Eastern Oregon residents who have lived for years with contaminated water can move forward with a class action lawsuit against the Port of Morrow and large food processors in the area, a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Michael Simon on June 5 issued an order denying a motion from the Port of Morrow and five businesses to dismiss Pearson v. Port of Morrow. Several Morrow County residents who cannot drink their nitrate-contaminated water filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in February 2024, and it has since expanded into a class action lawsuit potentially encompassing thousands of other area residents. A three-week jury trial is scheduled to begin May 3, 2027.

The suit names 17 defendants for allegedly polluting a groundwater aquifer for years with fertilizer-laden wastewater collected from industrial food processors and data centers at the port. That water was sent out and over-applied to area farm fields for years, billed as a beneficial waste-water reuse program that the plaintiffs said became a toxic dumping scheme.

The port, Lamb Weston, Madison Ranches, Threemile Canyon Farms, Portland General Electric and Columbia River Processing asked Simon to dismiss the case. They argued the residents suing had not shown widespread damage directly linked to their actions, or deliberate conspiracy on behalf of the port and its tenants, and that they had exceeded the state’s two-year statute of limitations to sue over negligence.

They also argued that only one of the plaintiffs had illustrated a clear connection between their well contamination and the port’s wastewater, and allowing a class action that could make many new plaintiffs party to the suit — some of whom might rely not on wells but on the public water system — is not fair.

But Simon found the plaintiffs “plausibly allege” class-action liability under Oregon law “for negligence, trespass, and private nuisance” and that their case has standing under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which governs federal rules around hazardous waste disposal. He found that because the pollution is alleged to have damaged an entire watertable, not just well water, and because the water table is a shared public resource, all who depend on it could be eligible for relief from a ruling on the case.

Lawyers for the Port of Morrow did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling on June 9.

One of the original defendants, Amazon, has since March been working out a settlement with the plaintiffs for $20.5 million, though the company denies allegations that it has contributed to any groundwater contamination in the area.

The plaintiffs — Michael Pearson, Michael and Virginia Brandt, and James and Silvia Suter — sought class action status for the case on behalf of all affected residents in Morrow and Umatilla counties who own or rent their homes, which could bring tens of thousands of other plaintiffs into the suit. Their lawyer, Steve Berman, has said up to 45,000 residents could be part of the suit.

“This ruling is a significant win for the thousands of residents in Morrow and Umatilla counties who have waited years for safe drinking water and for someone to be held accountable,”  Berman said in a statement.

This story is republished from the Oregon Capital Chronicle, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet that provides original reporting, analysis and commentary on Oregon state government and politics.