Five residents of Oregon’s Umatilla basin are pursuing a class action lawsuit claiming their water was polluted by fertilizer applied by the Port of Morrow and several agribusinesses.

Other unidentified farmers in the region, whose fertilizer practices also allegedly contaminated groundwater with nitrates, are likely to be added to the case as defendants, according to the complaint.

“Defendants have dumped, and continue to dump, millions of pounds of nitrogen onto land in Morrow and Umatilla counties,” the lawsuit said. “Nitrogen in the ground converts into nitrates, which then percolate down to the water table in the Lower Umatilla Basin, polluting the subterranean aquifer on which plaintiffs and class members rely for their water.”

The Port of Morrow and Three Mile Canyon Farms, an agricultural defendant in the case, said they haven’t yet been served with the lawsuit and will wait to comment until they’ve reviewed the complaint.

Madison Ranches, a farm operation named as a defendant, is limited in its response due to litigation but doesn’t believe the lawsuit accurately reflects the local agriculture industry’s efforts to prevent groundwater contamination, said Jake Madison, its president.

“We take our role as farmers extremely seriously and are very conscientious about how we manage fertility and irrigation,” Madison said. “We take our role as environmental stewards seriously.”

The remaining defendants — Lamb Weston, an Idaho-based processor with a facility in the region, and Beef Northwest, a feedlot operator in Boardman, Ore. — could not be reached for comment as of press time.

More plaintiffs sought

The plaintiffs, all residents of Boardman, are seeking to represent other local residents whose water sources have allegedly been affected by pollutants, but a federal judge must confirm the lawsuit qualifies for class action status.

Pollution by the Port of Morrow and Lamb Weston is “particularly egregious” within the 562-square mile Umatilla groundwater management area designated by state environmental regulators, the complaint alleges.

“In all, over 45,000 people, including more than 10,000 children, live within the bounds of the Umatilla GMA,” the lawsuit said. “Many Umatilla GMA residents are Latino or indigenous. And many live below the federal poverty line.”

According to the complaint, the defendants have allegedly violated the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act by exposing the public to hazardous wastes, which also constitutes negligence, trespass and nuisance under state law, among other charges.

What plaintiffs want

The plaintiffs are asking a federal judge in Pendleton, Ore., to declare these actions unlawful and to order the defendants to remediate the alleged hazards and supply class members with clean water in the meantime.

“Plaintiffs now seek to hold accountable entities that have caused this pollution,” the complaint said.

The lawsuit also seeks an unspecified financial award for compensatory and punitive damages, as well as payments for medical monitoring and litigation costs.

Michael Pearson, a plaintiff who relies on a private well, claims he discovered his water contained four times the nitrate level considered safe by federal authorities after testing it following a county-declared pollution emergency in 2022.

Though Pearson installed a filtration system to treat the water, it remains well above federal and state safety thresholds for nitrates, forcing him to now buy bottled water, according to the complaint.

Plaintiffs Michael and Virginia Brandt claim they must also buy bottled water after finding the nitrates in their private well are three times greater than the federal limit, having concluded a filtration system wasn’t worth the expense.

James and Silvia Suter allege their nitrate level is four times the federal limit and also rely on bottled water after learning it’d cost $24,000 to drill their well deep enough to obtain uncontaminated water.

Nitrate impacts

Excess nitrogen levels can thwart red blood cells from delivering oxygen to the body, which is especially dangerous and even fatal for infants, but it’s also been linked to many long-term and chronic health problems, the complaint said.

“Numerous studies link nitrate consumption to cancers, especially colon, kidney, stomach, thyroid, and ovarian cancer,” according to the lawsuit. “And people exposed to high levels of nitrates through drinking water may also develop kidney and spleen disorders as well as respiratory diseases.”

Nitrates have been found at high concentrations for decades in the Umatilla basin, which the lawsuit alleges is the “direct result” of the defendants’ activities in the area.

The Port of Morrow and Lamb Weston, which grows potatoes and manufactures food nearby, irrigate surrounding fields with insufficiently treated wastewater from processing operations that contains too much nitrogen, the complaint said.

Madison Ranches, which raises onions, corn and other crops on 21,300 acres, Three Mile Canyon Farms, which grows several crops on 39,500 irrigated areas, and other potential farm defendants apply more fertilizer to fields than can be absorbed by crops, polluting the aquifer, the lawsuit alleges.

Beef Northwest Feeders, which owns a confined animal feeding operation, or CAFO, stores livestock manure in lagoons and applies it as fertilizer, causing nitrates to leach into the soil and groundwater, according to the complaint.

“Defendants have all either generated, transported, stored, or disposed of nitrogen-heavy industrial wastewater, excess fertilizer, and animal waste — all solid wastes and hazards as those terms are defined,” the lawsuit said.

Paperwork violations

Most of the violations cited in the complaint pertain to paperwork and record-keeping rather than actual physical pollution of the aquifer, said Madison, of Madison Ranches. For example, the port was faulted for not taking plant tissue samples.

“That had zero environmental impact at all,” Madison said.

Madison Ranches has adopted best management practices and is doing everything in its power to avoid environmental harm, while the region’s industry has made great strides in reducing pollution in the past 15 years or so, he said.

“We are making big improvements,” Madison said.

The solutions for preventing nitrate contamination are complex, involving bureaucratic barriers as well as physical challenges in obtaining and installing equipment, he said.

However, the industry does not take the problem lightly and is working hard to do the right thing, Madison said.

“This isn’t something that’s been completely ignored,” he said. “It’s not business-as-usual at all.”