Senate committee hears compromise fee plan for DOGAMI amid permit backlog and inspection shortfalls

SALEM, Ore. — The Senate Committee on Rules on May 19 heard testimony on Senate Bill 836, a fee bill that would change how the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) funds mineral land permitting, inspection and reclamation work.

DOGAMI Director Rory Day Stearrit told the committee the agency is a “wholly fee funded program” and that SB 836 (dash-2 amendment posted) would let the agency adjust maximum fees for onshore exploration, surface mining, mining operations, application and inspections, well drilling, and geothermal wells and require those adjustments to be “proportional to the percentage change in inflation over the 24 month period preceding the start of each biennium.”

The measure matters because it ties permit funding, staffing and inspection capacity to fee revenue. Moss Adams, the consulting firm that audited the permitting process at DOGAMI, told the committee the program has a backlog of about 100 pending permit applications and that the typical time from application to permit decision is about a year.

Audit findings and agency compromise

Tammy Lor Schwietzer of Moss Adams testified that the audit examined permit work from January 2019 through December 2024 and identified process bottlenecks: incomplete applications that trigger repeated applicant–staff exchanges, lengthy reviews of historical permit materials, specialized reviewers with single-person backups, and risk-averse review practices that add layers of internal review. “We found that the process of completing a permit takes approximately 1 year,” Schwietzer said. She recommended a tiered review process to expedite low‑risk decisions, a lead-worker role to speed technical reviews, and repurposing a reclamationist to address floodplain expertise gaps.

Director Stearrit described a negotiated compromise with industry that officials characterized as a two‑year, step‑up schedule with reassessment at the next session. The agency said it shifted more of the fee burden onto tonnage and renewal fees rather than application fees to reduce costs for very small new operators, and that the revised package reduced some of the FTEs originally requested and lowered the agency operating balance from six months to three months.

Staffing and inspections

Under the compromise, DOGAMI reduced proposed field specialists (mine site inspectors) from four to two, and permit-writer positions from three to two, with the remaining permit writers hired at senior level. Stearrit said two positions dedicated to exploration drilling remained in the budget because of recent increases in that activity. She told senators the agency currently has no dedicated full‑time mine site inspectors and that inspections have been performed largely in response to complaints, permit-triggered actions or amendments rather than as routine, dedicated inspections.

Senator Golden pressed the agency on public safety risks from limited inspections; Stearrit acknowledged the risk and said the agency expects to approach but likely not fully meet its inspection target. Stearrit also said the proposal was “a 2 year plan with a reassessment in 2 years” and that the agency would use inspection data from that period to propose any future changes.

Industry and civic responses

Rich Angstrom, president of the Oregon Concrete & Aggregate Producers Association, described the negotiation as difficult but said the industry agreed to a fee structure that would add permanent FTEs to the department. “We think by adding these 10 FTE, they’ll be able to catch up, and they’ll be able to do the inspections,” Angstrom said, referring to the longer staffing plan discussed outside the committee.

Peggy Lynch, natural resources coordinator for the League of Women Voters, urged caution about the chosen indexing method and expressed concern about shrinking the operating reserve to three months. She said the League continues to support SB 836 as presented but recommended careful attention to inspection capacity and to indexing that better reflects staffing costs.

Audit recommendations and next steps

Moss Adams recommended establishing an annual or routine fee‑adjustment process to avoid periodic “eye‑popping” fee increases, adding a lead worker to smooth reviews, increasing technical reviewer capacity, and improving backup coverage for specialized reviewers. The audit also tied insufficient application fees to a heavier reliance on tonnage and renewal fees, which can disadvantage smaller producers.

Committee action and disposition

The committee closed the public hearing on SB 836 after testimony and committee discussion. Senators and witnesses said a dash‑3 amendment with detailed fee figures was expected, and committee members said the bill will proceed toward Ways and Means for budget review.

For now, the record shows a negotiated compromise on staffing and fees, an external audit that identified both procedural and staffing fixes, and continuing concern among legislators and civic groups about inspection frequency and the program’s reduced operating reserve.