Oregon will allow the Port of Morrow to dump nitrate-rich wastewater on agricultural fields in the Lower Umatilla Basin through the end of February — despite a drinking water crisis linked to nitrates in the region’s groundwater.

In a statement announcing her executive order declaring a state of emergency, Gov. Tina Kotek said jobs would be at stake in the basin if the state didn’t take action.

According to a press release, a wet winter combined with anticipated rain and freezing conditions means the port is set to exceed its current storage capacity in February. If that happens, it won’t be able to accept wastewater from food processors and other businesses in the area.

While the executive order will allow the port to disperse wastewater at a time it’s normally prohibited, it also placed limits. The port is allowed to apply wastewater only to fields at “low risk” of contaminating drinking water. The port also agreed to open new lined wastewater storage lagoons that are supposed to prevent future off-season wastewater dumping by Nov. 1, which is ahead of schedule.

“I did not make this decision lightly,” Kotek said. “We must balance protecting thousands of jobs in the region, the national food supply, and domestic well users during this short period of time during an unusually wet winter.”

For three decades, nitrates caused primarily by the agricultural industry have seeped into groundwater and put public health at risk.

“Morrow and Umatilla counties are key to our state’s agricultural production — directly and indirectly employing thousands of Oregonians and feeding not just Oregonians, but families across the globe,” she said. “My office has heard directly from producers and farmers in the Lower Umatilla Basin that pausing operations even for a short time in February would be devastating to the local economy and potentially shut down some operations permanently.”

Groundwater is the primary drinking water source for Morrow and Umatilla County residents. Many in the area who drink out of private wells have tested four to five times higher than the federal government’s limit of 10 milligrams of nitrates per liter, which can cause serious health effects.

Although studies have shown that the port directly contributed only a small fraction of the region’s groundwater nitrate contamination, the state has fined the industrial hub at least $3.1 million in penalties for violating its permit with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

The port eventually committed to invest $500 million to upgrade its wastewater system by the end of 2025 but continued to rack up fines in the meantime. DEQ also modified the port’s permit, limiting wastewater application on agricultural fields during the winter months.

During Kotek’s first visit to the region in May 2023, she stopped short of declaring a public health emergency in the Lower Umatilla Basin, citing she was focused on meeting community needs and making sure resources, like well testing and water deliveries, were available.

At the time, she said she wasn’t given enough information that declaring a public health emergency would “change anything we’re doing.”

For the past three years, local environmental justice organizations and residents have pushed the state, as well as city and county leaders, to do more to address this decades-long issue. Many residents rely on private wells for water, and most those wells are not monitored by the state.

Recently, three state agencies — the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the Oregon Department of Agriculture, the Oregon Water Resources Department and the Oregon Health Authority — released a multi-year Nitrate Reduction Plan that outlines short-, medium- and long-term goals on how each agency will work to lower nitrate levels in Eastern Oregon.