Street roots., July 24, 2015, Page 8, Image 8

Page 8
News
Street Roots • July 24-30, 2015
DEQ resurfacing
Oregon’s agency responsible fo r m onitoring water polluters
hopes added positions will help it catch up on expired perm its
BY EMILY GREEN
STA FF W R IT E R
I
regon’s Department of
1 Environmental Quality (DEQ)
V -X grabbed the lifeline it sorely needed
when legislators approved a $1.5 million
package to restore its wastewater permitting
functions in June as part of the water quality
program’s $63.2 million budget for 2015-17
— a $5.5 million increase over the previous
biennium.
In addition to -restoring six positions and
replacing an antiquated software system,
DEQ’s Water Quality Program will add two
new water quality permit writing specialists
to help with the agency’s staggering backlog
of expired permits. Water Quality Program
Manager Jennifer Wigal says she feels her
department “fared pretty well” this
legislative session.
As first reported by Street Roots earlier
this year (“Underwater,” Street Roots, Feb.
20), DEQ is the most backlogged state
agency in the country when it comes to *
keeping industrial wastewater permits up to
date.
Since the initial report, DEQ has fallen
even further behind in re-issuing permits to
both major and minor industrial facilities
discharging waste into Oregon waterways.
In some cases, facilities are operating under
permits that were issued decades ago, when
environmental standards were more relaxed.
This means that while Oregon has the
stiffest water pollution regulations in the
U.S., many permits have not been updated
to reflect current environmental standards.
In October, 69 percent of DEQ’s major
wastewater permits had passed their
original expiration date, in some cases by 20
years or more. Facilities with more than 1
million gallons of wastewater flowing
through their treatment plants are
considered major facilities. As of mid-2015,
that percentage had grown to 73 percent.
Facilities with current minor wastewater
permits have also fallen further, with 164 of
them operating on expired permits that
have been extended indefinitely.
DEQ’s excessive backlog caught the
attention of legislators reviewing its budget
request this session. They directed the
agency to hire an outside consultant to
evaluate its permitting program and then
make recommendations focused on
improving the quality and timeliness of its
wastewater permits. DEQ will be required
to report to legislature on or before
December and again by December 2016
with an update of its progress toward
completing the evaluation and implementing
recommendations.
The Legislature also approved a bill
allowing DEQ to raise water quality permit
fees by more than the anticipated increase
in cost of administering the program. This
change is expected to generate
approximately $724,000 in revenue. DEQ’s
water quality program is far less reliant on
fees than its air and land quality programs,
which are not experiencing backlogs.
DEQ Policy and Analysis Manager Greg
TlieTaft H om e
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Aldrich says increased funding to the water
quality department will help the agency get
caught up, but “it’s not going to happen over
night.” Wigal says the new permit writers
should be hired as soon as October, and it
will be a matter of taking a “heads down,
methodical approach” to getting caught up
on the backlog.
DEQ received an overall 3 percent
increase in funding over the last biennium
bringing its 2015-17 budget up to $343.2
million, pending a final audit.
A budget package of $550,000 will pay for
a new wastewater p e rm ittin g so ftw are
module to replace the current, antiquated
system, which Wigal says has many quirks
and breakdowns that slow down operations.
The new system also comes with an added
full-time employee tasked with the
transition.