State of Oregon releases first annual progress report for LUBGWMA Nitrate Reduction Plan

SALEM, OR – The State of Oregon released today the first annual progress report for the Nitrate Reduction Plan for the Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area, or LUBGWMA. The plan outlines the state’s key strategies to reduce groundwater nitrate concentrations to less than 7 milligrams per liter (mg/L) in the area and protect public health in the immediate term.

In 2025, state agencies prioritized permitting oversight improvements, facility infrastructure upgrades, and operational changes to reduce nitrate contamination risks in groundwater and drinking water sources. A phased implementation approach enables facilities to transition practices while agencies monitor progress toward long-term groundwater protection.

The plan represents an unprecedented collaborative effort across four state agencies—the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA), the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) and Oregon Health Authority (OHA) —working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), Morrow and Umatilla counties, local governments, businesses, residents, and community groups.

Progress report highlights:

• ODA made significant progress towards establishing new groundwater protection rules for irrigated agriculture operations in the LUBGWMA, engaging a rules advisory committee, filing proposed rules, and completing the public comment process, including multiple public outreach events and hearing opportunities.
• DEQ required and enforced wastewater permit conditions that better protect groundwater, including the phasing out of winter irrigation, expanded monitoring and reporting, and infrastructure upgrades.
• OWRD launched a comprehensive backflow education and inspection program to ensure that a functioning backflow device was installed on irrigation systems that use groundwater and inject chemicals or fertilizers into the irrigation system. OWRD conducted over 750 inspections at 660 sites throughout the LUBGWMA. At the beginning of the irrigation season, nearly none of the inspected irrigation systems were fully in compliance. By the end of September, over 99% of these sites were in compliance.
• OHA strengthened LUBGWMA partnerships in 2025 by hiring a bilingual local coordinator, streamlining meetings based on partner feedback, and expanding Spanish-language engagement spaces. OHA increased funding to local health departments for water sampling and opened a new grant cycle for community organizations.

As the state continues strengthening this interagency collaboration, it is important to emphasize that this contamination accumulated from multiple sources over many years, with no simple or quick solutions. Nitrate contamination is a problem for rural communities across Oregon and the entire nation. The most common sources of nitrate contamination are fertilizer, manure, septic systems, and wastewater that travels through soil and into groundwater.

Cleaning up the area’s groundwater nitrate contamination will take decades. The most effective and feasible way to clean up groundwater contamination of this scale is to control the sources of pollutants so that, over time, clean water cycles into the groundwater system, diluting and eventually replacing contaminated water.

The State of Oregon committed to producing an annual report detailing the progress of these efforts, guided by the metrics established to measure success.

Read the full 2025 LUBGWMA Annual Report here.

Note to Editors: Please refer questions about specific portions of the report to the applicable agency contact listed at the bottom of this news release.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Andrea Cantu-Schomus, Oregon Department of Agriculture
andrea.cantu-schomus@oda.oregon.gov

Jonathan Modie, Oregon Health Authority
PHD.Communications@oha.oregon.gov

Jason Cox, Oregon Water Resource Department
jason.r.cox@water.oregon.gov

Antony Sparrow, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
antony.sparrow@deq.oregon.gov

Anca Matica, Office of Governor Tina Kotek
anca.matica@oregon.gov

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