"Zenith (began) to legally operate before the 2016 ban but because of a severe backlog, the DEQ didn’t start processing the request until early 2021." The reason the permit process was delayed until 2021 had nothing to do with some "severe backlog" is more likely. More likely "strings being pulled" in transportation agency bureaucracy.

ODOT of course is disgracefully incompetent and shamefully corrupt when freeway bridge and 'widening' proposals (I-5 CRC & Rose Quarter, Hwy 99W SW Corridor, all engineering debacles) don't or only barely pass peer review outside their mutual admiration society of good fellows quietly covering up the worst engineering design proposals, keeping them from independent review via possibly illegal bureaucratic censorship.

MY I-5 RoseQ "widening" prediction: Traffic Hazards, Accident Rate & Severity Worsen!
Same prediction for the Hwy 99W SW Corridor but with more pedestrian fatalities!
CRC I-5 is so poorly designed, IMO, DOT agencies do NOT intend to build it!
Yet, Incompetent and obstructionist DOT department heads are NOT held accountable!
The Tesla 'S' road lizard is the most over-rated EV on the road? Divest from Daimler.

MY I-5 RoseQ "widening" prediction: Traffic Hazards, Accident Rate & Severity Worsen! Same prediction for the Hwy 99W SW Corridor but with more pedestrian fatalities! The new CRC I-5 is so poorly designed, IMO, DOT agencies do NOT intend to build it! Yet, Incompetent and obstructionist DOT department heads are NOT held accountable! The Tesla 'S' road lizard is the most over-rated EV on the road? Divest from Daimler.