Reports of groundwater pollution in Oregon surface in a US Senate hearing

Federal regulators declined to investigate Crook County community’s claims against a mining company.
Across rural Oregon, state and federal laws don’t protect clean drinking water. That’s because these safeguards exclude private domestic wells, with consequences that were highlighted by U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley last week at a congressional hearing on infrastructure spending.

At Thursday’s hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, the senator pointed to OPB’s reporting on two regions: In Eastern Oregon where more than 4,000 wells are at risk from decades of nitrate pollution by agricultural interests, and in Central Oregon, where dozens of people blame a gravel mine for sudden plumbing disasters and health concerns.