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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 2022)
Heppner Lights at Heritage Park 50¢ VOL. 141 NO. 49 8 Pages Wednesday, December 7, 2022 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon DEQ grants Port of Morrow modified permit Sage garden preschoolers sing Christmas carols - Contributed Photo Port to invest up to $200 million in improvements Kids from the Heppner daycare and preschool sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. -Contributed Photo The Port of Morrow industrial complex in Boardman. The modified DEQ permit does not allow land applica- -Contributed photo tion of Port wastewater November through February. -Contributed photo Boardman, OR—The tion of wastewater in the based on supply chain is- Commissioners instructed Oregon Department of En- non-growing season from sues, which would cause a Port staff to pursue funding vironmental Quality has November through Feb- need for a modification. sources for the $150-$200 granted the Port of Morrow ruary. The Port committed to million investment to com- a modified permit for indus- The Port proposed to a substantial expansion of ply with modified permit trial wastewater treatment construct additional waste- farmland acreage used for provisions, including ap- and land application. To water storage lagoons with land application of waste- plying for State of Oregon comply with permit re- a 1.5-billion-gallon capac- water stored over winter funds and federal funds quirements, the Port will ity by Nov. 1, 2026. The months. In addition to pro- from the Water Infrastruc- invest up to $200 million added capacity will hold viding a reliable source of ture Finance and Innovation in improvements, includ- large amounts of wastewa- water for irrigation without Act administered by the ing wastewater treatment ter during winter months drawing down groundwa- Environmental Protection facilities. and allow the Port to meet ter, the wastewater contains Agency. DEQ’s permit modifies restrictions on winter nitrogen that substitutes “Even though the Port an existing Water Pollution wastewater application. for commercial fertilizers is responsible for approx- Control Facilities permit The Port also pro- produced with fossil fuels. imately 3.5 percent of the issued Dec. 21, 2017, which posed constructing three Port Commissioners nitrates found in the Lower allows for land application anaerobic digestors to treat declined to appeal the mod- Umatilla Ground Water of industrial wastewater high-nutrient wastewater. ified permit despite ex- Management Basin, our from food processors, ener- The first unit is nearly com- pressing concerns to DEQ responsibility as environ- gy generators, data centers plete. All three will be on- over aggressive deadlines mental stewards is to do and job-intensive industries line by November 2023. and the agency’s calcula- everything possible to en- at the Port. Without re- Oxidation ditches will tions of nitrogen levels in sure industrial wastewater use, the wastewater would be added by July 2025 to land-applied discharges. remains a community as- be just that—waste. The provide secondary treat- Meeting the deadlines will set” stated Lisa Mittelsdorf, major change in the mod- ment for water from the require swift start-up and Executive Director. ified permit is effectively anaerobic digesters. These completion of wastewater disallowing land applica- deadlines may change infrastructure upgrades. Families and community members gather for the Christmas light show at Heritage Park in Heppner. -Contributed photo Rebecca Finch catches Santa’s ear at the Ag Museum. -Contributed photo Amazon once again top taxpayer in Recall vote appears successful According to unofficial residents voted to recall precinct as is below. results released Tuesday Commissioner Doherty, The voter turnout was county at $20.69 million by Morrow County Clerk while 1,173 voted against also low. As of yester- Data centers pay more than next 19 businesses, combined MORROW COUNTY 2022-23 Top Tax Payors NAME TAX_AMOUNT AMAZON DATA SERVICES, INC $20,691,726.33 RMV* $4,021,943,860 AV $1,561,640,110 AVISTA CORPORATION $3,343,707.42 $207,160,000 $207,160,000 THREEMILE CANYON FARMS, LLC $3,140,766.73 $292,521,899 $246,859,935 LAMB WESTON, INC $2,545,166.24 $3,361,544,150 $157,528,390 PORTLAND GENERAL ELECTRIC CO $2,149,638.54 $684,611,000 $139,896,860 GAS TRANSMISSION NORTHWEST CORP $1,210,341.60 $81,353,112 $81,353,112 $746,573.28 $56,560,870 $56,518,670 COLUMBIA RIVER PROCESSING, INC PORT OF MORROW $515,423.04 $41,905,245 $36,298,039 PORT VIEW APARTMENTS, LLC $433,010.87 $28,410,010 $23,942,920 FARMLAND RESERVE, INC $388,722.99 $50,732,338 $29,503,233 UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD CO $378,472.86 $128,676,273 $29,355,290 RDO/CALBEE FOODS LLC $343,977.29 $26,147,630 $26,147,630 OREGON POTATO COMPANY $292,854.56 $18,471,139 $18,092,471 ALTO COLUMBIA, LLC $285,092.53 $21,671,470 $21,671,470 WILLOW CREEK ENERGY LLC $276,017.09 $37,120,000 $17,188,010 ORCHARD WIND PROJECT $257,763.49 $60,350,000 $20,862,870 PACIFICORP (PP&L) $245,434.68 $18,694,000 $18,694,000 LUMEN TECHNOLOGIES INC $233,898.48 $15,842,000 $15,842,000 TIDEWATER BARGE LINES INC $217,307.10 $9,320,000 $9,320,000 EASTERDAY DAIRY, LLC $191,634.06 $15,513,059 $15,222,723 *Note: RMV amounts are before any exemptions. A recently posted list of top taxpayers in the county shows Amazon far and away the highest taxpayer in the county. In the above chart, the tax amount is what will be paid by each busi- ness this year, RMV is real market value, and AV is assessed value. Amazon Web Services (AWS), which operates several data centers around Boardman, is once again the top taxpayer in Mor- row County. The company is shelling out more than $20.69 million in property taxes this year, which is more than the next 19 high- est taxpayers combined. Amazon’s tax bill is up more than $9 million from the $11.47 million it paid last year, and it has held the *Note: RMV amounts are before any exemptions. top county taxpaying spot since 2018. The next highest tax- payer at $3.3 million is Avista Corporation, opera- tor of a gas-fired generating facility at Boardman. The tax chart posted on the county assessor’s web site also shows Amazon’s to- tal investment in Morrow County now at over $4 billion. In addition to the $20.69 million it pays in county taxes (distributed to taxing districts in the county), Amazon will also pay an additional $11.88 million this year to the Columbia River Enterprise Zone II in lieu of taxes. That money is distributed around the county to schools, vari- ous districts, cities and eco- nomic development groups. ALL NEWS AND ADVERTISEMENT DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 5:00 P.M. Bobbi Childers, both Com- missioner Jim Doherty and Commissioner Melissa Lindsay seem destined to leave office sooner than they planned. The vote will not be certified until Dec. 20, however, to allow time for the county clerk’s of- fice to receive mailed bal- lots and resolve ballots. Both recalls won out by fairly small margins. As of Dec. 6, a total of 1,337 the recall, a difference of only 164 votes. Commis- sioner Linsday’s recall had an even narrower margin with a difference of only 20 votes, 1,263 in favor of the recall and 1,243 against. Results were not unan- imous across the county, however; the recall passed by the largest margin in Boardman, while it failed by a large margin in Lex- ington. Full breakdown by day, the Morrow County Clerk’s office had only re- ceived 36.17 percent of the ballots sent out. According to records, not only has a county com- missioner never been re- called in the 137-year-old history of Morrow County, but a recall effort has also not even been successful- ly initiated against a com- missioner. Morrow County was created in 1885. Recall Election Results by Precinct as of 11/29 Doherty Recall Lindsay Recall Heppner Lexington Ione Boardman Irrigon Yes 308 257 Yes 433 441 No 438 488 Yes 88 79 No 147 157 Yes No 131 109 108 129 No 213 205 Yes 359 363 No 262 258 November cooler, wetter than normal According to prelim- inary data received by NOAA’s National Weath- er Service in Pendleton, temperatures at Heppner averaged much cooler than normal during the month of November. The average tempera- ture was 34.2 degrees, which was -7.4 degrees cooler than the normal av- erage temperature for this month. High temperatures averaged 42.6 degrees, with the high of 60 degrees being recorded on Nov. 5. Low temperatures aver- aged 25.8 degrees, with the low of 14 degrees being recorded on Nov. 19. There were 26 days when the low temperature was below 32 degrees, and six days when the high temperature was less than 32 degrees. Precipitation was much above normal during November, totaling 1.67 inches, which was 0.30 inches above normal. Pre- cipitation of at least .01 inch was reported on five days. The heaviest amount of precipitation was 0.63 inches, which was reported on Nov. 2.
