Maricopa County Environmental Services Department
SB1598 Stormwater Stakeholder Correspondence Venue

The SB 1598 concerns contained on this webpage originated from either the email address SB1598@mail.maricopa.gov or a stakeholder meeting. If you voiced or submitted a concern to Environmental Services that specifically addressed the Department’s application of SB1598, either through email or a stakeholder meeting.

• Inspection - Authorized Representative (Email)

• Inspector will afford permitted to have an authorized representative on site. Can the permitted refuse inspection until this/a party arrives?

  • The bill states “afford an opportunity to have an authorized on-site representative of the regulated person accompany the county inspector on the premises”. The Stormwater regulation states the following.

    606 – Compliance Monitoring
    • 606.1 - Right of Entry for Inspection and Sampling
      The Department is permitted to enter and inspect Facilities subject to this Regulation as often as may be necessary to determine compliance with this Regulation and Approvals issued hereunder.
      1. If an Owner or Operator holding an Approval has security measures in force which require proper identification and clearance before entry into its Premises, the Owner or Operator shall make the necessary arrangements to allow the Department access to the Premises.
      2. Owners or Operators holding an Approval or their designated representatives shall allow the Department ready access to all parts of the Premises for the purposes of inspection, sampling, examination and copying of records that must be kept under the conditions of an NPDES and/or AZPDES Permit to discharge Stormwater, and to determine performance of any additional duties required by the approved plans or by applicable state and federal Stormwater law.
      3. Any temporary or permanent obstruction to safe and easy access to the site or Facility to be inspected and/or sampled shall be promptly removed by the Operator at the written or oral request of the Department and shall not be replaced. The costs of clearing such access shall be borne by the Operator.
      4. Unreasonable delay in allowing the Department access to an approved Facility is a violation of this Regulation. A Person who is the Operator of a Facility with an NPDES or AZPDES Permit to discharge Stormwater associated with industrial activity violates the Permit terms if the Person denies the Department reasonable access to the permitted Facility for conducting any activity authorized or required by this Regulation.
    
    

    The Stormwater inspector will allow for a reasonable amount of time for the on-site representative to accompany them on the inspection.

• Inspection – Deficiencies

• As a member of the regulated community, when we are notified of deficiencies how do we notify you that the deficiencies are corrected?

  • You can notify the Department the deficiencies are corrected through a formal letter, a phone call or an email. However, written notification is preferred.

• Bill of Rights Effective Date

• The only portion of SB 1598 that will be in effect on July 20, 2011, will be the Bill of Rights regarding the existing program, not the new regulations under consideration?

  • Correct, the Bill of Rights will be the only portion of SB 1598 in effect on July 20, 2011 and it will only apply to the current Stormwater regulations.

• Inspection Rights

• As it relates to the July 20, 2011 date, what is going to change in relation to just inspections?

  • A written Notice of Inspect Rights will be incorporated into the inspection process.

• Licensing Time Frames

• Which new regulations will have licensing time frames? When you develop new regulations a time frame will have to be included because SB 1598 refers to existing regulations, which you have until 12/31/12 to address.

  • At the present time, we are not proposing any new Stormwater regulations; therefore, we are only talking about the existing ones.

• When the applicant can sign an agreement to allow county to review the application more than once does that mean an extension of the LTF was provided?

  • Your LTF concern will be discussed further at future stakeholder meetings and the topic will be further defined.

• What is the ADEQ LTF that you are thinking of incorporating?

  • The licensing time frame topic will be discussed further at future stakeholder meetings.

• How do you see SB1598 affecting the Stormwater regulations we have been working on?

  • The current process is only for SB1598, not for proposed Stormwater regulations. We will address the Stormwater regulations separately. At the present time, we are not proposing any changes to the Stormwater Regulation.

• LTF SB1598 requirements may affect new Stormwater regulations, just not on the July 20, 2011 date, correct?

  • Yes, we would open the new Stormwater regulations to stakeholder comments prior to a proposed effective date if plan review text is included.