More than three decades into a nitrate pollution crisis, a handful of Lower Umatilla Basin residents are escalating their concerns to the courts.
Five residents living in the Boardman, Oregon, area 鈥� Mike Pearson, Michael and Virginia Brandt, and James Patrick Suter and Silvia Suter 鈥� filed a class action lawsuit in federal court Tuesday against some of Morrow County鈥檚 largest agricultural industries, which are the main contributors to nitrates in the area鈥檚 groundwater. The defendants are Threemile Canyon Farms, Lamb Weston, Madison Ranches, Beef Northwest Feeders and the Port of Morrow.
The lawsuit aims not only to secure compensation from the companies the residents hold responsible, but also to get them to foot the costs of cleaning up the groundwater and connecting residents with clean drinking water.
Many of the plaintiffs are mainstays of the tours and community meetings that sprouted up following in 2022. Those meetings included visits from , Oregon and other high-ranking state and federal officials. For many residents, the increased publicity did not result in clean drinking water.
鈥淭he Port (of Morrow) and these commercial farms have placed us and hundreds of other families in an impossible position,鈥� Pearson said in a statement. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 keep living like this.鈥�
The plaintiffs鈥� legal team is being led by Seattle attorney Steve Berman, a well-known attorney who helped bring cases against Big Tobacco in the 90s. In an interview, he compared nitrate pollution in the Lower Umatilla Basin to the , where thousands of people were exposed to lead and other contaminants through the municipal water system.
鈥淧eople couldn鈥檛 get access to drinking water and I think everyone was amazed,鈥� he said. 鈥淲ell, here it is, right here in our backyard.鈥�
A decades-long problem
The lawsuit provides a brief history of the Lower Umatilla Basin鈥檚 nitrates crisis.
The state first detected elevated nitrate levels in wells in the early 1990s, and in 2001, the state declared the basin a groundwater management area in northern Morrow County and western Umatilla County. As a result, Oregon formed a committee to study the issue and produce a series of voluntary measures to clean up the area鈥檚 groundwater.
The committee鈥檚 showed that the local agricultural industry was the biggest contributor to nitrate pollution. Whether it was irrigated agriculture fertilizing their fields, feedlots and dairies storing animal waste in lagoons or the Port of Morrow recycling wastewater for agricultural use, nitrates were seeping through the soil and into the groundwater supply. While cities have water treatment systems, people who draw water from domestic wells drink it at their own risk.
Drinking water with high nitrate levels has been linked to illnesses like cancer, thyroid disease and kidney disorders, and it鈥檚 especially harmful to infants, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The lawsuit details how all of the plaintiffs have been affected personally by nitrates pollution.
After Pearson鈥檚 water tested in 2022 at four times the limit set by the EPA, the filtration system he installed failed to put the water below the limit. While the state is providing his home with drinking water, Pearson said deliveries didn鈥檛 follow a schedule and weren鈥檛 enough to meet his household鈥檚 needs.
According to the complaint, the Brandt family couldn鈥檛 afford a filter and doubted it would bring their nitrate level down enough. The Suter family looked into deepening their well to access cleaner water, but a contractor told them it would cost $24,000 for the drill job.
The lawsuit highlights that much of the population of the Lower Umatilla Basin is poor, Latino or Indigenous.
鈥淚f this pollution was happening in an affluent Portland suburb, it would be stopped.鈥� Berman said. 鈥淏ut these people don鈥檛 have the power that the rich do or the well-to-do in the suburban areas have. No one鈥檚 listening to them.鈥�
If a judge agrees to deem basin residents a 鈥渃lass,鈥� Berman said, the lawsuit could potentially add more than 40,000 plaintiffs to the case. While attorneys are asking a jury or court to determine how much money is owed to their clients, they want the local agriculture industry to take additional measures to solve the problem. Those measures include a state-certified remediation of the basin鈥檚 soil and groundwater, covering the cost of water deliveries, well digging or connection to a clean drinking water system, and a medical monitoring system for people who could have nitrate-related health issues.
Berman is confident in his clients鈥� case, adding that similar lawsuits have had success in state and .
Basin residents haven鈥檛 just been frustrated with nitrate polluters but with . Berman said his clients didn鈥檛 sue the state because it could create 鈥渃omplications,鈥� declining to say what those legal hurdles were. But, he added, the lawsuit could spur the state to take more action.
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