DEQ budget hearing spotlights fee increases, Clean Water loans and lab equipment bond in Senate Bill 5520

Salem — At an informational hearing of the House Subcommittee on Natural Resources on Monday, April 7, Department of Environmental Quality officials outlined the governor’s 2025–27 budget recommendation included in Senate Bill 5520, saying the package is intended to stabilize core services while making targeted investments in water infrastructure, air monitoring and laboratory equipment.

The department’s budget presentation, given by Sione Filimonoye Hala of the Chief Financial Office and Director Leah Feldon, said DEQ is “primarily funded by other funds” — fees, permits and charges — and that rising costs have prompted modest fee increases proposed for air, water and materials‑management programs alongside some reductions in water quality services. Hala said the governor’s recommendation also relies heavily on non‑limited funds tied to the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and orphan site programs.

Why it matters: The governor’s package would preserve loan capacity for water infrastructure projects while seeking additional revenue to maintain permitting and monitoring functions. Legislators pressed agency leaders on the distribution of funding, the potential program impacts of general‑fund reductions and equipment needs at the state laboratory that DEQ says are critical to continuing drinking‑water, harmful algal bloom and PFAS analysis.

DEQ described three principal components of the governor’s recommendation. First, more than a third of the agency’s budget is non‑limited funds that provide near‑market‑rate loans and large expenditure authority for programs such as the Clean Water State Revolving Fund; the agency told the subcommittee the 2025–27…