State lays out plan for polluted well water in eastern Oregon | The Story | Sept. 20, 2024

Sept. 20 on The Story: In our "Tainted Waters" series last year, we took you through an area of eastern Oregon where the groundwater is heavily contaminated with nitrates, rendering residential wells there unsafe. The problem in the Lower Umatilla Basin is one that state officials have known about for over three decades, and yet it's only gotten worse. The cause of the problem is clear: food production, namely the fertilizer spread on farm fields and the waste from large animal feed lots. But getting any kind of solution has been an uphill struggle for communities who rely on that tainted well water. Just today, multiple Oregon agencies released a dense document outlining their plans to finally curb nitrate contamination. We'll take you through what it says and what stakeholders are thinking about it.

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