The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality has fined St. Charles Bend for failing to test underground fuel tanks and Home Depot in Bend for not controlling stormwater runoff.

At the health center, three storage tanks with a capacity of 75,000 gallons store diesel fuel used to power emergency generators. During an inspection by the DEQ in October, it was discovered that the tanks had not been tested for spills and overfilling.

In addition, inspectors discovered that the pressurized piping did not have leak detection equipment installed, according to the department, and line-tightness testing had not been done since October 2020.

St. Charles Health System, which operates the Bend hospital, was fined $8,993 by the department. The health system has 30 days to test the spill and overfill prevention equipment and submit the results to the environmental department, install electronic leak detectors in the underground storage tanks and submit a line-tightness test.

“St. Charles Health System became aware of the fuel tank deficiencies last year and quickly worked to make necessary repairs and all issues cited in the DEQ report have been addressed,” said Alandra Johnson, health system spokeswoman.

At the Home Depot, the store is required to provide monitoring reports about runoff in Bend for 2016, 2017 or 2018. The store also was found to be in violation for monitoring reports at its Portland store for 2016-2018. The total fine was $6,218, according to the environmental department documents.

St. Charles and Home Depot were among 18 entities that were penalized by the department in June. The fines for all totaled $632,056. The largest fine, $205,800, was issued to BP Products North America Inc., which self-reported that it had the same volume of renewable diesel fuel for California and Oregon, said Dylan Darling, department spokesman.

Kieran O’Donnell, manager of Oregon DEQ’s office of compliance and enforcement, said in a statement, “The Clean Fuels Program is an essential piece of Oregon’s strategy to address global climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Inaccurate fuel reporting undermines the program and can negatively impact the clean fuels credit market.”