Why should I care about Hermiston?

Cardboard container on skid at The Real Canadian Superstore

Evidently Hermiston, Oregon is a hotbed of melon farming. But given the fact that Eastern Oregon is a pretty dry place, and the melon farming is dependant on irrigation from the Columbia River, this does not make a lot of sense.

These melons are basically a really expensive and complicated way to bring Canadian water back to Canada.

Are melons from Hermiston any better than melons from anywhere else? Do they taste better, or are they just cheaper? Either way, they seem to have a nice share of the British Columbia melon market in September.