DEQ outlines land-quality budget, staffing requests and cleanup priorities

Leah Feldon, director of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, told the Natural Resources Subcommittee on April 8 that the department’s Land Quality Division oversees materials management, hazardous waste, environmental cleanup, emergency response and tanks programs and is asking for position authority to carry out several multi‑year projects.

The request matters because most of Land Quality’s budget is supported by dedicated fees rather than general fund dollars, the division said, and several cleanups and program rollouts will require staff and multi‑year oversight. "Land quality is a coordinated group of programs encompassing these 5 areas," interim Land Quality Administrator Mike Kuczynski said during the presentation.

DEQ officials walked lawmakers through the division’s budget makeup and several policy option packages that would add or convert positions to support ongoing work. Land Quality’s budget is funded roughly 91% by other funds (about $133,000,000), 7% by federal grants (about $10,000,000) and roughly 2% by general funds (about $3,500,000), the agency said. About half of the division’s limitation pays for staff salaries and benefits; service and supply contracts also make up a large share of spending because DEQ relies on contractors for cleanup work.

The materials…