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Agricultural Dust Program

Air Permits and Compliance

Agricultural Dust

Revised on: Aug. 19, 2023 - 4:16 p.m.

Our Agricultural Dust program addresses public complaints regarding dust from agricultural operations and provides outreach to agricultural operations on rule requirements and measures to reduce dust. This program also implements and enforces Agricultural Best Management Practices (Ag BMP) rules that are required for commercial agricultural operations in areas that do not meet federal air quality standards for PM10 (commonly referred to as dust) non-attainment areas | Learn More >

What are Agricultural Best Management Practices (Ag BMP)? 

Per Arizona Administrative Code, an Ag BMP is a technique, verified by scientific research, that is practical, economically feasible and effective in reducing PM10 emissions from a regulated agricultural activity. In 1981, the AG BMP committee was formed | Learn More > 

Who must follow agricultural dust rules? 

Arizona has general rules requiring all agricultural operations across the state to take reasonable precautions to minimize dust emissions. In addition to these rules, operations in areas that do not meet federal air quality standards (PM10 non-attainment areas) are required to abide by more specific requirements, including maintaining an Ag BMP Permit Record for an agricultural operation or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) if it is greater than 10 adjoining acres in size and/or meets animal number thresholds. This permit is intended to reduce dust from these operations by requiring operators to implement Ag BMPs. The Ag BMP Permit Record must be kept up to date by the operator and made available to ADEQ within two business days of notice to the operator.

Forms

The following are Ag BMP General Permit Record forms: