
ly’s farm. He knows firsthand,
though, just how devastating
hailstorms can be to crops.
Hassinger said that even small
hail stones can have a big im-
pact. He recalled how once
a hailstorm filled with small
stones destroyed much of the
peppermint crop on his
family’s farm.
“It shredded the leaves off,”
he said.
Brett Rudd, also a Grande
Ronde Valley farmer, said the
storm destroyed as much as
35% percent of his 500-acre
canola crop.
The storm also ruined
up to 10% of his 150-acre
wheat crop.
“The hail knocked the seeds
out of their heads,” he said.
Rudd, like Insko, describes
the hailstorm as one of the
worst he’s seen.
FEEL THE SPEED,
EVEN AT PEAK TIMES.
“It was definitely a memora-
bly bad storm. It was so wide-
spread,” said Rudd, who is 45
and has lived in Union County
all of his life.
Curt Ricker, who farms in
the Island City area, also sus-
tained heavy losses.
The hailstorm destroyed
30% of his 40-acre fall wheat
crop, 70% of his 80-acre spring
wheat crop and 70% percent of
his 50-acre barley crop.
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2192 Court Avenue, Baker City • 541-523-5357
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Applications are open from
August 16 - 30
Learn More & Apply Today
biz.oregon.gov