BOARDMAN — Oregon Rural Action opted for a personal touch when presenting to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Boardman on Thursday, June 1.

Members of the ORA met with representatives of the EPA to give an update on well testing that has been taking place in the Boardman area as well as to communicate how slowly the testing has been occurring.

“The bottom line is that things are moving too slowly,” ORA community organizer Kaleb Lay said. “I think the EPA heard that and they’ve committed to coming back and doing this regularly. It seems they want to lean into this, but haven’t given the specifics on how they want to do that.”

At the June 1 meeting, members of Oregon Rural Action took three EPA representatives on a tour through the Port of Morrow, pointing out landmarks significant to the nitrate contamination the region faces.

At the end of the tour, EPA representatives were invited to the home of Ana Maria Rodriguez, another community organizer with the ORA and a Boardman resident. At her home, Rodriguez and senior organizer Nella Parks gave a personal presentation on how unsafe water affects communities.

Together, Rodriguez and Parks tested two samples of water, one from Rodriguez’s home and one from a bottle of water, to show the difference in the nitrate levels for the representatives to see.

Parks said during the presentation that Rodriguez keeps bottled water in her bathroom in case members of her family wake up thirsty, so they don’t drink from the tap.

“Importantly, septic systems are not causing the basin-wide nitrate pollution,” Parks said. “The Port’s dumping of 3.6 billion gallons of untreated industrial wastewater per year, overapplication of nitrate fertilizer by irrigated agriculture, and poor waste management by CAFOs are the main sources of nitrate pollution in the aquifer.”

Lay said he felt the personal approach conveyed the importance of the communities’ need for drinkable water.

“When you go to people who have lived experience and you hear their stories, it’s impossible to not have an emotional response,” he said. “You care about what they’re going through, what they have to say.”

Lay said he thought the representatives showed interest in what the ORA had to say.

“I think they recognized that we have a lot of on-the-ground expertise, a lot of the work that’s been done here has been done by community members and people at a local level,” he said.

According to Lay, since the state had stepped in via the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act, there have been 170 tests administered as of June 2.

“We’ve still got almost 3,700 wells to test, so at the rate we’re going, it’s going to be a long time before we’re done,” he said. “I think they took details like that away and understood that things really do need to speed up.”

Lay said while people are grateful the EPA came out, a lot of people have come to Boardman and made a lot of promises.

“One of the things we hear over and over from people in the community is that we don’t need words, we need action,” he said. “We need people to follow through, and we hope to see that from the EPA, from the state and from everyone who has the power to help out here.”

“The bottom line is that things are moving too slowly.” — Kaleb Lay