A20
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, October 5, 2022
Nitrate
Continued from Page A1
Understanding
LUBGWMA
Tony Chiotti/Blue Mountain Eagle
Becky Stonerod-Pereira points to a number of succulent
plants at the John Day Street Fair.
Fair
Continued from Page A1
Also on hand was 8-year-
old artisan Brooklyn Adams,
who had a few handmade
items of her own for sale.
Brooklyn has been learn-
ing to craft, fi rst with Per-
ler beads, plastic beads that
are heat-fused into all man-
ner of patterns. Lately she’s
been learning to use a knit-
ting loom to create anything
from baby fl amingoes to
owls and even a blue whale.
We
met
Brooklyn
mid-transaction, as her
mother rang up a bright
blue, plush knitted squid.
And in the time it took us to
get the spelling of her name
from her mother, she had
already walked off and spent
the money she’d just earned
at the neighboring stall, buy-
ing a small, prickly cactus:
the hyperlocal economy in
action.
The site of the street
fair, the Pit Stop, has been
an ongoing and sometimes
controversial project for the
city of John Day. The small
piece of city-owned land
on the southwest corner of
Main and Canton streets has
been the subject of debate at
city council meetings, with
ways to develop the site
being a hot button issue for
residents.
Some have viewed the
space as a place for food
carts, bike lockers and a
farmers market to help pro-
mote tourism. Others saw
the site as a space to be used
as parking for oversized
vehicles.
Ultimately, it appears the
idea of developing the space
as a public rest area for visi-
tors as well as a site for com-
munity events has won out.
There is still work to do
before the site is completed.
Already fi nished are the
bathrooms, a drinking foun-
tain and a paved parking lot.
The lot will have 11 park-
ing spaces when completed,
including a single handi-
capped parking space.
The city council has
approved plans to install
bike lockers. Other pro-
posed improvements to the
site include fencing, a fi re
pit, seating, a shade struc-
ture, signage and a bulletin
board, as well as a fl ower
garden that will serve as a
thank-you to members of the
community who do volun-
teer work on behalf of Grant
County’s senior population.
The street fair was
sponsored by the Oregon
Regional Accelerator &
Innovation Network, known
as Oregon RAIN for short.
The organization put on a
rotating series of street fairs
this year in John Day, Prairie
City and Canyon City.
Zach Denney of Oregon
RAIN said the series of street
fairs this year was a success
and he has plans to increase
the number of events next
year. “We wanted to try to
create a space that gave our
vendors the opportunity to
sell their goods and services
and then also bring the com-
munity together for some
fun, and I think we knocked
it out of the park on both
fronts for having it be so
simple,” Denney said.
The plan for next year is to
have a street fair every month
in John Day, Canyon City and
Prairie City instead of rotating
between the three communi-
ties on a monthly basis.
The 2023 season will
begin in late March or
early April and go through
September.
The basis for issuing such a
large fi ne to the port lies in its
location.
DEQ designated the Lower
Umatilla Basin Groundwater
Management Area, which goes
by the imposing acronym of
LUBGWMA, in 1990. The area
straddles northern Morrow and
Umatilla counties and includes
the cities of Hermiston, Uma-
tilla, Echo, Stanfi eld, Boardman
and Irrigon.
The Oregon Health Author-
ity estimates approximately
4,500 domestic wells are in the
area providing water for about
12,000 people.
State offi cials may declare
a “groundwater management
area” when levels of ground-
water nitrates surpass 7 milli-
grams per liter. That’s 70% of
the EPA’s limit for safe drink-
ing water.
While contamination lev-
els in the LUBGWMA vary,
many wells have tested above
the limit, hence the emergency
declaration in Morrow County,
DEQ spokeswoman Laura
Gleim said.
A test of 132 wells sampled
in the area shows 44% exceeded
the safe drinking water standard
for nitrates, including 14 wells
that registered 40 to 60 milli-
grams per liter. Three wells had
more than 60 milligrams per liter
— more than six times the max-
imum allowable concentration.
Erica Heartquist, spokes-
woman for the Oregon Health
Authority, said drinking water
with high levels of nitrates can
contribute to several health
problems in adults, such as
respiratory infections, thyroid
dysfunction, spontaneous abor-
tions and some cancers.
The agency, however, does
not have the level of detailed
information necessary to deter-
mine whether any resident’s ill-
ness has been caused by expo-
sure to nitrates in drinking water.
In infants, consuming
nitrates can cause methemo-
globinemia, or “blue baby syn-
drome,” which occurs when an
inadequate amount of oxygen
enters the blood.
Methemoglobinemia is not
a “reportable condition” for
health care providers, though
according to OHA, a search of
diagnostic codes in health care
claims and hospitalization dis-
charge, emergency department
and urgent care clinic data found
no records of it over the last 10
years.
That search, however, is an
inexact science, Heartquist cau-
tioned, and even if the level of
Lynn Ketchum, Oregon State University/Contributed Photo
The test tubes that are used to check for nitrates in well water.
exposure is not enough to cause
methemoglobinemia, high lev-
els of nitrates in drinking water
can still be harmful.
the right time.
Too much, and the plants
may not be able to use it all.
Apply it before or during wet
weather, and the risk of nitrates
Sources of nitrates
leaching below the root zone
Nitrogen-based
fertilizer increases.
used on irrigated agricultural
Either way, it could end up in
land is the source of almost 70% the groundwater below.
of the nitrogen that has leached
A committee of govern-
into the groundwater, according ment, industry and environ-
to research by DEQ, the state mental representatives has rec-
Department of Agriculture and ommended voluntary measures
Oregon State University Exten- aimed at curbing nitrates in the
sion Service.
LUBGWMA.
About 12.2% comes from
Still, 30 years later, data
using liquid manure from con- show nitrate concentrations
fi ned animal feeding operations, “are going up more than they’re
such as dairies, to fertilize crops. going down,” the committee
Eight percent comes
reported in its 2020
from livestock pas-
action plan.
tures, and 4.6% is from
Shannon
Davis,
applying wastewater
DEQ Eastern Region
for irrigation.
administrator, said the
In the port’s case,
agency “could have
it obtained much of its
been doing a much
wastewater from food
better job than we’ve
processors
making
done to date” regulat-
Davis
products such as french
ing permitted facilities.
fries, frozen onions, cheese The priority, she said, is issuing
and mint oil. Not only is nitro- strong and consistently enforced
gen found naturally in the crops permits.
themselves, but is also in the soil
With DEQ, the Port of
and fertilizers that gets washed Morrow is now amending its
off the vegetables during pro- permit to ensure it does not
cessing, DEQ’s Gleim said.
exceed prescribed rates for land
Recycled water is important application.
for farmers in the basin, where it
“We owe it to the state of
rains 9 inches per year.
Oregon and the people out there
to do the best we can cleaning
Valuable resource
up and protecting the ground-
The nutrients in water reused water,” Davis said.
for irrigation reduce the use of
Legacy of
commercial fertilizer that would
contamination
otherwise generate up to 12,000
At the same time, Davis
tons of carbon dioxide annually,
according to NOWA. It also acknowledges the area’s econ-
reduces the pressure on badly omy is built on agriculture,
and permits must be fl exible
stressed aquifers.
“It allows industry to con- so farmers can produce food
tinue to grow,” said Jake Mad- economically.
Cook, with NOWA, said that
ison, a fourth-generation farmer
and president of Madison while DEQ emphasizes stron-
Ranches in Echo, Ore. He uses ger permits for operators, it
wastewater from the port to irri- has neglected to address reme-
gate 2,800 acres of cropland. diation of “legacy” pollutants
“It’s a great sustainability story, — nitrates that have accumu-
from the reuse of a scarce natu- lated underground over past
generations.
ral resource in the area.”
Nitrate contamination in the
Avoiding nitrate contamina-
tion means growers must apply LUBGWMA appears to be in
the right amount of nitrogen at shallow aquifers that aren’t con-
nected to the fl oodplain, Cook
said. That makes it extremely
diffi cult to remove.
“The water that’s in there
does not go anywhere,” he
explained. “The only way you
get it out is to dilute it over time,
or pump it out and put it onto
fi elds.”
Cook helped create NOWA
in 2013 to address water qual-
ity and quantity in the basin.
His organization has led calls
for more funding from the state
to better understand the area’s
geology and hydrology, cre-
ate a more robust well-test-
ing network and implement
recommendations outlined in
the LUBGWMA committee’s
action plan.
“Until there’s action, until
there’s a program, it’s all talk,”
Cook said.
Madison described legacy
nitrates as “great-great grand-
pa’s contamination.” He said
farming practices have come a
long way since then, with pro-
ducers using less nitrogen today
to grow more food, depending
on the crop.
Applying too much nitro-
gen can hamper both crop qual-
ity and the farm’s bottom line,
Madison said. That adds incen-
tive to adopt best management
practices. But until the legacy
nitrates are dealt with, he wor-
ries contamination will persist.
“We’ve got to try to fi gure
out a way to get that water out
and do something useful with
it,” he said.
A larger problem
Groundwater nitrates extend
beyond the Umatilla Basin and
across the Pacifi c Northwest and
U.S.
The LUBGWMA is one of
three groundwater management
areas in Oregon. The other two
are in northern Malheur County
and the southern Willamette
Valley.
In Washington, the state
Department of Ecology under-
took its Nitrate Prioritiza-
tion Project in 2014, mapping
groundwater areas identifi ed as
most vulnerable to contamina-
tion. Candidates for “priority
areas” are found statewide, from
dryland farming areas in the east
to the Puget Sound lowlands in
the west.
Colleen Keltz, a spokes-
woman for Ecology’s Water
Quality Program, highlighted the
Lower Yakima Valley Ground-
water Management Area, where
she said about 75 residents have
well water that does not meet
the EPA’s safe drinking water
standard.
The Idaho Department of
Environmental Quality also
maintains a ranking of ground-
water nitrate priority areas. It
will be updated in 2024.
Coffee Break!
Puzzle solutions can be found in today’s classifieds
CLUES ACROSS
1. Bay Area humorist
5. Hurt
10. Icelandic poems
14. A taro corm
15. Metaphorical use of a word
16. It fears the hammer
17. Excessively quaint (British)
18. Laid-back California county
19. Cook in a microwave oven
20. Not late
22. Go from one place to
another
23. Peoples living in the Congo
24. Popular pasta
27. Available engine power
(abbr.)
30. Popular musician Charles
31. Angry
32. Spelling is one type
35. One who makes a living
37. Indicates location
38. Imperial Chinese dynasty
39. Small water buffaloes
40. Hungarian city
41. Fabric
42. Ancient kingdom near
Dead Sea
43. Precursor to the EU
44. Philly footballers
45. Female sibling
46. “When Harry Met Sally”
actress
47. Magnetic tape of high
quality
48. Insecticide
49 Apparatus to record and
transmit
52. Some is considered “dog”
55. Israeli city __ Aviv
56. Fencing sword
60. Ottoman military title
61. Wise people
63. Cold wind
64. Popular type of shoe
65. Administrative district
66. A way to reveal
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pieces
68. Actress Zellweger
69. Romanian city
12. Wild mango
13. Brews
21. Belgian city
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25. Swiss river
26. Small amount
27. Part of buildings
28. Vietnamese capital
29. Sailboats
32. Shelter
33. Terminated
34. Discharge
36. Snag
37. Partner to cheese
38. A container for coffee
40. Spend time dully
41. Satisfies
43. Snakelike fish
44. Consume
CLUES DOWN
46. Type of student
1. Small town in Portugal
47. Erase
2. Site of famed Ethiopian
49. Instruct
battle
50. Girl’s given name
3. German river
51. Jewish spiritual leader
4. Christmas carols
52. “To __ his own”
5. Cash machine
53. North-central Indian city
6. Rough and uneven
54. Greek alphabet characters
7. Rumanian round dance
57. Weapon
8. Widespread occurrence of 58. Amounts of time
disease
59. American Nobel physicist
9. A place to relax
vital to MRIs
10. Feeling of listlessness
61. Soviet Socialist Republic
11. Coat or smear a substance 62. Witness
WORDS
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