Arizona Department of Environmental Quality building
By Nick Phillips || Arizona Capitol Time
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality wants more state money to address longstanding problems and to help keep the federal government from stepping in to regulate environmental issues in the state.
It’s seeking money for Fiscal Year 2024 to come into line with federal Clean Air Act requirements; address more than a dozen deficiencies uncovered in an audit report from last year; and work toward cleaning up more than 160 contaminated waterways – one of which is at the center of potential litigation.
The total cash the agency wants for those goals comes to about $2 million, according to a budget request filed earlier this month. That’s a small chunk of ADEQ’s $210 million budget, but the money might play a role in important issues facing the agency.
ADEQ argues that part of the budget increase would avoid other costs to the state if the feds got involved, and the requests come on top of cash that’s already budgeted for programs seeking to shift power from the federal government to the state in multiple regulatory areas.
