Title 49, The Environment

In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires: 1. "Administrator" means the administrator of the United States environmental protection agency. 2. "Aquifer" means a geologic unit that contains sufficient saturated permeable material to yield usable quantities of water to…

A. The department is designated as the agency for this state for all purposes of the clean water act, including section 505, the resource conservation and recovery act, including section 7002, and the safe drinking water act. The department may take all actions necessary to admin…

A. As part of the duties established pursuant to section 49-203, subsection A, paragraph 4, the director shall implement a surface water quality general grazing permit consisting of voluntary best management practices for grazing activities. B. The terms and conditions of the sur…

A. The director shall: 1. Adopt, by rule, water quality standards in the form and subject to the considerations prescribed by article 2 of this chapter. 2. Adopt, by rule, a permit program for WOTUS that is consistent with but not more stringent than the requirements of the clean…

A. A city, town or county may not limit the use of gray water by rule or ordinance unless, in an initial active management area that has a groundwater management goal of safe yield and that does not contain a part of the central Arizona project aqueduct, effluent has been include…

A. Any records, reports or information obtained from any person under this chapter, including records, reports or information obtained or prepared by the director or a department employee, shall be available to the public, except that: 1. Income tax returns are confidential. 2. D…

This chapter shall not be construed to abridge or alter causes of action or remedies under the common law or statutory law, criminal or civil, nor shall any provision of this chapter, or any act done by virtue of this chapter, be construed so as to estop any person, this state or…

A. No person may intimidate, threaten, restrain, coerce, blacklist, terminate or in any manner discriminate against any person because that person has filed a complaint or instituted, or caused to be instituted, a proceeding under this chapter or has testified or is about to test…

A. The director, by rule, shall prescribe procedures to assure adequate public participation in proceedings of the department under this chapter. The public participation procedures shall meet the requirements of the clean water act and safe drinking water act for permits issued …

A. Each person that is required to obtain a permit for discharges into a community sewer system under federal categorical industrial pretreatment regulations and standards shall register each year with the director and pay an annual registration fee of two hundred fifty dollars. …

A. The water quality fee fund is established consisting of monies appropriated by the legislature and fees received pursuant to sections 49-104, 49-203, 49-211, 49-241, 49-241.02, 49-242, 49-245, 49-255.01, 49-352, 49-353 and 49-361. The director shall administer the fund. B. Mon…

A. On or before December 31, 2024, the director shall establish by rule permit fees sufficient to administer a direct potable reuse of treated wastewater program. Monies collected pursuant to this section shall be deposited, pursuant to sections 35-146 and 35-147, in the water qu…

In this article, unless the context otherwise requires: 1. "CERCLA brownfields cleanup revolving loan fund program" means the program established by the United States environmental protection agency to provide financial assistance in the form of loans or grants to eligible person…

A. The director may implement the Brownfields cleanup revolving loan fund program pursuant to the requirements of the CERCLA Brownfields cleanup revolving loan fund program. B. The director may: 1. Enter into financial assistance agreements, as deemed appropriate, with eligible p…

A. The Brownfields cleanup revolving loan fund is established to be administered by the director. The fund consists of monies from the following sources: 1. Monies appropriated by the legislature. 2. Monies received from the federal government. 3. Monies received from loan recipi…

A. The director shall: 1. Adopt, by rule, water quality standards for all WOTUS and for all waters in all aquifers to preserve and protect the quality of those waters for all present and reasonably foreseeable future uses. For non-WOTUS protected surface waters, the director shal…

A. Standards for the quality of WOTUS shall assure water quality, if attainable, which provides for protecting the public health and welfare, and shall enhance the quality of water taking into consideration its use and value for public water supplies, the propagation of fish and …

A. Primary drinking water maximum contaminant levels established by the administrator before August 13, 1986 are adopted as drinking water aquifer water quality standards. The director may only adopt additional aquifer water quality standards by rule. Within one year after the ad…

A. Not later than June 30, 1987 the director shall, by rule, identify and define the boundaries of all aquifers in this state utilizing, to the maximum extent possible, data available from the department of water resources. B. All aquifers in this state identified and defined und…

A. The director of environmental quality, with the advice and cooperation of the Arizona department of agriculture and the director of water resources when appropriate, shall conduct ongoing monitoring of the waters of the state including the state's WOTUS and aquifers to detect …

In this article, unless the context otherwise requires: 1. "Impaired water" means a protected surface water for which credible scientific data exists that satisfies the requirements of section 49-232, and that, in the case of WOTUS, demonstrates that the water should be identifie…

A. At least once every five years, the department shall prepare a list of impaired WOTUS to comply with section 303(d) of the clean water act (33 United States Code section 1313(d)). The department shall provide public notice and allow for comment on a draft list of impaired WOTU…

A. Each list developed by the department pursuant to section 49-232 shall contain a priority ranking of WOTUS identified as impaired and for which total maximum daily loads are required pursuant to section 49-234 and a schedule for the development of all required total maximum da…

A. The department shall develop total maximum daily loads for those WOTUS listed as impaired pursuant to this article and for which total maximum daily loads are required to be adopted pursuant to 33 United States Code section 1313(d) and the regulations implementing that statute…

The department shall adopt any rules necessary to implement this article.

By September 1, 2005, the department shall submit a report to the governor, the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the senate detailing progress made under this program and shall provide a copy to the secretary of state and the department of library, arc…

If a person appeals to court and succeeds in overturning or modifying a final administrative decision of the director pursuant to this article in an appeal initiated pursuant to title 41, chapter 6, article 10, within thirty days of the court’s decision the department shall take …

A. Unless otherwise provided by this article, any person who discharges or who owns or operates a facility that discharges shall obtain an aquifer protection permit from the director. B. Unless exempted under section 49-250, or unless the director determines that the facility wil…

A. The director shall complete the issuance or denial of aquifer protection permits or clean closure approval for all groundwater protection permit facilities on the following schedule: 1. By January 1, 2004, for all groundwater protection permits for nonmining facilities. 2. By …

A. The department shall adopt by rule fees to pay the expenses incurred in implementing the aquifer protection permit program. Monies collected pursuant to this section shall be deposited, pursuant to sections 35-146 and 35-147, in the water quality fee fund established by sectio…

A. The director shall prescribe by rule requirements for issuing, denying, suspending or modifying individual permits, including requirements for submitting notices, permit applications and any additional information necessary to determine whether an individual permit should be i…

A. The director shall consider, and the applicant for an individual permit may be required to furnish with the application, the following information: 1. The design of the discharge facility. When formal as-built submittals are unavailable, the applicant shall provide sufficient …

A. The director may establish, by rule, presumptive best available demonstrated control technology, processes, operating methods or other alternatives, consistent with section 49-243, subsection B, paragraph 1, for a class of facilities, if the director determines that the facili…

The director shall designate a point or points of compliance for each facility receiving a permit under this article. For the purposes of this chapter, the point of compliance is the point at which compliance must be determined for either the aquifer water quality standards or, i…

A. Except as provided in subsection I of this section, the director may issue a general permit for a defined class of facilities if all of the following apply: 1. The cost of issuing individual permits cannot be justified by any environmental or public health benefit that may be …

A. A general permit is issued for facilities used solely for the management of storm water and that are regulated by the clean water act or article 3.1 of this chapter, including catchments, impoundments and sumps, provided the following conditions are met: 1. The owner or operat…

A. A general permit is issued for the following discharges: 1. Disposal in vadose zone injection wells of storm water mixed with reclaimed wastewater or groundwater, or both, from man-made bodies of water associated with golf courses, parks and residential common areas, provided …

A. Pursuant to section 49-245, the director may issue a general permit for facilities requiring implementation of best management practices appropriate to the class of discharges to be regulated. The director shall: 1. Identify the aquifer water quality problem which must be addr…

A. The director shall adopt by rule, pursuant to the requirements of this section, agricultural general permits consisting of best management practices for regulated agricultural activities. Agricultural general permits are not subject to section 49-245 or 49-246. Except as provi…

The director shall make available to the public upon request and on the agency's web site every five years the levels of pollutants in aquifers in this state and the effects of regulation under this chapter in general and best management practices in particular on controlling or …

A. The director, by rule, may exempt specifically described classes or categories of facilities from the aquifer protection permit requirements of this article on a finding either that there is no reasonable probability of degradation of the aquifer or that aquifer water quality …

A. A facility owner or operator may apply for, and the director may issue, a temporary emergency waiver of compliance with the requirement to obtain a permit or with any applicable permit requirement, surface or aquifer water quality standard or discharge limitation if the waiver…

A. A person who owns or operates a dry well subject to this article or a groundwater protection permit facility as defined in section 49-241.01, subsection C or a person who has been issued a permit pursuant to this article shall notify the director of the intent to permanently c…

In this article, unless the context otherwise requires: 1. "AZPDES" means the Arizona pollutant discharge elimination system program as adopted under section 402(b) of the clean water act for WOTUS and under section 49-255.04 for non-WOTUS protected surface water. 2. "Discharge":…

A. A person shall not discharge except under either of the following conditions: 1. In conformance with a permit that is issued or authorized under this article or rules authorized under section 49-203, subsection A, paragraph 2. 2. Pursuant to a permit that is issued or authoriz…

A. The director shall adopt rules to establish a pretreatment program that is consistent with the requirements of sections 307, 308 and 402 of the clean water act. The director shall not adopt any requirement that is more stringent than or conflicts with any requirements of the c…

A. The director shall adopt rules to establish a sewage sludge program that is consistent with the requirements of sections 402 and 405 of the clean water act. Except as otherwise required by this article, the director shall not adopt any requirement that is more stringent than a…

A. Permits and conditions of permits for discharges to non-WOTUS protected surface waters shall not implement any sections of the clean water act, including sections 301, 302, 306, 307, 308, 312, 318 and 405, and shall not be subject to review, approval or enforcement by the Unit…

A. The director shall adopt by rule best management practices and notification requirements to ensure that the activities prescribed in this section do not violate applicable surface water quality standards. The director may include only those best management practices that exten…

A. The department shall establish an underground injection control permit program, including a permitting process. B. An underground injection is prohibited unless the underground injection is into a well authorized by rule or unless it is authorized by a permit issued pursuant t…