Committee advances bill allowing sewer plant construction before DEQ permit

The House Committee on Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources, and Water moved Senate Bill 1189 to the floor with a due-pass recommendation during a brief work session.

The bill, as described by committee staff, authorizes the construction and installation of a new publicly owned treatment works facility in the North Santiam Basin to begin prior to issuance of a Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) water-quality permit if construction begins between April 15 and June 6, 2025, and the facility owner holds certain other required permits. Committee staff said there is no amendment, no fiscal impact and no revenue impact.

Committee members raised no objections during the work session and the motion passed by voice vote to send the bill to the floor with a due-pass recommendation. There was no recorded roll-call vote in the hearing record and no amendments were offered during the committee discussion.

The bill’s text limits the early-start authorization to projects that start construction in the specified window and that obtain other required permits; it does not change DEQ’s permitting authority, according to the staff description. The committee did not take additional testimony on the measure during the recorded work session.

With the committee’s due-pass recommendation, the bill will proceed to the next legislative step for floor consideration. The hearing record does not include a timetable for further action or whether the measure will be amended later in the process.