A Federal Court Just Cleared the Way for Oregon’s Contaminated Water Case to Go to Trial

Pearson v. Port of Morrow, No. 2:24-cv-362-HL (D. Or.) | Decided: June 5, 2026

The people who live in Oregon’s Lower Umatilla Basin want water they can drink without fear. For years, they’ve tested their taps, gotten bad results, and kept buying bottled water while state agencies studied the problem. The contamination isn’t new. Oregon first flagged it in 1990.

On June 5, 2026, a federal judge said the people responsible have to answer for it. Almost every attempt by six major defendants to get this case thrown out failed.

A jury trial is now set for May 3, 2027.

This ruling matters for your family. But so does a deadline: class certification briefing closes September 7, 2026. If you qualify, you need legal representation before that date. Bliven Law Firm, P.C. has been building this case for years and serves families throughout Boardman, Morrow County, and the Lower Umatilla Basin.

What You Need to Know Now

• Class certification briefing closes September 7, 2026. Don’t wait to speak with an attorney.
• Judge Simon denied nearly all defense motions to dismiss — five legal claims are headed to trial.
• Six defendants are named, including the Port of Morrow, Lamb Weston, Threemile Canyon Farms, and others.
• Nitrate contamination above 10 mg/L is an EPA health violation. You can’t taste, smell, or see it.
• Joint tortfeasor liability means you don’t need to prove which company’s pollution reached your specific well.

If your family drinks water from the Lower Umatilla Basin, contact Bliven Law Firm, P.C. for a free consultation about whether you have a claim.

What’s Been Poisoning the Water in Eastern Oregon for 35 Years

The Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area covers about 550 square miles of farming communities in northern Morrow and northwestern Umatilla counties. Thousands of families there rely on private wells. Private wells don’t get the same federal protections as public water systems. When the water turns bad, the response tends to be: ” Here’s some bottled water while we study it.”

Nitrates seep into groundwater from fertilizers, animal waste, and industrial wastewater applied to farmland. According to the EPA, levels above 10 mg/L are dangerous. Infants exposed to high nitrate water risk blue baby syndrome, a condition where red blood cells can’t carry enough oxygen. Long-term exposure in adults has been linked to cancer, thyroid disease, and miscarriage. You can’t taste, smell, or see nitrates.

A 2025 Oregon DEQ analysis found the problem had measurably worsened over the prior decade. The state has known about it since 1990 and has yet to fix it.

Who Is Being Sued and What Did They Each Do

Six defendants are named. Each played a different role in the contamination.

The Port of Morrow

The Port runs an industrial park and wastewater treatment facility near the Columbia River. It pumps nitrogen-heavy wastewater onto local farmland, including in winter, when no crops are growing, and the land can’t absorb the nitrogen. It’s been publicly cited and fined for DEQ permit violations going back to at least 2007.

Lamb Weston, PGE, and CRP

All three are Port tenants. They generate nitrogen-rich wastewater from food processing, power generation, and milk processing operations and ship it to the Port for disposal. The lawsuit says they knew the Port was dumping it illegally and kept sending it anyway.

Threemile Canyon Farms and Madison Ranches

Threemile operates large cattle feeding operations and land-applies manure effluent on its own farms, including during winter. Its lagoons have leaked and overflowed. Madison receives wastewater from both the Port and Lamb Weston (at no charge) and allows it to be applied to its land in excess of what crops can use.

What Judge Simon Actually Decided

He denied almost everything. Defendants filed eight separate motions asking the court to throw out the claims, strike the class allegations, and dismiss individual plaintiffs for lack of standing. The court rejected nearly all of it.

The legal standard at this stage isn’t proof, but it is plausibility. Plaintiffs don’t have to win the argument yet. They have to tell a story a reasonable jury could believe. Judge Simon found they did, on claim after claim.

Two things the defense pushed hardest didn’t work. First, that the plaintiffs couldn’t trace their injuries to specific defendants. Second, sending water to the Port didn’t make the Port’s permit violations foreseeable. The court rejected both. The Port had been publicly violating its permit for nearly 20 years. Continuing to fill its tanks isn’t unforeseeable; it’s the definition of the word.

A groundwater contamination attorney can explain what class membership means for your family. Reach out to our team with any questions.

Class certification closes September 7, 2026. 

Every Claim That Survived the Motions to Dismiss

Five separate legal theories are now headed toward trial:

Negligence: All six defendants

Generating and shipping massive volumes of nitrogen-laden wastewater to a facility with a documented history of illegal dumping is conduct that a reasonable jury could call negligent. The court also rejected the economic loss defense for plaintiffs on public water. The lawsuit is about physical contamination of a shared resource, not a financial dispute.

Negligence per se: Port, Lamb Weston, Madison, Threemile

Oregon’s Water Pollution Control law, ORS 468B.025, bans discharging waste that drops water quality below state standards and bans violating DEQ permit conditions. The court found Madison and Threemile plausibly violated the first. The Port and Lamb Weston plausibly violated the second. Lamb Weston had breached its own permit at least 90 times.

Trespass and private nuisance: All defendants

Nitrates moving through soil into a neighbor’s well is a trespass under Oregon law. Unreasonably disrupting someone’s use of their property is a nuisance. Both claims cleared the bar. A DEQ permit doesn’t shield a defendant from nuisance liability, especially one who violated that permit dozens of times.

RCRA: All defendants

The federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) lets citizens sue over solid waste disposal that creates an imminent health danger. The court found that wastewater and manure effluent applied beyond crop capacity (especially in winter) qualify as discarded solid waste. Fertilizer that farms buy and want doesn’t qualify. Byproduct waste you’re trying to get rid of does.

The Legal Theory That Holds the Entire Class Together

This is the ruling that makes a class action possible.

Without joint tortfeasor liability, each plaintiff would need to prove which defendant’s specific nitrates reached their specific well. Scientifically difficult. Legally complicated. Practically, it breaks the case into dozens of smaller disputes that are far harder to win.

Under Oregon law and the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 876, you can be liable for harm another party caused if you acted in concert with them, knowingly helped them, or gave substantial assistance to the harmful result. The Oregon Supreme Court confirmed in Granewich v. Harding (1999) that the label doesn’t matter (conspiracy, aiding and abetting, acting in concert). What matters is whether the facts fit any of those theories.

Judge Simon found they do. Every defendant who shipped wastewater to the Port, knowing its track record, is plausibly linked to every plaintiff’s injury. The class holds together. If that theory fails at trial, individual liability still applies to those whose conduct directly caused harm. But for now, all defendants answer together.

If your family is in the LUBGWMA, find out if you have a claim. Contact Bliven Law Firm for a free consultation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who can join this class action?

Anyone who owns or rents property in Oregon’s Lower Umatilla Basin Groundwater Management Area and whose drinking water has been contaminated with nitrates. Class certification briefing runs through September 7, 2026. If you’re in the LUBGWMA, don’t wait to talk to an attorney.

How do I know if my water has dangerous nitrate levels?

The safe limit is 10 mg/L, per EPA’s drinking water standard. The Oregon Health Authority offers free well testing for households in the LUBGWMA. If you haven’t tested your well, that’s the first thing to do.

I use city water, not a private well. Do I still have a claim?

Possibly. Two of the named plaintiffs rely on public water but switched to bottled water because their tap water is sometimes contaminated. The court allowed their claims to proceed. The economic loss defense failed because the underlying harm is physical contamination of a shared water source.

What does RCRA add that Oregon state law doesn’t already cover?

RCRA gives plaintiffs a federal cause of action alongside the state tort claims, which broadens the legal basis for relief. It also allows for injunctive remedies, like requiring defendants to clean up or stop the harmful practices, not just money damages. The court’s ruling that agricultural wastewater can qualify as solid waste under RCRA is also a meaningful development for similar cases elsewhere.

What happens after class certification?

If the court certifies the class this fall, every qualifying property owner in the LUBGWMA becomes a potential class member. The case then proceeds through discovery toward the May 2027 trial. You’ll want legal representation in place before certification, not after.

Bliven Law Firm, P.C.: Your Environmental Contamination Law Firm

If you’ve been buying bottled water because you can’t trust what comes out of your tap, this ruling means the people responsible are going to have to explain themselves to a jury.

Attorney Michael Bliven is based in Boardman, Oregon, the same community at the center of this case. This firm didn’t parachute in. It’s been here, building this case, while the problem kept growing. Over 30 years of personal injury and class action work across Oregon and Montana went into getting this lawsuit to where it is today.

Contact our firm today to talk through what this ruling means for your family.

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