Philosophically, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and I do not agree on all issues. However, I have respected and appreciated her outreach and visits to Eastern Oregon and Umatilla County to listen and engage in constructive conversations focused on challenges and issues we face each day that are unique to our region.

Kotek has invited Eastern Oregon county commissioners, on a regularly scheduled basis, to have lunch with her and her staff in Salem to discuss critical issues. There has been no better example of a solution-oriented decision to hard problems and addressing them “head on” than the governor’s January economic emergency executive order to keep the Port of Morrow open. This action is keeping our communities employed while we focus on finding solutions to elevated levels of nitrates in the groundwater without any distractions.

With that said, Gov. Kotek and her team, along with support and leadership from Umatilla and Morrow counties have been addressing the elevated nitrates in the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area. They are working with different groups on complex, long-standing issues with the LUBGWMA Committee spearheading this effort. Long before the emergency executive order was announced, the state of Oregon, along with local partners, conducted one of the most thorough outreach programs in the state’s history. Public servants went door to door to educate the community on the issue and to offer free water well testing. Upon an elevated nitrate test, each home occupant was offered free water delivery by the state, which has been ongoing for more than a year. In homes that qualified, the state offered to install a free filtration system to remove nitrates from the water.

Everyone cares about clean water, and we know minimizing winter irrigation over time is part of the solution. That’s why farmers and ranchers also have been investing in new technology to apply nitrogen — a necessary nutrient — to crops only when plants can use and absorb it. The port also is building more storage capacity to eliminate the need for winter applications a year ahead of schedule. Food processors have voluntarily invested hundreds of millions of dollars to make efficiency gains to help reduce their water output.

With that backdrop, the governor made the decision to avoid an economic crisis that could have impacted Oregonians well beyond the LUBGWMA. This six-week shutdown would have put nearly 6,000 people out of work, many of whom are the very same people with affected water wells. The governor made a tough decision knowing that her team had first made sure that water deliveries and treatment systems were in place — and that the outreach continues. This six-week economic emergency order has not only kept employees working, in all reality, it has eliminated the necessity for businesses in very competitive industries to contemplate ceasing operations.

Umatilla County, Morrow County, state agencies, private consultants, contractors and the governor’s office continue on a path to long-term solutions to a critical issue. The governor has a facilitator to make sure state agencies are clear on the need to move toward solutions through collaboration and not through being siloed. All energy and information must be shared toward a long-term solution, while making sure that in the short term, everyone has access to water that is free of nitrates.

Thank you to Gov. Kotek for addressing one of the many hard choices involved with the LUBGWMA by involving local constituents, local governments, local industries and local input in a critical decision that has not only a local but a statewide impact. Your executive order didn’t choose jobs over the environment; it chose both and it’s a balance that we need.