Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden promised action on the nitrate-contaminated wells and surface water in the area.
“People are right to be frustrated,” he said Sunday, April 2, during a town hall at the SAGE Center theater in Boardman. “It’s just not OK that so many have to fight so hard for the basic right to turn on a tap and get drinkable fresh water. There’s plenty of blame to go around. It will take all levels of government to fix the situation. The more levers of power being pulled, the faster will the problems be solved.”
Wyden said the federal government would do all it could to provide clean water.
The town hall came almost two weeks after Environmental Protection Agency Region 10 Administrator Casey Sixkiller and his staff visited Boardman to hear residents’ firsthand experiences and tour the area with members of the environmental justice group Oregon Rural Action to gain a better grasp of the issue on the ground.
Wyden said he is meeting with representatives of the governor’s office April 3 concerning the crisis, and he added his staff are a great resource. They are working on input for the meeting and are committed to solving the problem. Short-term solutions are continued delivery of drinking water and a rigorous, regular testing regime. Longer-term, not just better home filtration is required, but investments in new infrastructure.
The federal 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act does not cover private wells, Wyden said, but there still is much that federal agencies can do. He cited the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development service, which includes a water and environmental programs.
Wyden and fellow U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, are involved with the Port of Morrow in planning new systems.
Mitch Wolgamott, of Summerville, with Oregon Rural Action, said irrigation circles are a bigger nitrate source than dumping by the Port of Morrow. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality in 2022 fined the port more than $2.1 million for excessively spreading nitrogen-rich wastewater as fertilizer on area farmland for years.
Wyden replied there’s a role for everybody, including federal rural development programs.
Residents asked about people dying, others’ health going down and the safety of their grandchildren.
Wyden said they had a right to be furious. He called for community mobilization so that nobody was left out.
Tomorrow everybody is stepping up,” he said.
The EPA standard for nitrate, measured as nitrogen, in drinking water is 10 milligrams per liter. The EPA considers nitrate levels at or below 10 mg/L of water safe.
Paulo Lopez, of Boardman, said the community is in crisis.
“It is a public health emergency,” he said. “We have gotten no help from the state. It is an injustice.”
Ana Maria Rodriguez, of Boardman, said the nitrate level in her well is 38.1 mg/L.
“Some universities have found the safe level is 2 to 5 (mg/L),” she said. “But the Oregon standard is 10.”
Wyden said we have to get more frequent testing and the results analyzed more rapidly.
Rancher Kelly Doherty, of Boardman, said she was concerned for livestock and pets. She said her calves and colts are dying. A neighbor said she had lost two horses and two dogs mysteriously, which didn’t happen when she lived in the Willamette Valley.
Doherty said the Oregon Department of Agriculture and state veterinarians had no good answer.
“The groundwater is now polluting the surface water,” she said. “We tested an artesian spring that runs into the river. It was our well water, but now the surface water is bad as well. The spring tested 42.6 (mg/L).”
Wyden said the situation was unacceptable, so he would turn to the federal government for answers.
“It is a test of government to make sure the people have the right to safe drinking water,” he said.
Other issues at the town hall
Wyden encouraged high school students present to apply for internship programs.
“We need smart young people,” he said.
Wyden thanked Hermiston Mayor David Drotzman for his efforts to site semiconductor fabrication plants in rural Oregon, under chips legislation. The senator, who chairs the finance committee, a coveted position, also said he is proud of his victory over lobbyists for big pharmaceutical companies. He said more money would be available for infrastructure if billionaires didn’t evade taxes by hiding their wealth in Swiss and other foreign banks.
The final questioner asked Wyden’s position on aid to Ukraine. Wyden said he regards late Sen. Wayne Morse, who voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, increasing U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, as his mentor. Wyden was one of the few senators to vote against authorizing funding for the 2003 Iraq War.
“I serve on the intelligence committee,” he said. “Putin will not stop with Ukraine. I support the president’s decision not to send in American troops, but also our aid to Ukraine. My family fled Hitler. The Wydens know dictators and tyrants. We can’t walk away.”
In closing, Wyden said how honored he has been as “a first generation Jewish boy” to represent Oregon.
