Agenda

• Legislative Proposals | View/Download >

Agenda 

• Legislative Proposals | View/Download >

Summary

The Arizona Legislature’s 2024 session officially adjourned sine die on Saturday, June 15, 2024. ADEQ ran four agency bills in the 2024 session, with all of them signed into law by the Governor. Additionally, other bills were passed that directly impacted department statutes. This summary highlights 2024 bills and budget items that most impact ADEQ, our customers, and the larger stakeholder community. Please note that except for bills with noted emergency clauses, the general effective date for legislation passed in the 2024 session is Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024.

Important ADEQ and Stakeholder Bills

ADEQ House Bills (HBs)

HB2367 — Solid Waste Fees; Rules | View HB >

• Signed by the Governor — April 9, 2024
• Emergency clause; effective upon signature
• Summary:
  • Eliminates one-time rulemaking authorities
  • Authorizes moving waste tire and landfill disposal fees to rule
  • Authorizes rulemakings to establish new fees for services already being performed
  • Removes duplicative Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) review requirement language

HB2370 — Oxygenated Fuel; Federal Approval; Extension | View HB >

• Signed by the Governor — April 2, 2024
• Emergency clause; effective upon signature
• Summary: Extends the conditional enactment date for the statutes in question to July 1, 2027, to allow time for EPA approval

HB2369 — Dredge; Fill; Permits; Cleanup | View HB >

• Signed by the Governor — April 8, 2024
• Effective 90 days after sine die (the last day of session) — Sept. 14, 2024
• Summary: Clean-up bill. Makes technical corrections to several portions of statute that still refer to or were modified to be compatible with Title 49 Chapter 2 Article 3.2, which was conditionally repealed in the fall of 2023 after ADEQ determined that it was not in the best interest of the state to pursue primacy of the Clean Water Act 404 Dredge and Fill permitting program

HB2628 — Department of Environmental Quality; Omnibus | View HB >

• Signed by the Governor — April 10, 2024
• Effective 90 days after sine die (the last day of session) — Sept. 14, 2024
• Summary:
  • Small Water Systems Fund Amendment: Allows the deposit of federal monies into the fund in addition to appropriations from the legislature
  • Drinking Water Monitoring Assistance Program (MAP) Amendments:
    • Expansion of allowable scope of assistance for small drinking water systems beyond only what is required as “baseline” monitoring under the Safe Drinking Water Act
    • Creates fiscal solvency in the fund to manage new regulations from EPA, inflation, and increased costs for testing and monitoring by changing the cap on monies that can be retained in the fund year over year from $200,000 to the value of the annual operating costs (based on the average of the previous three years)
  • Vehicle Emissions Inspection (VEI) Technical Correction: Corrects an error assigning the wrong emissions testing methodology to a certain type of vehicle. This correction had to be made before EPA could approve the related State Implementation Plan (SIP) revision
  • Solid Waste Amendments:
    • Clarifies requirements for Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) facilities in closure and post-closure status to align with the federal program
    • Updates the definition of “recycling facility” to align with the current federal definition and remove confusing language
  • Underground Injection Control (UIC) Amendment: Repeals applicability of federal definitions to the state UIC program — state-level definitions have since been developed in rule
  • Waste Tires Disposal Amendment: Allows tires to be landfilled in a statutorily specified manner (based on approved disposal methods in other states — as a single layer at the base of a new landfill cell, or at a specified depth), if the disposal method is approved by ADEQ in the site facility plan

Other Bills of Note

HB2195 — Onsite Wastewater Treatment Facilities; Permitting | View HB >

• Signed by the Governor — April 10, 2024
• Effective 90 days after sine die (the last day of session) — Sept. 14, 2024
• Summary:
  • NOTE: The general permit option created by this bill will not fall under County delegation agreements as currently written. ADEQ’s intent is to retain authority for permits issued pursuant to this bill.
  • Allows an onsite wastewater treatment facility to discharge under a general permit if the operation complies with existing permit rules, is operated by a technology manufacturer-certified service provider, and has a design flow of 3,000 gallons or more per day but less than 75,000 gallons per day
  • Requires ADEQ to require maintenance, monitoring, records keeping and reporting for the systems previously described 
  • Allows ADEQ to require adequate financial assurance for design flow that exceeds 50,000 gallons per day, or a site that has multiple onsite wastewater treatment facilities with a collective design flow of 50,000 gallons or more per day
  • Requires ADEQ to establish fees and deposit fees in the Water Quality Fee Fund
  • Requires permittees to transfer to the applicable permit established in rule within 180 days after the “Phase II” rules are effective

Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) 1012 — Rulemaking; Legislative Ratification; Regulatory Costs | View >

• Transmitted to the Secretary of State — June 13, 2024
• Summary:
  • Subject to voter approval on the upcoming November 2024 ballot, statutorily prohibits a proposed rule from becoming effective, if the proposed rule is estimated to increase regulatory costs by more than $500,000 within five years after implementation until the Legislature enacts legislation ratifying the proposed rule
  • Requires an agency to submit a proposed rule that is estimated to increase regulatory costs in Arizona by more than $100,000 within five years after implementation to the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) for review
  • Allows a person regulated by an agency that is proposing a rule to request the OEO to review the rule
  • Allows a legislator to also request the OEO to review a proposed rule
• Potential impacts to ADEQ: ADEQ has primacy enforcement authority for many federal environmental and health programs and is required to maintain and implement state regulations consistent with federal regulations, in order to maintain its primacy authority. If ADEQ is delayed in implementing regulations, Arizona may lose its primacy enforcement authority resulting in the US EPA enforcing the impacted programs instead of Arizona. The programs include: the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. ADEQ also implements the Underground Storage Tank program, which is federal law.

Budget Highlights

Negotiations for the FY25 budget focused on addressing an estimated $1.8 billion dollar deficit in the current and upcoming budget years. Major budget line items pertinent to ADEQ are as follows:

• One-time funding transfer to General Fund of:
  • $20 million from the Underground Storage Tank Fund
  • $2.3 million from the Air Quality Fund
  • $5 million from the Emission Inspection Fund
  • $900,000 from the Hazardous Waste Management Fund
  • $500,000 from the Emergency Response Fund
• One-time transfer of $7.2 million from the Air Quality Fund to the Water Quality Fee Fund
• Requirement for a 5% reduction from FY24 Area A fee revenues to the Vehicle Emissions Inspection Fund
• $15 million deposit into WQARF from the General Fund
• $1 million General Fund appropriation for zero-emissions heavy-duty eight-ton pilot program
• $3.4 million appropriation increase in the Air Quality Fund for Voluntary Vehicle Repair Program (VVRP) and State Implementation Plan (SIP)
• $2.7 million appropriation increase in the Emissions Inspection Fund
• $950,000 appropriation increase for the Recycling Fund for Solid Waste

Agenda 

• ADEQ did not run any agency bills during this session. 
  Note: The FY24 Executive Budget Request is available | View/Download >

Summary

The Arizona Legislature’s 2023 session officially adjourned sine die on Monday, July 31. At 204 days, this was the longest session in Arizona history. While ADEQ did not directly run any agency bills in the 2023 session, several bills were passed that directly impacted department statutes. This summary highlights 2023 bills and budget items that most impact ADEQ, our customers, and the larger stakeholder community. Please note that other than bills with noted emergency clauses, the general effective date for legislation passed in the 2023 session is Oct. 30, 2023.

Important ADEQ and Stakeholder Bills

HB2215 – Hazardous Waste Manifest Resubmittals; Fees 

Repeals statute allowing ADEQ to return an improperly completed manifest for a shipment of hazardous waste to the person who prepared the manifest and requires the person to complete and resubmit the manifest, and eliminates the fee of $20 for resubmittal of the manifest. This statute was no longer necessary, as hazardous waste manifest have been submitted electronically directly to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency since 2018 | Learn More >

HB2216 – Hazardous Air Pollutants Program

Authorizes, instead of requires, the ADEQ Director to establish by rule a state program for the control of hazardous air pollutants in addition to the existing federal program already implemented by ADEQ | Learn More >

HB2439 – Vehicle Emissions Inspections, Enactment Date

Modifies the conditional enactment for statute modifying vehicle emissions testing requirements to require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to approve the proposed modifications by July 1, 2027, instead of July 1, 2023. The emergency clause in the bill ensured the bill was effective the day it was signed | Learn More >

HB2669 – Prohibition; Biosolids; Land Application

Requires the ADEQ Director to require any land application of a substance that contains domestic, commercial, or industrial sewage or septage to comply with Biosolids Program rules. A biosolid combined with solid waste is required to be regulated as solid waste | Learn More >

HB2143 – Gray Water; Residential Standards; Rules

Authorizes the ADEQ Director to establish by rule minimum requirements for residential gray water treatment systems that are used indoors for toilet flushing that are necessary to address public health or safety concerns. Until rules are adopted, residential gray water may be used indoors for toilet flushing with a gray water treatment system that uses less than 400 gallons of gray water per day and complies with a list of specified requirements | Learn More >

SB1188 – Regulation; Permissible Consumer Fireworks

Changes one of the ranges of dates that the use of permissible consumer fireworks is allowed in Arizona to December 26 through January 4, instead of December 24 through January 3 | Learn More >

Budget Highlights

• One-time $9.5M Water Quality Fee Fund Deposit
• Ongoing $15M for WQARF
• One-time $5M for PFAS Mitigation (non-lapsing)
• One-time $1.5M for Advanced Water Purification (previously called Direct Potable Reuse) program development 
• One-time $3M increase for the Recycling Fund

Agenda 

• Budget & Legislative Agenda | View/Download >

Summary

This summary highlights 2022 bills and budget items that most impact ADEQ, our customers and the larger stakeholder community. This session was extremely productive, and changes enacted will help accelerate the protection of public health and the environment while we strive to provide continued technical and operational excellence and radical simplicity for customers and staff.

Important ADEQ and Stakeholder Bills

HB 2053: Department of Environmental Quality; Continuation

Extends ADEQ’s sunset date by eight years per the Committee of Reference Recommendation | Learn More > 

HB 2126: Hazardous Waste (HW) Program Fees

Repeals provisions that prohibit increased fees in rule for various HW facilities and activities | Learn More >
NOTE: Rules will be promulgated in FY23; associated increased fees will become effective in FY23.

HB 2406: Water Quality Fee Fund (WQFF)

Clarifies the allowable uses of the WQFF, repeals provisions that prohibit the agency from increasing fees in rule for the Aquifer Protection Permit (APP) and Arizona Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (AZPDES) programs | Learn More >

• Increased fees are necessary to provide resources to remedy audit findings related to groundwater protection and surface water quality.
• Rules will be promulgated in FY23; associated fee increases will become effective in FY24.

HB 2411: Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) Program

Authorizes ADEQ to obtain primacy from EPA to administer the CCR program, including enforcement and fee authority | Learn More >

HB 2410: Environmental Programs; amendments (Omnibus) 

10 statutory amendments that are deregulatory, technical corrections, or provide clarity are contained in this bill | Learn More >

• Highlights Include:
  • Repeals duplicative regulation of drywells under the federal Underground Injection Control and the state Drywell Program.
  • Repeals duplicative Dust Free Developments Program.
  • Repeals outdated Drug Lab Cleanup authority.
  • Makes discretionary development of off-road vehicle standards, because federal standards are already mandatory.

SB 1067: WIFA; cities 
Streamlines access to federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act monies for cities, towns, counties, and domestic water or wastewater improvement districts regardless of population, and for sanitary districts containing a population of fewer than 50,000 by allowing them to enter into financial assistance loan repayment agreements without submitting the question to voters | Learn More >

Budget Highlights

• $1.5M for Direct Potable Reuse (DPR) program development
• $6.4M to remedy groundwater and surface water quality audit findings and new program development
• Ongoing $15M for WQARF
• $395,500 appropriation increase to offset the cost to fire departments to replace PFAS containing firefighting foam
• $743,000 Solid Waste appropriation increase  to implement program improvements including CCR program development

Agenda

• Legislative Agenda | View/Download >

Summary

This summary highlights 2021 bills and budget items that most impact ADEQ, our customers and the larger stakeholder community.  It was an extremely productive legislative session and changes enacted will help accelerate the protection of public health and the environment while we strive to provide technical and operational excellence and radical simplicity for customers and staff.

HB 2691- ADEQ; Water Quality Programs; WOTUS

This legislation authorizes ADEQ to create a permitting program to protect Arizona waters newly deregulated by the federal Waters of the US (WOTUS) definition change effective on June 22, 2020. Without this authority, ADEQ would be unable to proactively protect waters used for drinking, boating, fishing and other recreational activities throughout the state.

H2671 - Underground Storage Tanks; Standards; Reimbursements

This bill repeals the termination of date for the UST excise tax, thus aligning the tax sunset with the ADEQ sunset review process.  This change will allow ADEQ to more effectively and efficiently administer the entire program, including expedited cleanup of leaking underground storage tanks and replacement of old potentially leaking tanks throughout the state.  The bill also clarifies or expands a number of authorities to better serve the needs of tank owners and operators and innocent land owners that are attempting to address contamination released from underground storage tanks.

HB2677 - Agricultural Management Practices; General Permit

Required to conform statute to federal Clean Air Act programmatic requirements necessary for EPA to approve a State Implementation Plan for the Pinal County PM10 non-attainment area. Without enactment of this bill, ADEQ and its partners would have been unable to comply with the Clean Air Act and may have been subject to unilateral action by EPA.

S1370 (Mirror bill to HB2330- Environmental Quality; Program Terminations; Repeal)

This bill repeals individual sunset dates for multiple individual programs within ADEQ, thus eliminating the waste associated with separate sunset review processes for multiple programs without reducing legislative authority and opportunity to review agency operations.

HB2580 - Environmental Quality Omnibus

This bill is the latest in a series of bills enacted to improve the ADEQ regulatory structure by clarifying and align statute. This bill:

• Amends A.R.S. §49-425 — Air Quality Public Notices to align with Federal and State regulations related to public hearing notice timeframes.
• Amends A.R.S. §49-724 — Solid Waste Management Planning and Assistance Distribution of Appropriated Funds to be discretionary instead of mandatory because funds have never been appropriated for the intended purpose, so a rule governing disbursement has never been necessary.
• Repeals the duplicative requirement of A.R.S. §49-289.01(C) to adopt a process related to Water Quality Assurance Revolving Fund (WQARF) boundaries because existing statute and processes already provide sufficient clarity.
• Repeals A.R.S §49-902 — §49-905 because there are no state-owned hazardous waste facilities, as had been proposed in 1980 when the statute was enacted, and there is no intention of creating one.  This amendment also conforms this portion of statute with A.R.S §49-104(A)(16) which mandates that state statute cannot be more stringent than federal law.
• Repeals A.R.S §49-426.08 — Hazardous Air Pollutants Study and report since the one-time requirement was satisfied in 1995 and is no longer applicable.
• Repeals A.R.S §49-542.06 and §49-542.07 — Diesel Roadside Testing Pilot Program and corresponding civil penalties, which was determined in 2002 to be unfeasible.
• Repeals A.R.S §49-405(B)(2) — Re-designation of an area since the federal Clean Air Act mandates the process, the state statute intent is redundant and could result in inconsistent or confusing regulation.
• Amends A.R.S §49-964(C) to remove the requirement to include a summary of Pollution Prevention Report Reviews in an annual report because the requirement to produce that annual report was repealed in 2003.
• Repeals A.R.S §49-834 — Recycled Newsprint Annual Certification Submittal and Review since this provision no longer reflects current economic and supply chain conditions and results in very little or no environmental benefit and unproductive use of staff resources.
• Amends A.R.S §49-545(G) to remove the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) VEIP Contract review requirement since the requirement for JLBC to review the initial contract was repealed in 2011 and JLBC has not rendered an unfavorable review of any contract amendment for over a decade.
• Amends A.R.S §49-459 — Clean Power Plan Rule requirement that ADEQ develop a response to the Clean power Plan issued by the EPA, including coordination with and reporting to a legislative committee since the CPP was never adopted by the EPA and the Legislative Committee was repealed in 2018.
• Amends A.R.S §49-289.03(F)(2) — Water Quality Assurance Revolving Fund (WQARF) Community Advisory Board (CAB) Meetings - allow ADEQ to convene CAB meetings in response to a public request or site condition changes instead of on a mandated quarterly basis.

HB2329 - Air Quality; Omnibus

This bill improves a number of elements of statute related to how ADEQ administers the vehicle emissions portion of the federal Clean Air Act including:

• Extending the VEIP Testing Requirements and Motor Vehicle Dealer Emissions Testing conditional enactment deadline to July 1, 2023.
• Updating authority to allow ADEQ to study all air pollutants originating from all motor vehicles.
• Clarifying ADEQ’s authority to act as the program administrator for the VVRP and enhancing the program to increase customer participation.

HB2042 - Aquifer Protection Permits; Injection Wells

This bill amends A.R.S. §49-250, §46-257.01, and §49-324 to remove duplication of requirements once ADEQ obtains Underground Injection Controls (UIC) primacy from EPA in early 2022. It also aligns statute to more closely align with EPA primacy requirements, thus facilitating faster EPA approval of ADEQ's primacy request.

HB2043 - Underground Storage Tanks; Performance Standards 

Signed into law (Laws 2021, Chapter 37) by the Governor on February 26, 2021.

• Since Arizona does not have UST state program approval from EPA, UST owners and operators are subject to both federal and state regulatory structures. Aligning of state statute with federal regulations will bring into alignment the two regulatory frameworks intended to accomplish the same environmental outcome, thus reducing confusion and reducing risk of adverse environmental outcomes. 
• In addition, this change will align this portion of UST statute with the requirement in A.R.S §49-104(A)(16) mandating that state statute cannot be more stringent than federal law.

Additional Bills

• HB2758 – Emissions Inspection; Collectible Vehicles; Dealers (Laws 2021, Chapter 116) | View/Download >
• SB1156 – Solid Waste; Advanced Recycling Facilities (Laws 2021, Chapter 277) | View/Download >
• SB1258 – State of Emergency; Tolling; Permits (Laws 2021, Chapter 212) | View/Download >
• SB1307 – Water; Wastewater System; Corrective Action (Laws 2021, Chapter 214) | View/Download >
• SB1366 – Remediated Groundwater Use; Extension (Laws 2021, Chapter 272) | View/Download >

Key Budget Successes

• $15 million from General Fund for the Water Quality Assurance Revolving Fund (WQARF).
• One-time appropriation - transfers from surplus funds into Water Quality Fee Fund (WQFF) to support $1.16 million for Surface Water Protection Program and other critical program needs.
• One-time transfer of $604,000 to Hazardous Waste Management Fund from Solid Waste Fee Fund.
• $1M to Small Water Systems Fund to facilitate safe and reliable drinking water for small communities.
• While a Water Infrastructure Financing Authority (WIFA) fund, funding priorities are determined by ADEQ, in consultation with WIFA and the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) as appropriate.
• $1.5M one time transfer from recycling to WQFF to address immediate budget shortfall.