BOARDMAN — The committee responding to contaminated groundwater in the Lower Umatilla Basin needs to improve communications with the public. But that’s no easy task given the nitrates in the groundwater come from different sources and the problem intersects with multiple regulators and requires solutions of varying levels.

That was the thrust of the message outside liaison Jane Hill delivered Friday, June 14, to the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area Committee.

“Everything you have to work with here is fragmented,” she said in her presentation to the committee.

Hill, who the National Policy Consensus Center hired in January as a liaison to help with interagency coordination, gave a review of what she has noticed in the six months since joining the team.

Communication is key

Various state agencies and organizations have oversight of Oregon’s water governance, Hill explained, making for a muddled process. And few of those departments are dedicated only to the nitrate issue.

On top of that, poor communication between the public and the people or agencies involved in solving the problem has continued to create tension and misunderstandings.

“The messages become disjointed, so it’s easy to see this assumption that nothing is being done, because it’s difficult to track,” Hill told the committee.

Moving forward, Hill suggested, the committee needs to make sure it communicates its nitrate reduction strategy to the public, acknowledging the work of participants in studies and testing to help restore the community’s trust.

Additionally, the committee should focus its efforts specifically on reducing the nitrate concentration in groundwater, she said, while the delivery of clean drinking water and research continue simultaneously in other groups.

While Hill’s role was for a trial basis, she announced she will continue coordinating across entities to keep the efforts moving along smoothly.

Right now, that means helping the different government agencies involved to approve a joint memorandum of understanding. There’s a draft circulating right now, she said. She’s also been meeting with a representative from the Environmental Protection Agency weekly to ensure progress is being made, she said.

Facilitator progress

Robin Harkless, director of Oregon Consensus, also spoke to the committee, reminding everyone she has been meeting with members to hear what they see as going well and going badly in the way the committee works.

She’s gathering input to figure out what the committee’s needs are from an outside facilitator moving forward. The committee decided at its April meeting to bring in someone who is not associated with any of the committee members to lead the group.

In her interviews so far, Harkless said, she has heard comments along similar lines to what Hill said she’d observed.

It will be important to “capture the full breadth of activities and progress” in the management area through state and local efforts, she said, and then communicate that full picture to the public. Additionally, Harkless said, there needs to be clearer and better partnership between the state’s and local governments’ plans and approaches.

Finally, she said, it will be important to build off of the work that’s been done since the committee was restructured in 2022.

Harkless said she hopes to return in September, during the next LUBGWMA Committee meeting to offer a fuller review as well as recommendations for the next steps for a facilitator.