Public meeting to
discuss Green firing
A public meeting has been called for Monday July 11
at 6 p.m. at Two Old Hags Pizza in Heppner. The topic
will be a discussion on the recent firing of Morrow County
Administrator Darrell Green. All interested members of
the public are invited to attend.
For more information call 541-377-7874. Two Old
Hags Pizza is located at 111 N. Court Street across from
the courthouse in Heppner.
50¢
VOL. 141
NO. 27
8 Pages
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Business coalition pledges to pay for
immediate purchase of safe drinking
water filters
A coalition of local
businesses, responding to
a request for assistance to
help neighbors, families
and workers impacted by
the water emergency de-
clared in Morrow County
have stepped up to pay for
the installation of new or
replacement water filters to
ensure access to safe drink-
ing water for those relying
on wells that test above
federal safe drinking water
levels of nitrate contamina-
tion (greater than 10 ppm).
According to a recent
news release, the business
coalition was organized by
Debbie Radie, VP Opera-
tions for Boardman Foods
and supported by Torrie
Griggs of the Boardman
Chamber of Commerce
and Boardman Community
Development Association
(BCDA), working in close
cooperation with Morrow
County Health Department
officials to respond to this
urgent community need.
The local businesses par-
ticipating in the coalition
include Beef Northwest,
Boardman Foods, Calbee
America, Lamb Weston,
Oregon Potato, PGE,
Threemile Canyon Farms,
Torrie Griggs Boardman
Chamber of Commerce/
Boardman Community De-
velopment Association
and Tillamook County
Creamery Association.
Griggs and Radie ex-
plained how the innovative
community partnership
would work:
Local businesses have
committed to contribute
enough private funds to
the BCDA to financially
support Morrow County
Health Department with a
Safe Drinking Water Fil-
tration Project. The BCDA
is an existing non-profit
corporation with a public
mission and a demonstrated
track-record of delivering
community benefit results
on projects in the Morrow
County Enterprise Zone.
The BCDA would steward
the private contributions –
being accountable for pay-
ment of invoices for filters
purchased and authorized
by the Morrow County
Health Department. “All
of us understand that this
is just one important step
in the community-wide
strategy necessary to reach
a sustainable solution to
basin-wide concerns over
nitrate contamination,
that has been decades in
the making,” explained
Griggs, executive director
of BCDA.
“Community business
partners wanted to assure
that there would be funds
to pay for the immediate
purchase of 350 new or
replacement safe drinking
water filters for our Morrow
County neighbors, on wells
that were tested and certi-
fied by the Morrow County
Health Department at levels
of nitrate contamination
above federal safe drinking
standards (greater than 10
ppm). This is just one more
Debbie Radie, VP Operations
Boardman Foods
way to show how we work
together as a tight-knit,
family-friendly community
in times of need,” added
Radie.
For additional infor-
mation, contact Morrow
County Health Department
at 541-676-5421 during
business hours, or call Tor-
rie Griggs at 541-481-3014,
or Debbie Radie at 541-
945-7001.
Highway chip
sealing to start in
Heppner
A major chip sealing
operation covering 37 miles
from downtown Heppner
to Nye Junction will be-
gin next Monday, July 11,
the Oregon Department of
Transportation (ODOT) has
announced.
The chip sealing will
start at the Les Schwab
tire store in Heppner at
7 a.m. and then proceed
down May Street across
the bridge to Court Street
by Two Old Hags Pizza.
This in-town part of the
operation is expected to
take about four hours and
residents are urged to avoid
the area if possible. There
will be no parking allowed
in the downtown work area
during the chip sealing.
From there, work will
continue down Court Street
on Highway 74 east of
Heppner 37 miles all the
way to Nye Junction at the
intersection of Highway
395. The project is expected
to be completed in early
August.
During the work ODOT
officials say drivers can
expect up to 20-minute de-
lays, and they ask that driv-
ers reduce speeds, watch for
loose rock on the roadway
and be on the lookout for
flaggers in the area. Pilot
cars will be directing sin-
gle lane traffic through the
work areas.
Bicycle riders should
prepare for traveling on
rock chip covered highway
surfaces and behind a pilot
car, as ODOT says there
will be no usable shoulders
on which to ride. Ranch-
ers, farmers, and property
owners are asked to please
keep farm equipment off the
impacted highway sections
during and up to two days
after the chip sealing.
They also ask that ir-
rigation pivots and lawn
sprinklers be adjusted to
keep water off the road-
way. If you have plans
for moving livestock on
these highway sections, it is
asked that you please advise
ODOT District 12 Manager
Paul Howland at 541-278-
6044 first. “We greatly
appreciate your support
and cooperation during this
paving operation,” ODOT
officials said.
County allocates $100,000
towards nitrate-contaminated
water effort
the contamination is not
present in any city water
systems only private well
water in the northern sec-
tion of Morrow and Uma-
tilla counties.
After the emergency
declaration County Emer-
gency Manager Paul Gray
has been purchasing bottled
water for free distribution to
residents, as well as doing
free nitrate well water test-
ing. However, Gray came
to June 22 County Com-
mission meeting saying he
needed more money to pay
for those efforts and asked
for approval of an emergen-
cy $100,000 allocation.
Gray said he and a crew
of volunteers have been set
up a bulk water distribu-
tion station at Sam Board-
man Elementary School in
Boardman as well as buying
“pallets” of bottled water
for distribution in both
Boardman and Irrigon. The
county has also been doing
the water testing for free.
The county has been
joined in its effort by sever-
al north county businesses
(see related story in this
week’s Gazette-Times).
Volunteers have been hand-
ing out the water and doing
other tasks such as un-
loading the water trucks,
and, while Gray says this
is great, there is just not
enough of them to handle
the job, and he needs to hire
temporary staff to keep the
work going.
Commissioners voted
2-1 to approve the funds,
with Commissioner Don
Russell voting no, not be-
cause he was against dis-
tributing clean water, but
because he wanted to see
a more complete budget
on how the money was
going to be spent. “I would
like to see a real budget
on this,” Russell told the
other commissioners before
the vote. “The only thing
listed in here (the request
from Gray) is porta potties
for volunteers. That would
supply porta potties for a
long time. If we are really
going to solve this problem,
it’s not handing out water to
people,” Russell reasoned.
“It’s putting in filtration
systems at the wells,” he
emphasized.
Russell said he has stud-
ied the area around Board-
man where the high nitrate
levels are concentrated and
found other reasons beyond
just the port’s actions. “I
look at the areas that have
the highest nitrate concen-
trations and it is where a lot
of people are living in small
areas with septic tanks and
drain fields. You can’t help
but wonder if that is not
a substantial part of the
problem,” he stated.
Russell said the media
has painted the problem
as solely the fault of the
Port, which he says is not
accurate. “In the media we
placed substantially all the
blame on the Port of Mor-
row. I know looking at the
data from DEQ that the land
applicators (irrigators), the
Port of Morrow and Lamb
Weston contribute less than
five percent of the (nitrate)
problem.” Russell says
these are the only entities
that are regulated so the
blame has fallen totally on
to them.
ODOT will soon be starting a major chip sealing operation starting in downtown Heppner
and going all the way to Nye Junction.
“To really solve this
problem, we need a water
supply at the house that is
going to work,” Russell
said. “And spending tons
of money on bottled water
is not the solution.” He said
some contaminated water
sources can be solved by
something as simple as “a
$200 reverse osmosis filter
at the (home’s) sink.”
Commission Chairman
Jim Doherty, who is the
driving force behind push-
ing the contamination issue
into an emergency declara-
Weather slightly
cooler in June
According to prelim-
inary data received by
NOAA’s National Weather
Service in Pendleton, tem-
peratures at Heppner aver-
aged slightly cooler than
normal during the month of
June 2022.
The average tempera-
ture was 61.3 degrees
which was -1.8 degrees
cooler than the normal av-
erage temperature for this
month. High temperatures
averaged 73.7 degrees with
-See COUNTY ALLOCATES the high of 93 degrees being
FUNDS/PAGE SEVEN
recorded on the 28 th . Low
temperatures averaged 48.9
degrees with the low of 41
degrees being recorded on
the 15 th . There was one day
with a high temperature
above 90 degrees.
Precipitation was much
above normal during June,
totaling 2.60 inches, which
was 1.25 inches above nor-
mal. Precipitation of at least
.01 inch was reported on
seven days. The heaviest
amount of precipitation
was 0.82 inches, which was
reported on the 7 th .
E L E VAT E YO U R A DV E N T U R E
CALL
541-989-8221
ext 204
NEW
2022
FOR
Morrow County has
set aside $100,000 to be
used towards the high ni-
trate water problem in the
Boardman and Irrigon area.
The money will be used to
pay for water distribution,
temporary staffing help,
porta potties for volunteers,
and a professional media
company to handle spread-
ing information about the
contamination and remedi-
ation efforts.
Nitrogen in north
county drinking water is
nothing new and has been
present for many years,
however, in January the
Oregon Department of En-
vironmental Quality (DEQ)
fined the Port of Morrow
nearly $1.3 million (re-
cently increased to $2.1)
for violating its wastewater
permit by dumping excess
nitrate on farm ground over
a three-year period. The fine
and accompanying public-
ity triggered an increased
awareness and urgency
to the problem, and sub-
sequently spurred county
government to declare a
state of emergency over
the water contamination.
Health officials emphasize
for more
information
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