For years, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has offered pollution violators the option to pay for environmentally friendly projects to partially offset assessed fines. Now the department is working to ensure communities have a role in deciding what projects these fines will fund.
Known as Supplemental Environmental Projects, or SEPs, up to 80% of fines from an enforcement action can go to projects that benefit human health and the environment. DEQ’s Office of Compliance and Enforcement recently updated its SEP policy to incorporate principles of environmental justice. This update gives communities more opportunities to participate in selecting a project and encourages enforcement staff to include SEPs in their settlement of enforcement actions.
“A SEP can be a critical remedy to address harm to a community caused when a polluter violates the law,” said Kieran O’Donnell, DEQ’s Enforcement Manager.
For example, a fine for air pollution might fund a nonprofit planting more trees in the surrounding neighborhood to improve the quality of life for a community.
Under the old policy, the violator could choose the project if it met certain criteria, most importantly that it benefits public health or the environment in Oregon. But the community didn’t have an opportunity to impact which project the violator chose.
The new policy calls for violators to involve communities to develop SEP projects that are more than $100,000, so that they better address community needs. Along with the size of the fine, DEQ staff now also considers these factors when determining whether a SEP should include community involvement:
- Nature of the violation – Communities are particularly interested in violations that caused excessive pollution that threatened public health and the environment.
- Characteristics of the violator – A individual, company, or government must be willing to develop a SEP and respond meaningfully to community involvement.
- Characteristics of the impacted community – A focus is on overburdened communities, such as minority, low-income or tribal groups that are exposed to more environmental hazards than other communities.
The SEP policy update came after DEQ held listening sessions in 2023 to hear how community-based organizations and communities think the agency could improve the SEP program, making it more equitable and accessible.
“These projects have enormous potential to make a difference to a community impacted by environmental violations, but it’s only helpful if people know about it and are able to use it,” said DEQ Communications Manager Lauren Wirtis. “We are eager to see how these changes make SEPs more accessible to communities.”
The policy update also directs DEQ staff to improve the project pre-approval process and online resources for potential SEP recipients.
In Portland, there’s an on-the-ground example of what SEPs will look like going forward. Or should we say, in-the-ground. DEQ agreed in July 2022 to a settlement for air quality violations with a Portland based asphalt shingle manufacturer. Herbert Malarkey Roofing Co. worked with the local neighborhood association and other local nonprofit entities and community members to select SEPs and fund eight different projects totaling $1.16 million.
The projects include support for an electrical vehicle sharing program, solar panels for nonprofits, and a major tree planting effort in North Portland.
The tree planting will improve the urban tree canopy in the neighborhood near the roofing facility and has a $572,000 budget. More urban tree canopy means more shade and greenery in the city, and it addresses environmental justice.
Friends of Trees, an Oregon-based nonprofit, is leading the tree planting project that will take years to complete. “Planting more trees is a tool we can use to capture more particulates from pollution, as well as help mitigate the heat island effect, which can be exacerbated by pollution,” said Litzy Venturi, Friends of Trees community tree care coordinator. “And of course, planting more trees provides other health and environmental benefits for these communities that deserve access to clean air and water, and protection from our increasingly hot summers.”
The first wave of planting more than 3,700 trees in North Portland took place from January to April 2023, said Jenny Root, a DEQ environmental law specialist. The planting project will wrap up in September 2025.
The size of the fine led to a large amount of money for the project. But what’s different is the community involvement in the planting and future SEPs.
“The new changes primarily focus on trying to incorporate EJ principles by encouraging violators to include the local community on SEP selection rather than the violator just choosing the project themselves without any community involvement,” Root said.
– Dylan Darling, public affairs specialist