SIX - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, January 15, 2025
State of Emergency Declared by Kotek Decision to move circuit court
in Morrow and Umatilla Counties
back to Heppner
-Continued from PAGE ONE storage capacity in Febru- owners;
Industries have taken vol-
untary measures to do their
part to reduce wastewater
in the basin headed into this
non-growing season, and
we know that this will be
the last winter when land
application will occur due
to the upgrades that the
Port of Morrow is currently
making and the updated
schedule that DEQ has re-
quired,” said Kotek.
“I did not make this
decision lightly. We must
balance protecting thou-
sands of jobs in the region,
the national food supply,
and domestic well users
during this short period of
time during an unusually
wet winter,” she added.
“I have been very clear
in my expectation that all
entities involved in the
creation and reuse of waste-
water in the Lower Umatilla
Basin work with federal,
state and local partners in
our shared goal of reduc-
ing the nitrate groundwater
contamination in the basin.
This remains unchanged.
I expect partners in this
ecosystem, along with the
counties, will continue to
explore connections to pub-
lic water systems and other
drinking water solutions for
impacted residents in both
the near and long term.”
Cumulative precipi-
tation since November is
currently above the 95 th
percentile of the average
for the last 23 years in the
region.
Given measured cumu-
lative precipitation to date,
along with forecasted La
Niña winter conditions, the
Port of Morrow anticipates
that precipitation and freez-
ing conditions will combine
to overwhelm wastewater
ary and exceed the capacity
of the Port’s approved land
application site to accept
wastewater consistent with
the soil moisture restric-
tions in the Port’s permit.
A recent permit mod-
ification requires the Port
to finish building its new
lined storage lagoons this
year, effectively ending
future winter application
on the land a year ahead of
the previously agreed upon
schedule. A DEQ permit
modification now reflects
this and sets a deadline of
Nov. 1, 2025.
The compounding ef-
fect of the high levels of
precipitation and lack of
adequate lagoon storage
capacity poses an imminent
risk that the Port may have
to stop receiving wastewa-
ter from food processing
and other industrial facili-
ties in February, or sooner.
This would cause those
facilities to cease opera-
tions, which will in turn
trigger furloughs of poten-
tially thousands of workers
resulting in substantial eco-
nomic harm to the region
and the State of Oregon.
This order follows the
continued involvement of
the state over the past two
years to address the on-
going nitrate levels in the
groundwater in this region.
These actions include:
-Providing free testing
to all domestic well owners
in the LUBGWMA as well
as a large-scale canvas ef-
fort to reach homeowners
in the region to provide
education about high levels
of nitrate in drinking water
and free testing resources;
-Free filtration systems
for homes that qualify;
-Clean drinking water
delivered directly to home-
County students named
to BMCC honor roll
Blue Mountain Com-
munity College fall term
2024-25 honor roll recog-
nition went to the following
full-time students from
Morrow County:
President’s List (3.75 -
4.0 GPA)—Cindy Agripino,
Braden Atkins, Ana Calvil-
lo, Arely Cambero, Isela
Echols, Alejandro Gomez
Chavez, Kourtney Krogh,
Miranda Landeros, Savan-
nah Medrano Pruitt, Juliet
Montes, Chelsea Newdiger,
Brisa Salas, Humberto San-
chez, Sariah Thomas and
Mayra Wightman.
Vice President’s List:
(3.5 to 3.74)—Juan Ochoa,
Carol Salas and Dailen
Schultz.
-A comprehensive Ni-
trate Reduction Plan strat-
egy developed by state
agencies in coordination
with the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA);
-Adding capacity and
professional facilitation
of the local LUBGWMA
Advisory Committee to
help provide the structure
to create meaningful rec-
ommended actions from the
local stakeholders;
-Quarterly meetings
with the EPA to continue
the state and federal collab-
oration and commitment to
address the complex situ-
ation in the LUBGWMA;
-Visits to the area to
meet directly with com-
munity members about
drinking water concerns
and with the industry and
agricultural partners to push
for more action; and
-Millions of dollars of
investment from the state
to cover the cost of testing,
treatment, water delivery
and long-term strategy de-
velopment.
Kotek issued Executive
Order 25-02 pursuant to
ORS 401.165 et seq.
Kotek determined that
to avoid the shutdown of
food processing and agri-
cultural industries in Mor-
row and Umatilla counties,
while still ensuring the
protection of groundwater
and groundwater users, the
restrictions specifically set
forth in Schedule A, Con-
ditions (6), (8), (11) and
(13) of the DEQ Permit,
as applied to Farm 1 and
Farm 3, and exclusively
to fields that are ranked as
“Low Risk” by the Permit
on Farm 4 and Farm 5 are
waived for the duration of
this Executive Order.
-Continued from PAGE ONE sires,” Wenholz said.
85 percent of the caseload
is in the north end.
“I was able to secure
keeping the historic court-
house operational while
still having a court facility
in Boardman,” Hill said,
“which would allow for
service to both the north
and the south ends of the
county.”
“I represent the Sixth
Judicial District. I repre-
sent the chief justice, and I
represent the people of both
counties,” Hill added. “And
I will do the best interest
of what I think is and what
I’ve heard are the best in-
terests of people. And that’s
not to disregard one part of
the county or the other.”
Hill also said that,
while Morrow County’s
caseload didn’t justify a
full-time judge, the logistics
of the Boardman location
made another sixth judicial
district judge more likely.
That, in turn, would create
four more staff positions, all
of which Hill said would be
state funded.
The shift back to Hep-
pner, Hill said, would result
in the district not getting a
sixth judge or those posi-
tions. He did not address the
City of Heppner’s concerns
about the possible negative
economic impacts to that
city, saying only that there
was no economic advantage
to building a new court fa-
cility in Heppner.
Morrow County Com-
missioner Jeff Wenholz also
opposed moving the circuit
court back to Heppner,
saying Boardman allowed
better access to justice for
all citizens.
“Leave it there. I don’t
think you’re being fair to
the north end and their de-
He also reminded the
other commissioners of the
outspoken opposition to the
fairgrounds site.
“I don’t think that those
people have changed their
minds,” said Wenholz.
“Stuart Dick got up and
yelled at us that we weren’t
listening to the people and
to not put it at the fair-
grounds. So I don’t know
why we’re going back to
the fairgrounds.”
Peterson responded that
the BOC had received many
letters, including from those
who had opposed the fair-
grounds, saying they had
changed their minds.
“They recognized that
if this was the only viable
location for Heppner, that
that was important to them,
that it remained in Hep-
pner,” he said. “So yes, we
have in fact received word,
and it is written, that there
has been a change in opin-
ion regarding that.”
Wenholz also said he
thought it was the BOC’s
duty to represent the major-
ity of the county’s citizens.
“That is the county’s
role, is to be a service pro-
vider, and one of the best
ways to provide good cus-
tomer service is to provide
the services where the cus-
tomers are,” Wenholz said.
“And when you have over
75 percent of the popula-
tion—and that will continue
to grow—located in the
north end of the county, the
services should be there.”
Peterson echoed
Sykes’s earlier comments
and said he also had been
public in his support for
keeping the circuit court
building in Heppner and
that he believed it was im-
portant for elected officials
to keep their word.
“If we are going to
be a body that people can
trust, then we need to be
consistent with what we
say that we are going to do.
And I’m going to hold with
what I said I was going to
do,” he said.
The BOC voted 2-1 to
repeal the siting of the cir-
cuit building in Boardman
and move it back to the
fairgrounds site in Heppner.
Wenholz was the dissenting
vote.
Lunch
& Dinner
Menu
1/16 - 1/22
Thursday - Chili burger and curly fries
Friday - 2 beer battered cod & clam chowder
Saturday - popcorn shrimp salad &
breadstick
Sunday - Sausage Egg English muffin with
hashbrowns
Monday - Hot Roast Beef Sandwich w/ beef
& barley soup
Tuesday - Grill Chicken Parmesan flatbread
sandwich & macaroni salad
Tuesday night - 6-9pm $2 hard shell tacos
Wednesday - Grilled cheese & broccoli soup
JANUARY 25, 2025
GILLIAM BISBEE BUILDING
HEPPNER, OR
Join us as we work to
support students
in all of
Morrow County
5:00 Doors Open & Silent Auction
6:00 Dinner served
7:00 Live auction begins
TICKETS $50 EACH
TICKETS ON SALE AT MURRAY’S DRUG IN HEPPNER OR
EMAIL KIMBERS97839@YAHOO.COM
Interested in helping with an auction item, please contact Ashley Lindsay, 541-379-4079,
Erin Heideman, 541-561-0081, Beth Dickenson, 541-980-8677, Tiah Devin, 541-980-5436)