Oregon Monitoring and Groundwater Reporting Requirements or Landfill Monitoring in a Changing Regulatory Environment, 1994 Environmental Conference Proceedings

R. W. Ghristensen, A. P. Mick

Environmental regulations and the guidelines under which they are administered are constantly changing. In Oregon, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is standardizing the permitting and permit requirements for operating and closed landfills. Monitoring and reporting statistical parameters and a wider array of sample parameters to be analyzed. This reflects a national trend to require all waste facilities to perform testing and analysis that clearly demonstrates whether a release of contaminants has, or has not, occurred at the facility in question.

Historically, industrial facilities have been reluctant to acknowledge environmental impacts due to the onerous regulatory agency requirements for immediate clean-up to background levels. The DEQ has come forward in the area of solid waste with results oriented administration and enforcement. With the current regulatory stance of the DEQ it can now be beneficial for industry to re-examine the relationship between industry and the regulatory agencies.