HERMISTON — The effort to alleviate nitrate pollution in the Lower Umatilla Basin’s groundwater has involved many entities, ranging from Morrow and Umatilla counties to agencies at the state level.

Little if any improvement has been made in the years-long effort. A new endeavor began last year with the goal of identifying long-term drinking water solutions for domestic well users affected by the dangerous levels of nitrates.

The Drinking Water Roadmap Project, a joint effort between the two counties, was launched in 2024 to find reliable drinking water solutions for domestic well users in the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area, which includes northern portions of Morrow and Umatilla counties.

The Roadmap Project is funded through a research grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Morrow County Planner Tamara Mabbott was among the speakers addressing the project on Friday, March 7, at the Farm City Ag & Home Expo at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center, Hermiston. Mabbott, along with Umatilla County Public Health Director Joseph Fiumara and Ronan Igloria of GSI Water Solutions out of Portland, outlined the stages of the project, including the sources of the pollution, the residents affected and plans to find a solution.

LUBGWMA is about 550 square miles in northern Morrow and northwestern Umatilla counties. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality designated it a groundwater management area in 1990 because of high levels of nitrate contamination in the groundwater. In 2022, Morrow County declared a local state of emergency due to the high nitrate levels.

“A lot more focus has been put on the issue in the last three years,” Igloria said.

There are several sources of nitrate pollution including agricultural fertilizers and animal manure used on nearby farms, and sewage and septic waste. Water with nitrate levels above 10 milligrams per liter is considered unsafe to drink and can cause serious health effects if consumed over long periods, according to the EPA.

The Drinking Water Roadmap Project has four stages. Stage 1 began in spring 2024 and focused on developing work plans, gathering data, preliminary outreach, and conducting baseline assessments of the study area.

“A lot of data has been collected in the last 30 years, so it’s taken time to go through it all,” Igloria said.

Stages 2 and 3 include a public meeting to describe the drinking water options being evaluated during that stage and to solicit public input on those options. Stage 4 includes a public meeting to discuss potential paths forward for the drinking water options at the studied areas.

The focus of Stage 2, which is underway, is looking at the feasibility of connecting residents with contaminated wells to public water systems. That may not be a solution for many well users since few of them are close enough to a public water system to be connected, Igloria said, so other options are being looked at, as well.

Just less than 2,000 of the roughly 3,000 wells in the project area have been tested. About 29% of the tested wells have been found to have dangerous levels of nitrates, making them unsafe for drinking or cooking. One of the challenges facing the project is getting the other 1,000 well users to agree to have their wells tested. Fiumara said some users don’t have the necessary sense of urgency to have their wells tested, while others have expressed a reluctance to have their wells tested out of distrust of the government.

Mabbott said the project is gearing up for an outreach campaign to get more well users to volunteer to have their wells tested at no cost to the residents.

Those whose wells have been found to have unsafe levels of nitrates are eligible to have free drinking water delivered to their homes. That water is paid for by the Oregon Department of Human Services and delivery is coordinated by the counties.

“It’s not an insignificant amount of money to do that,” Fiumara said. And, said Igloria, it is “not a permanent workable solution.”

Alternatives to connecting to public water systems include improving or treating existing wells, digging new, deeper wells, new wells capable of treating the water, point-of-use treatment as well as aquifer storage and recovery. Some residents use a reverse osmosis system connected to an indoor faucet to treat their water. That system, however, is not recommended when their well water tests at a level of 25 milligrams per liter due to the fact that it cannot be guaranteed to effectively treat the water.

Mabbott said they are looking to form partnerships with state and federal agencies and are seeking additional funding for the project.

“There needs to be an entity beyond just the counties,” she said.

For more information, visit the Morrow County website. (Morrow and Umatilla County Drinking Water Roadmap | Morrow County Oregon)

The Farm City Ag & Home Expo wrapped up March 8.