Jan. 15 on The Story: This week brought a surprise development related to our "Tainted Waters" series, which explored the problem of contaminated wells in Oregon's Morrow and Umatilla counties. We've reported at length about the issue, caused by nitrates from agricultural and food processing operations seeping into an underground aquifer, which the state has known about for over 30 years. Despite an overall ramp-up in state action on the issue under Gov. Tina Kotek, she issued an emergency declaration this week giving the Port of Morrow — one entity responsible for some of the nitrate contamination — the greenlight to violate its wastewater permit until the end of February. The reason, she says, is that the alternative is "risk of economic shutdown," as businesses at the port would need to furlough workers if they cannot release their wastewater onto nearby fields. Watch more The Story videos: http://bit.ly/watchTheStory Follow The Story on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheStoryKGW Follow The Story on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thestorykgw