Oregon still dragging its feet on polluted northeast Oregon drinking water

Published 2:49 pm Thursday, February 19, 2026

Oregon recently released a progress report on the nitrate reduction plan for the Lower Umatilla Basin, where thousands of people have been living with polluted drinking water for decades. But while the state has been quick to pat itself on the back, the report shows a profound lack of progress.

From 1990 to 2022, most people in north Morrow and Umatilla Counties with polluted water weren’t warned about the health risk. Meanwhile, the state of Oregon was approving industry-led plans for “voluntary actions” to reduce pollution. Unsurprisingly, those plans failed, and pollution kept getting worse.

Fast-forward to 2024, and after years of pressure from people with polluted wells and ORA, Oregon finally developed a new plan. But like the old saying “meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” the new “nitrate reduction plan” is taking the same failed approach as before.

The state reports that the Department of Agriculture established new rules for industrial-scale irrigation, the largest contributor to nitrate pollution in the Basin. What it’s not reporting is that the new rules are essentially voluntary. The rules actually prohibit the Department from enforcing key parts of those rules. It begs the question — if a rule can be broken without consequences, is it really a rule? More importantly, will it change anything?

Morrow County is also home to one of the largest feedlot/dairy complexes in the U.S., which dumps more than half a billion gallons of liquified manure on fields every year. That’s more than 1,000 gallons per minute on average. This manure is a major source of nitrate pollutants, but ODA is doing nothing new to address this source of contaminants.

Meanwhile, the Department of Environmental Quality says it’s phasing out wintertime “wastewater irrigation.” That wastewater is highly contaminated, but has been disposed of by dumping it on farmland as irrigation water for decades. DEQ is still allowing wintertime dumping for at least another two years outside Hermiston, even though it admitted that it’s “not protective of groundwater.”

Over at the Water Resources Department, 660 sites were inspected for backflow devices, which prevent pollutants from draining back into irrigation wells and contaminating groundwater — a basic “best management practices” to prevent pollution. At the start of a recent irrigation season, 99% of sites were out of compliance with rules that have been required since the ’90s, but apparently haven’t been followed. The state apparently never checked until now.

We’re glad they finally dealt with that problem, but it shows how little the industrial ag sector has actually done to prevent pollution. Industry has spent decades claiming that it was voluntarily using all best management practices, instead blaming small septic systems. It’s time for the state to do less trusting and more verifying when it comes to polluting industries.

Finally, the Oregon Health Authority touts “milestones” in testing people’s drinking water. What OHA doesn’t make clear is that as of July 2025, there were still around 762 households in the Basin who’ve never had their drinking water tested, and never declined a free test.

Real progress on this issue would mean every single household tested unless they’ve declined, but after decades of pollution and years of bureaucratic time-wasting, OHA still cannot say whether the drinking water in 762 homes is safe or not. That’s not progress, that’s failure.

Progress doesn’t look like claiming victories as pollution continues to worsen and thousands of people are living on bottled water or, worse, still don’t know if their water is safe. Progress doesn’t look like letting billion-dollar corporations and big industries continue to pollute groundwater for a few more years in order to protect their profits.

True progress is zero tolerance for pollution, every household that wants a test getting one by now, and making polluters pay for solutions instead of taxpayers. True progress would be putting rural people’s health before corporate profits, and that’s not what’s happening right now.

Progress on nitrate pollution is possible. We are again asking Gov. Kotek to keep her word to our communities that she would bring “a new day” to the nitrate problem.

It’s time to stop wallpapering over the same old plans that have never worked. “Progress” isn’t just something to take credit for. It’s living without fear that you drank from the wrong faucet, or that your grandkids forgot not to drink from the hose, or that there’s a future for your family in your town. Our communities need progress, and we need it now.

Kristin Anderson Ostrom is executive director of Oregon Rural Action, a community-led grassroots nonprofit supporting communities in northeast Oregon.

This article was originally published by Oregon Capital Chronicle and used with permission. Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom and can be reached at info@oregoncapitalchronicle.com.