Wednesday, July 13, 2022
HeRMIsTOnHeRald.COM • A13
OFF PAGE ONE
Water
“I don’t know the final number,” he
said.
Given the potential for change, the
commissioner stated he couldn’t esti-
mate the county’s cost.
Each home in need could receive
four or five gallons of water every two
weeks, he said.
In any case, Doherty said, the com-
pany is providing a valuable service.
By transitioning toward deliveries by
a private company, he said, the county
could return county workers to their
regular employment.
“They’ve been fantastic,” Doherty
said of Desert Springs.
Continued from Page A1
making, but once we recognized the
public health emergency and informa-
tion emergency, we’ve got to do some-
thing, at least in the interim,” Doherty
said on Thursday, July 7.
Doherty had visited homes and
helped collect water samples. Fol-
lowing suit, many more local people
brought water samples to collection
sites in Boardman and Irrigon. Sev-
eral of these Morrow residents, whose
drinking water originates from private
wells, have received test results. They
have learned that their water contains
nitrate levels over 10 parts per million
— sometimes much higher, according
to Doherty — which makes the water
unsafe to drink or use in cooking.
SPRINGS OF GENEROSITY FLOW
TO NEEDY PEOPLE
In response to Morrow’s troubles,
nearby entities gave assistance or at
least offered help. The city of Herm-
iston, to name one example, prom-
ised fresh drinking water to Morrow
County.
The city of Boardman, too, stated
it would make city water available to
people in need. It opened a fire hy-
drant at Sam Boardman Elementary
in Boardman. Sitting in front of the
school, Oregon Rural Action commu-
nity organizers have been distributing
clean city water to people. Meanwhile,
they have received additional water
samples from people for testing, work
that will continue into the foreseeable
future, they said.
Additional sample collection sites,
at the Morrow County Government
Center in Irrigon and Boardman
Foods in Boardman, have given free
water to people, too.
IRRIGON’S OFFER GOES UNANSWERED
On June 16, Morrow County Emer-
gency Management sent a letter to the
city of Irrigon.
“Morrow County would like to of-
ficially request to use city water in its
efforts to distribute clean cooking and
drinking water to the rural residents
of Irrigon who have a domestic well
within the 97844 ZIP code and whose
Erick Peterson/Hermiston Herald, File
Cases of water sit Thursday, June 23, 2022, in front of the Morrow County Government Center, 215 N.E. Main Ave., Irrigon.
water has been tested and shown to
be above the Center for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention’s (CDC’s) recom-
mended levels of nitrate,” states the
letter from Morrow County Emer-
gency Manager Paul Gray to Irrigon
City Manager Aaron Palmquist.
The Irrigon City Council discussed
the request at its June 21 meeting and
voted to authorize the sale of city wa-
ter to Morrow County.
Palmquist sent a letter to Gray on
June 22 in which he outlined an agree-
ment for city staff to fill water contain-
ers and distribute water.
Water fees would be $0.025 per gal-
lon. The county also would need to
pay a deposit of $900, with $750 be-
ing refundable, according to a request
form that was submitted with Palm-
quist’s letter.
On Thursday, July 7, Irrigon’s city
manager said he had not heard back
from the county about the matter. Ir-
rigon had not opened a hydrant, and
the county’s water distribution site in
Irrigon was handing out bottled wa-
ter still.
Doherty stated on Thursday that
he didn’t hold anything against the
city. Irrigon, the commissioner said,
has economic concerns of its own,
and it’s completely within its rights
to offer to sell water rather than gift
it to the county. Still, Doherty added,
the county was pursuing alternative
efforts to bring fresh water to local
people.
PRIVATE COMPANY TAKES
OVER WATER DELIVERY
According to Doherty, Desert
Springs Bottled Water Co., an Echo
company, will be delivering water to
people whose wells are tainted.
Though the commissioner stated
that the county is contracted with
Desert Springs for water delivery, it is
yet unknown what the total expense
might be. According to Doherty, the
county is discovering greater and
greater nitrate contamination in an in-
creasing number of homes.
He said he has recently seen test re-
sults with nitrate levels in the 50 to 60
parts per million range outside both
Boardman and Irrigon.
“Sixty-eight is now, I think, our
high,” Doherty said. “It was 59.”
He said that Desert Springs is
scheduling water bottle delivery to
around 60 Morrow County homes
starting Saturday, July 9, but the num-
ber of customers could jump up to
200 within the next week and even
more soon after that.
THE COUNTY LOOKS FURTHER
INTO THE FUTURE
Commissioner Doherty said that
water deliveries remain a “stopgap.”
Both deliveries and the pickup sites,
he said, will eventually terminate,
though he wouldn’t give an exact date
when that might happen. It could be
three months, he said, as the county
makes other plans.
A longer-term solution, according to
the commissioner, involves installing fil-
ters onto kitchen taps in people’s homes.
Doherty said the county was re-
ceiving its first shipments of filters on
Thursday. It will make them available
next week. People may, he said, pick
them up or schedule a county em-
ployee to install them.
He added that there will be no cost
to people who need the filters, and he
will have more details about availabil-
ity next week.
MORROW CONTINUES TO PUBLICIZE
THE EMERGENCY
While the county makes further ef-
forts to test samples, distribute fresh
water and schedule filter installations,
the commissioner said there is work
yet to do simply in making people
aware of the problem.
Doherty said that, a month into the
emergency, he is still encountering lo-
cal people who are unfamiliar with the
problem.
“They’re wondering what this
well-sampling is all about,” he said.
He added that the county is plan-
ning to mail information to homes in
the county.
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