PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) – Oregon Governor Tina Kotek declared a state of emergency on Monday that allows the Port of Morrow to pour wastewater on certain fields in order to avoid an economic shutdown of Morrow and Umatilla counties.
The emergency declaration allows an exception to the Port of Morrow’s current wastewater permit with the Department of Environmental Quality, allowing the Port to apply wastewater, if necessary, to fields in the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area.
The fields must be down gradient from domestic wells or designated as “low risk,” the governor’s office said.
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The declaration permits the wastewater rule from January 15 through February 28, which is the end of the agricultural winter or “non-growing season” when irrigation is not used to grow agricultural crops, officials noted…