State's environmental watchdog is on the job.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Stephanie Hallock For The Register-Guard

In an Aug. 18 editorial, The Register-Guard pointed out some shortcomings in the way the state Department of Environmental Quality has conducted its business. We welcome the scrutiny by the newspaper's editorial board and recognition of the importance of the environment to Oregonians.

Environmental protection stirs passion. This is good news. Oregonians have a long history of passion for our environment.

We also have a long history of open public conversation about complex and sometimes frustrating environmental policy choices. And we have science and great scientists, such as Jane Lubchenco of Oregon State University, an internationally recognized expert on climate change, and Carl Schreck, who heads the Independent Multi-Disciplinary Science Team, formed to provide expertise on issues related to the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds.

Our foundation of passion, public policy debate and science has earned Oregon a well-deserved reputation as a leader in environmental protection. The environment has been much in the news lately. Lubchenco and others are stunned by the extent of the `dead zone' in the ocean off the Oregon coast.

The Register-Guard's editorial referenced the DEQ's regulations to control mercury emissions and water quality standards for turbidity. In a recent poll by environmental groups, 23.5 percent of Oregonians aren't sure what is the greatest environmental issue facing Oregon today, but concern about water and air pollution ranks high.

Reports such as these raise peoples' anxiety, because there are no easy answers.

At the DEQ we are struggling with how to control the amount of mercury in our environment - mercury that can come from sources as far away as China. We are rethinking the water quality standard for turbidity, to incorporate valuable input provided by the Independent Multi-Disciplinary Science Team, at our request.

This is what we do every day at the DEQ. We bring a passion to protect the environment; we propose regulatory solutions in a public process that we know will engender debate; and we combine the results of that debate with scientific knowledge and expertise to make the best decisions we can for Oregon.

Because Oregonians care very much about our state, environmental issues tend to be debated passionately from many perspectives. The DEQ's job is to listen to all sides of the debate, thoughtfully consider the science, and make tough choices when there are no easy answers.

It is the right way to make good public policy, but it also costs money. Loss of state general fund support, coupled with an ongoing decline in federal dollars, has put at risk the DEQ's ability to monitor the condition of the state's air and water and provide the data needed to make policy decisions supported by science. Dollars to clean up toxics sites also have been reduced, the DEQ is doing fewer compliance inspections and backlogs of permits threaten to grow.

We are seeking to restore the agency's funding to 2003-05 levels so we can do the job the public expects us to do. Oregonians have a proud tradition of caring for the environment. That is part of why people come here and stay.

Oregonians expect the DEQ to be the guardian of clean air and clean water, to make sure that waste is managed and disposed of safely, to clean up legacy pollution and to respond to environmental emergencies. We need everyone's help to be successful.

Stephanie Hallock is director of the state Department of Environmental Quality.