Ontario fined for dumping wastewater in Malheur River
By Joe Hathaway on Monday, October 30th, 2023 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
ONTARIO — The City of Ontario calls itself “The Gateway of Adventure,” but is also apparently now the gateway to something much smellier.
The city has been fined $11,200 by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality for dumping more than 400,000 gallons of wastewater into the Malheur River in 2022.
According to a press release from the DEQ, on September 3 of last year, the city discharged the massive amount of treated wastewater into the river without a permit.
Ontario city manager Dan Cummings says the leak was the result of a a piece of equipment on an underground part broke and allowed for the sewage to escape. He says they were able to shut the valve off quickly, but not before the large amount of wastewater had entered the river. He says the pipe has since been restored.
The DEQ says the city isn’t allowed to discharge any wastewater into the river from May 1 to October 31 on any given year because water levels are too low to mitigate any harm to the ecosystem from pollutants. Cummings says during the summer wastewater is diverted to farms for land application for fertilizer. It is dumped into the river during winter months.
Cummings says he initially filed an appeal, but rescinded it.
