BOARDMAN, Ore. (AP) — The Port of Morrow along the Columbia River has filed an appeal over a nearly $1.3 million fine from state regulators for repeated wastewater violations that contaminated groundwater in the area.

Earlier this month, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality fined the industrial park outside of Boardman for overapplying wastewater containing nitrogen to agriculture fields and failing to monitor the resulting nitrate contamination.

Regulators say the port exceeded its nitrogen limits by approximately 165 tons in four years, further contaminating groundwater that is used for drinking water in an area that DEQ says is already burdened with pollution.

In the appeal, the port disputed its fine, claiming the violations were “unintentional” and were a result of things that were out of the port’s control, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.

The port said it believed it had enough land available to absorb the excess nitrate but “an unexpected combination of less acreage available and unusually high winter precipitation” forced the port to exceed its nitrate limits.

High levels of nitrates in drinking water are linked with serious health concerns, particularly for babies and pregnant women.

The Port of Morrow is Oregon’s second-largest port, behind the Port of Portland. It is in the Umatilla Basin of northeast Oregon, where in 1990 the state declared a Groundwater Management Area because of high levels of groundwater nitrates.

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By SCOTT SONNER
Associated Press

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A longtime Nevada rancher is suing U.S. regulators over the approval of a lithium mine on federal rangeland he says would violate environmental laws and undermine changes he has made in his own livestock grazing practices to help threatened fish and wildlife.

Edward Bartell and Bartell Ranch LLC say the Bureau of Land Management relied “entirely upon flawed and error-laden findings” in environmental assessments prepared by the mine’s own contractor.

Bartell maintains the review masks the real effects that he says would lower the groundwater table, harm the federally protected Lahontan cutthroat trout and imperiled greater sage grouse and “transform much of our private lands into barren desert.”

A consultant for Lithium Nevada Corp., a subsidiary of the Canada-based Lithium Americas Corp., prepared “a one-sided, deeply-flawed” analysis of the project, according to the lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Reno.

“The project consultants relied upon grossly inaccurate, incomplete, and inadequate data for constructing baselines and models purporting to estimate impacts to water resources” caused by groundwater pumping associated with the mine, it said.

The lawsuit said the data flies in the face of earlier water reviews in the area by the bureau, trout population studies by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Nevada Department of Wildlife and the bureau’s own grouse protection strategy.

“BLM has wholesale ignored the inconsistency of the mine with BLM’s sage grouse plans and associated regulations,” the lawsuit said, noting the project borders one of Nevada’s largest remaining populations of greater sage grouse.

Bureau spokeswoman Heather O’Hanlon said in an email the agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
Alexi Zawadzki, CEO of Lithium Nevada Corp., defended the bureau’s approval of its plans in a statement to AP Wednesday night.

“The environmental analysis confirmed the proposed mine would be constructed and operated in an environmentally responsible manner, and we are confident that the full environmental review and mitigation measures included in the (bureau’s decision) will address the concerns raised by this judicial review,” he said.

The Thacker Pass mine is planned on federal land above an extinct volcano formed millions of years ago about 25 miles south of the Nevada-Oregon line. It’s projected to produce 1,000 jobs during construction and 300 once completed, generating $75 million in state and local tax revenue over a decade.

The bureau issued a final environmental impact statement and record of decision approving the mine in December, subject to additional permitting at the state level.

In addition to robbing Bartell Ranch of its grazing and water rights in the high-desert, the lawsuit said the project threatens trout habitat that Bartell Ranch “has gone to great lengths to protect.”

Among other things, Bartell has moved cattle away from fish habitat, altered grazing rotations and built fences to protect streams.

The agency’s refusal to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether the mine could harm trout is a violation of the Endangered Species Act, the lawsuit said. Lahontan cutthroat trout were listed as endangered in 1970 and are currently considered threatened.

Bartell Ranch was held to a higher standard when it joined with the bureau and the Fish and Wildlife Service to construct about 3,000 feet fence in 2017 to keep cattle out of a creek with threatened trout.

While the bureau stopped short of launching a formal “Section 7 consultation” with the Fish and Wildlife Service, its environmental review of that project noted the fencing was consistent with a nearby fuels management project and that “USFWS concurred (the) project will not adversely affect Lahontan cutthroat trout.”

“This satisfies Section 7 consultation requirements for this project,” the bureau said at the time.

But when Bartell’s lawyers pressed the agency to explain why it didn’t consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service about the much larger mining project, the lawsuit says its only response was that effects on trout “are not anticipated to occur from the project, therefore, no formal Section 7 consultation was required.”

That position is directly at odds with well-studied trout populations within the proposed area, the lawsuit says. It says the bureau acknowledged in other parts of its environmental impact statement that the mine could result in “modifications to existing water rights, the potential for mine-related groundwater aquifer drawdown, contamination of groundwater from unintended materials releases (spills) and the potential for adverse effects to groundwater.”

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