Deschutes County commissioners authorized staff this month to ask the federal government for $12 million to reduce contamination of groundwater in southern Deschutes County. It’s a piece of a larger grant request.

The money would go to upgrade older, home septic systems to modern ones and deepen wells so homeowners have access to clean water. County staff estimates with $10 million of the grant it may be able to upgrade 275 septic systems — good for residents and the county’s long-term environmental health.

And yet it feels like it could also be the opening scene of a tragic movie.

The protagonists do what seems right and it’s not enough.

Deschutes County told us it estimates that there are between 5,000 and 6,000 septic systems that need to be upgraded. Some 286 have been upgraded since 2006. Will upgrading another 275 be adequate?

Nitrates over a certain level — 10 milligrams per liter according to the federal government — do not belong in drinking water. They can cause a host of health problems. Babies are at acute risk. Nitrates can mean cutting off oxygen to the brain.

Southern Deschutes County has a regrettable mix of shallow water table, sandy soil and many homes with septic systems that are far from the latest technology. Well testing, including by the federal government, has shown there is a threat to public health. DEQ said in 2008 that “there is no practicable alternative to a sewer system in order to abate the public health hazard.” An attempt to tiptoe through Oregon’s land use laws to get permission to build sewer systems in the rural area failed.

DEQ told the county in December that DEQ and the county needed to meet to discuss other options. Meet they did. The grant application is the most decisive action taken.

Nitrates and the aquifer is the kind of problem worth despairing over, worth fretting about. Lurking underground, every day, more nitrates are added to the soil.