Water Quality Authority

Pima County Department of Environmental Quality ensures that facilities within Pima County comply with the many regulations pertaining to environmental multimedia. PDEQ gets this permitting and inspection authority from federal and state legislation and county ordinances. PDEQ also has entered into a delegation agreement with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ).

PDEQ has permitting and inspection authority for those activities which have the potential to impact water quality (see table 1). Complaints related to these sources are also investigated. ADEQ has specifically reserved jurisdiction over the regulatory items also listed in Table 2.

PDEQ

• approval of sanitary facilities for subdivisions
• compliance inspections of drinking water systems
• enforcement activities for non-complying water systems
• plan and construction approval for drinking water facilities
• plan and construction approval for septic tank systems with subsurface disposal
• plan and construction approval for wastewater facilities
• plan and construction approval of alternate individual on-site disposal systems with designs that conform to Engineering Bulletin 12
• plan approval for water supply and sewage disposal for mobile home and RV parks

ADEQ

• all areas pertaining to drinking water and wastewater facilities owned by the federal government or the state and those owned or operated by Pima County
• all areas pertaining to the City of Tucson water system
• all areas relating to facilities built with federal construction grant funds
• final approval of plans for wastewater treatment facilities designed by or for Pima County
• inspections of drinking water and wastewater facilities serving dairy producing and dairy processing operations
• plan approval for wastewater facilities where effluent reuse will occur

PDEQ provides multimedia environmental permitting enforcement, and complaint response in Pima County. For more information or assistance regarding any of the topics discussed here, please email us or call the Technical Services Division of PDEQ, at 243-7400.