| Governor's Oregon Principles Budget 2005-2007 |
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| Livability and the Environment |
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What do we expect our investment to achieve for this principle?
This budget purchases enhanced protection of Oregon’s water quality for drinking, recreation and fish restoration through:
- The establishment of standards for pollutants for our surface waters.
- Issuance and enforcement of wetland permits and wastewater discharge permits.
- Retrofitting marina sites to eliminate or reduce polluting discharges from boats.
- Reducing pollution in the Willamette River resulting from stormwater runoff and mercury contamination.
- Strengthening the enforcement of water quality standards in the Willamette River and working in partnership with business and civic organizations in keeping the Willamette River clean.
- Investing approximately $40 million dollars in restoring the health and function of watersheds.
- Promoting forest practices that protect water quality through direct assistance to non-industrial forestland owners and protecting Oregon’s forests from diseases, pests and fire.
- Assisting agricultural landowners with land conservation to protect water quality.
- Reducing the backlog of water quality permits to less than 10 percent and increasing monitoring and compliance associated with those permits and continuing the progress made over the last year to reduce the backlog from 60 percent of permits expired to 30 percent.
- Continued recovery of salmon and other native fish species with the potential for Coastal Coho to be de-listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
- Commencement of operation of the fish research hatchery at Fall Creek. This facility will include several research and monitoring projects that will increase our knowledge about wild fish populations and the interactions between wild and hatchery fish, improving our ability to manage both populations.
This budget purchases support for the growth of sustainable economic development by:
- Improving the response rate for issuance and renewal of water quality permits vital to continued business operations and new business investment.
- Providing continued support for staff dedicated to economic recovery, regulatory streamlining and certification of industrial sites.
- Supporting the collection and dissemination of geologic data and mapping to guide land-use decisions, use of industrial sites and other business development.
- Enhancing the productivity of Oregon’s state-owned and private forest lands through technical assistance.
- Providing assistance to communities with local development plans and economic opportunity analyses.
- Working aggressively to recover listed fish stocks through conservation, hatchery reform, research, and harvest management to ensure sustainable populations for commercial and recreational benefits and the communities that depend on them.
- Implementing an agriculture certification program to enhance Oregon’s competitiveness in the world market.
This budget makes significant investments to enhance Oregon’s unique quality of life by:
- Creating at least two new state parks for Oregon and significantly reducing the backlog of facility repairs in parks and boating access facilities.
- Protecting Oregonians through enhancement of the food safety program.
- Increasing net revenue from state Common School Fund lands.
- Assuring significant investment in the recovery of native fish populations to support recreation.
- Managing wildlife to ensure diversity, balance and viable populations for recreational benefits.
- Ensuring the health and diversity of Oregon’s forests to support the many recreational uses they provide.
- Protecting Oregon’s rivers and streams for boating, swimming and fishing.
- Supporting state and local planning efforts that are vital to preserving the benefits of open space protection and thoughtful growth of urban areas that ensures quality of life.
- Protecting and improving productivity on 12 million acres of state-owned and private, non-industrial forestlands.
- Increasing the number of wetland mitigation banks to facilitate economic development.
- Adjudication of water right disputes in the Klamath Basin to resolve uncertainty, stabilize property values, ensure water availability for agriculture and create environmental benefits.
- Increasing the number of communities that have identified natural hazards and are using that information in planning growth or mitigating existing hazardous conditions.
- Conducting a comprehensive review of Oregon’s land-use planning system leading to improvements that enhance the system’s effectiveness, support sound economic growth and assures that its goals are met.
- Reducing regulatory steps for receiving business permits to receive permits from state and federal permit users, which should lead to reduced permit processing times, higher compliance and increased resolution of violations.
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