Agenda & Draft Legislation Now Available
Happy Holidays, Surface Water Protection Program Stakeholders!
The agenda as well as the draft Surface Water Protection Program legislation for the upcoming stakeholder webinar are now available on the permittee resources webpage.
We hope that you will be able to join us on December 15. We will discuss the draft legislation as well as the final program elements for protecting surface waters. The new federal Navigable Waters Protection Rule does not cover these elements.
We are seeking input on how to refine the legislation to ensure the program intent is conveyed in the language. At this time, please register in advance to receive an email confirmation with information about joining the webinar.
Surface Water Protection Program Meeting Details
Date: Dec. 15, 2020
Time: 1 – 4 p.m.
Location: Online via GoToWebinar otherwise by Phone
Click here to register for the December 15 meeting >
A few notes about the draft legislation:
- ADEQ used the existing Appendix B (Arizona Administrative Code, Title 18, Chapter 11, Article 1) as a starting point for the initial list of protected state waters. We have received comments about it being difficult to compare Appendix B to the list of protected waters in Section 20. Therefore, to address this, our GIS team is working on creating a map that will be available on our permittee resources webpage.
- ADEQ stated that the initial list will include the 8 major rivers and the ephemeral portions of those rivers. Some confusion about whether ephemerals are included in the program arose. Through this proposal, the protected waters list will include the entire length of the 8 major rivers, as well as any ephemeral portion of the main river. The program would not include any ephemeral washes that are not part of the main stem of the river.
- Due to comments about the potential of discharges from dredge and fill-like activities affecting water quality, ADEQ is seeking input on whether the program should include Best Management Practices associated with that activity Due to comments about the potential of discharges from dredge and fill-like activities affecting water quality
Finally, if you have any questions or need additional information, please email me at lelsz.david@azdeq.gov.
For more ADEQ and environmental announcements, check out the SAEMS blog page.