DEQ At-a-Glance
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s mission is to be a leader in restoring, maintaining and enhancing the quality of Oregon’s air, water and land. DEQ works with all Oregonians to provide a healthy, sustainable environment that supports a diverse economy.
Overview
DEQ employs approximately 700 people who implement state and federal environmental laws to protect Oregon’s air, water and land. The Oregon Environmental Quality Commission, a five-member citizen panel appointed by Oregon’s governor, serves as DEQ’s policy and rulemaking board. DEQ is one of 10 state agencies that collaborate to find local solutions to community and economic issues through Oregon’s Regional Solutions Team.
Oregon. There's a lot to protect.
Science is DEQ’s cornerstone
Science and environmental information require regular monitoring and analysis of Oregon’s air, water and land. DEQ uses scientific data to set appropriate permit limits and to inform citizens and policy makers of the best ways to ensure a healthy environment and a sustainable economy.
Monitoring and analysis
DEQ’s accredited laboratory in Hillsboro monitors the quality of Oregon's natural resources. Employees collect air, water and soil samples from more than 1,500 locations annually, producing more than 300,000 individual results. These results are used to determine whether remediation measures are needed.
Air Quality Index
DEQ manages air monitors at 53 locations across the state to support Oregon’s Air Quality Index, a tool that allows the public to see amounts of pollution in real time. This can be critical information particularly to people with underlying conditions made worse by poor air quality. DEQ makes information available through its website, the Oregon Air smartphone app and the Oregon Smoke Blog.
Oregon DEQ's low-cost air quality SensOR™
Emergency Response and Cleanup
DEQ emergency responders are highly trained and prepared for rapid deployment, interagency cooperation, on-scene coordination, and safe, effective clean-up operations. They operate with a 24/7 mentality, knowing that spills can happen anywhere, anytime. Each year DEQ receives about 2,000 reports of spills, big and small. DEQ measures success by the timeliness of initial response, and how quickly we can begin the clean-up or mitigation process when needed.
Compliance and enforcement
DEQ enforces the law and focuses its compliance resources on the most serious environmental violations to ensure that people in Oregon enjoy a healthy environment. DEQ achieves compliance through a number of tools including, technical assistance, inspections, complaint investigations, and orders to pay fines and perform corrective actions. Fines, also known as civil penalties, deter non-compliance by putting a price on illegal pollution. Fines are necessary to “level the playing field," so that noncompliance does not generate a competitive advantage against those that invest in compliance. DEQ issues approximately 200 penalties per year based on more than 2,000 inspections.
Restoring valuable property
DEQ helps remove environmental barriers to redevelopment of properties by providing assistance in investigating and cleaning up potentially contaminated property known as brownfields. Contaminated property may pose health and safety risks to the surrounding community, and devalue surrounding properties. Cleaning up and redeveloping brownfields helps communities remove blight and provides needed services, such as industrial or commercial development, housing, or open space for playing fields and parks. Redeveloping land that is already urbanized also helps to reduce sprawl.
Kelso St., Eugene, cleanup before and after images, 2019
Regional Solutions
As a member of Oregon’s Regional Solutions Teams, DEQ works collaboratively with state agency partners to bring people and resources together to solve local problems. Located throughout the state, Regional Solutions Teams reflect the unique priorities of each region. Working directly with local government, business and industry, DEQ’s Regional Solutions Team members work to achieve environmental benefit and economic development by:
- Creating better relationships between agencies on tangible, priority economic projects that create new or retain existing jobs
- Leveraging resources to provide proactive assistance to businesses and communities, which increases compliance with regulations
- Making permitting and other regulatory processes more understandable and efficient to save funding and time
