Lawsuit says PGE, Tillamook Creamery add to nitrate pollution in eastern Oregon
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of residents in Morrow and Umatilla counties, says nitrate pollution from a PGE power generation plant and from a Tillamook cheese production facility has seeped into groundwater, affecting thousands of residents in the area.
A new lawsuit claims Portland General Electric and the Tillamook County Creamery Association contribute significantly to the nitrate pollution that has plagued eastern Oregon for over three decades. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of residents in Morrow and Umatilla counties, says nitrate pollution has seeped into groundwater, affecting thousands of residents in the area known as the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area who can’t use tap water from private wells at their homes.PGE operates a power generation plant at the Port of Morrow in Boardman and the Tillamook County Creamery Association, a farmer-owned cooperative known for the Tillamook Creamery at the coast, operates a cheese production plant in Boardman. The two plants send their wastewater to the port, which then sprays it through irrigation systems directly onto land in Morrow and Umatilla counties, according to the complaint filed Friday in the U.S. District Court in Oregon.PGE and Tillamook transfer their wastewater to the port despite knowing that the port doesn’t remove the nitrates before applying the water onto fields, the suit contends.PGE’s spokesperson Drew Hanson said the company would not provide comment on pending legal matters. Tillamook Creamery did not respond to a request for comment.The new complaint follows a 2024 lawsuit by several Boardman residents that accused the Port of Morrow, along with several farms and food processors of contaminating the basin’s groundwater. The others named are: Lamb Weston, Madison Ranches, Threemile Canyon Farms and Beef Northwest.A state analysis released earlier this year shows nitrate pollution has worsened significantly in eastern Oregon over the past decade. Much of the nitrate contamination in the region comes from farm fertilizer, animal manure and wastewater that are constantly and abundantly applied to farm fields by the owners of food processing facilities, confined animal feeding operations, irrigated farmland and animal feedlots, according to the analysis by the state and local nonprofits. Those polluters are also the main employers in eastern Oregon. Steve Berman, the attorney in the newest case, said PGE and the farmer cooperative were not included in the previous lawsuit because their impact wasn’t previously clear. “We keep drilling down into new records we are obtaining from the regulatory authorities and activists and analyzing how groundwater moves in the area. Our experts now tell us these two entities are contributing as well,” Berman said. According to the complaint, PGE’s power generation plant at the Port of Morrow, called Coyote Springs, generates an estimated 900 million gallons of nitrate-laced wastewater each year from a combination of cooling tower wastewater, wash water and the water discharged from boilers to remove built-up impurities.From 2019 to 2022, PGE’s wastewater had an average nitrate concentration of 38.9 milligrams per liter – almost four times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum contaminant level, the complaint claims. PGE’s plant is not producing nitrates, Berman said, but rather is using groundwater with pre-existing nitrates and then concentrating the chemicals through its industrial processes. PGE’s plant is not producing nitrates, Berman said, but rather is using groundwater with pre-existing nitrates and then concentrating the chemicals through its industrial processes. and then spread pre-existing nitrates from groundwater and don’t add their own but concentrate the nitrates through their industrial processes, such as xxx.Columbia River Processing, the Tillamook Creamery Association’s cheese production plant, generates an estimated 360 gallons of wastewater each year from a combination of cheese byproducts and tank wash water, according to the complaint. From 2019 to 2022, Tillamook’s wastewater had an average nitrate concentration of 24 milligrams per liter – more than twice the EPA’s maximum contaminant level, the complaint claims. In addition, the association also sources its milk from Threemile Canyon Farms, a “megadairy” in Boardman that houses 70,000 cows and was named in the previous nitrate lawsuit. The dairy constantly applies high-nitrogen waste from its operation to its farmland, the earlier suit says. The lawsuit seeks to force remediation or halt the practices. It also demands that the companies cover the costs of drilling deeper wells for private well users who currently face nitrate contamination – an estimated $40,000 cost per well – as well as the costs of connecting households to municipal water systems and compensation for higher water bills paid by residents due to nitrate treatment in public systems. People who can’t use their contaminated tap water now must rely on bottled water for cooking, bathing and other needs. While there are plans to extend municipal water service to some of those homes, many residents oppose the idea because they’ve invested heavily in their wells and fear paying steep water rates.Critics say state agencies have not done enough to crack down on the pollution, with much of the focus on voluntary measures that have failed to rein in the nitrate contamination.Research has linked high nitrate consumption over long periods to cancers, miscarriages, as well as thyroid issues. It is especially dangerous to infants who can quickly develop “blue baby syndrome,” a fatal illness.
