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.