Industrial runoff has led to dangerous concentrations of nitrates in the subterranean aquifer that supplies most well water in northern Morrow and Umatilla counties.
HERMISTON, Ore. — For decades, thousands of eastern Oregon residents have relied on private wells to supply them with drinking water — but now a crisis is unfolding, with a growing number of homeowners discovering that their well water has begun to carry dangerous levels of nitrates, which may cause miscarriages, birth defects and cancer.
The explanation is straightforward up to a point: the wells all tap into a massive aquifer beneath the Lower Umatilla Basin, a regional hub of commercial farming
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