The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued $7,125 in penalties to Litton Loan Servicing LP, owner of property in the community of Foster, east of Sweet Home, for failing to determine whether wastes on the property were hazardous and for not immediately cleaning up releases of oil or hazardous material on the property earlier this year.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued a total of $20,045 in penalties to the Yoncalla-based Rice Hill Owners Association Inc. for violations of the company's wastewater discharge permit, which serves a commercial area near the Rice Hill/Interstate 5 interchange in Douglas County.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued a $3,015 penalty to Dalko Corporation, doing business as Allpump Sanitation Services, for conducting sewage disposal services in Oregon without a license.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued a total of $14,600 in penalties to Stimson Lumber Co. for air and water quality permit violations at its wood products mill at 49800 Scoggins Valley Road in Gaston.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued a $3,228 penalty to Harry Henke, of Gearhart, for violating a condition of his stormwater discharge permit for construction activities at the Cross Creek Village residential development at 2315 N. Roosevelt, in Seaside.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued a $1,000 penalty to Delta Upsilon Fraternity for illegal open burning of a couch at the Delta Upsilon Fraternity House in Corvallis last June.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality invites comment on a proposed closure request for a gasoline-contaminated soil and groundwater cleanup at the former East Burnside ARCO station at 50 East Burnside Road in Gresham.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the City of Portland have signed an agreement outlining actions that DEQ and the city will jointly take to continue reducing sediment contamination throughout the Columbia Slough.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued a $2,268 penalty to Rickman Excavating Inc., a Powell Butte-based portable rock crusher operator, for crushing more than 25,000 pounds of rock per year without first applying for the proper air contaminant discharge permit.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued its clean water plan to improve water quality in the Malheur River Basin and adjacent Middle Snake-Payette Subbasin located in southeast Oregon.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued a $2,000 penalty to Ralph Adam Sutterfield, of 61600 Gribbling Road, Bend, for illegal burning of debris on his property in November 2009.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued a $2,295 penalty to Larry James Walter, of 45601 Cherry Lane, Halfway, for open burning of prohibited materials on his residential property in April.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued an $8,400 penalty to W.L. Thomas Environmental LLC, of Albany, for an asbestos-handling violation during a building renovation project conducted in July at First Baptist Church in Salem.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued a $1,800 penalty to Boise Cascade Wood Products LLC for discharging industrial wastewater into Phillips Creek from its stud mill and plywood manufacturing facility at 90 S. 21st St. in Elgin last June 10.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued $24,800 in penalties to First Student Inc., a school bus fleet operator, for polluting state waters by discharging diesel fuel into the Columbia Slough in northeast Portland this past April, and for failing to immediately clean up the spill.

Everyone is invited to a free continental breakfast and seminar on tax breaks, financial incentives and programs to help people change-out old, polluting woodstoves for cleaner, more efficient home-heating options. The seminar will address federal and state tax rebate programs, change-out programs for wood and pellet stoves, and how to identify uncertified stoves.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued $14,050 in penalties to Radar Holding LLC, of Condon, for operation and monitoring violations at the company's privately owned sewage treatment facility near Condon. Radar Holding owns and operates the facility on Mountain View Drive for the benefit of its residential development under a DEQ-issued Water Pollution Control Facilities permit.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued a $12,656 penalty to Patrick Richard Brady, of Sisters, for failing to properly decommission four underground storage tanks in Klamath Falls and failing to investigate and clean up petroleum released from those tanks.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued a $73,275 penalty to Investors Mortgage Co., of 216 E. Virginia St., Stayton, for failing to investigate and clean up petroleum released from an underground storage tank system formerly located at 110 E. Washington St., in Stayton. The company failed to appeal its penalty by its Aug. 30 deadline, so the full penalty amount is now due.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is inviting the public to comment on the rules that will describe how DEQ's new woodstove program will operate.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued penalties totaling $10,800 to the City of Bend for failing to comply with conditions of its Water Pollution Control Facilities permit, for its wastewater treatment facility on McGrath Road in Bend.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued a $3,600 penalty to Richard Dean Running, of 210 40th St., Springfield, for failing to determine if wastes he stored on his property for more than five years were hazardous.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has issued its clean water plan to improve water quality in the Lower Grande Ronde, Wallowa River and Imnaha River Subbasins located in northeast Oregon.

In a benchmark year that gauges recycling efforts throughout the state, Oregon showed a slight uptick in its overall solid waste recovery rate. The final rate for 2009 was 48.4 percent – up one-tenth of a percent over 2008's official rate. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality announced its findings today in its 2009 Oregon Material Recovery and Waste Generation Rates Report.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has decided that PacifiCorp must remove and dispose of the most contaminated soil at a PacifiCorp owned property located on the north side of Youngs Bay at 1224 West Marine Drive in Astoria.