SALEM, Ore. – The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is seeking community input as it develops a statewide Nutrient Reduction Strategy for the state’s water.
Residents across the state, including Morrow and Umatilla Counties, where unsafe nitrate levels in the groundwater have long been a problem, are encouraged to complete the survey about water quality.
The brief survey, which should only take three to five minutes, is a coordinated effort between the DEQ’s Water Quality Division and the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
According to the DEQ, the Nutrient Reduction Strategy will be a plan to better address and prevent harm to Oregon waterways and groundwater from too many nutrients, and will serve as a long-term roadmap on how to best use programs and resources to prevent and reduce nutrient pollution.
Input from residents is intended to help the state find ways to better partner with communities and researchers, as well as state agencies to solve water quality issues related to nutrients in Oregon.
Some nutrients are naturally found in soil and water, however, when others, such as nitrogen or phosphorous build up in water they become pollutants and make the water unsafe for people or animals, according to the DEQ survey.
Survey respondents can share how they interact with water in their communities and how well they understand the nutrient pollution issue, according to a DEQ release on the survey.
The Nutrient Management and Water Quality Survey can be completed online in English or Spanish and is available through March 31.
The DEQ is partnering with Oregon’s Kitchen Table, a community engagement program out of Portland State University, that allows Oregonians to participate in decisions that affect their lives on the survey.
According to Oregon’s Kitchen Table, results of the survey will be shared in a series of Zoom conversations in April. The report will also be posted on the program’s website or emailed to survey respondents who provide an email address.
Water quality is horrible. I’ve spent thousands of dollars on bottled water.
Where I was born n raised, the water is safe to drink. I’ve lived in Umatilla 10 years, the water taste gross.
I spend $53 a month on drinking water. That’s $636 a year it costs me in order to have safe water. The people polluting the groundwater with impunity are getting rich doing it. There auta be a law!!