Arizona Laws 49-251. Temporary emergency waiver
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 will not endanger human health or welfare, and if the director finds any of the following:
Terms Used In Arizona Laws 49-251
- Aquifer: means a geologic unit that contains sufficient saturated permeable material to yield usable quantities of water to a well or spring. See Arizona Laws 49-201
- Director: means the director of environmental quality or the director's designee. See Arizona Laws 49-201
- Discharge: means the direct or indirect addition of any pollutant to the waters of the state from a facility. See Arizona Laws 49-201
- Environment: means WOTUS, any other surface waters, groundwater, drinking water supply, land surface or subsurface strata or ambient air, within or bordering on this state. See Arizona Laws 49-201
- Facility: means any land, building, installation, structure, equipment, device, conveyance, area, source, activity or practice from which there is, or with reasonable probability may be, a discharge. See Arizona Laws 49-201
- Permit: means a written authorization issued by the director or prescribed by this chapter or in a rule adopted under this chapter stating the conditions and restrictions governing a discharge or governing the construction, operation or modification of a facility. See Arizona Laws 49-201
- Person: means an individual, employee, officer, managing body, trust, firm, joint stock company, consortium, public or private corporation, including a government corporation, partnership, association or state, a political subdivision of this state, a commission, the United States government or any federal facility, interstate body or other entity. See Arizona Laws 49-201
- Standards: means water quality standards, pretreatment standards and toxicity standards established pursuant to this chapter. See Arizona Laws 49-201
- Waters of the state: means all waters within the jurisdiction of this state including all perennial or intermittent streams, lakes, ponds, impounding reservoirs, marshes, watercourses, waterways, wells, aquifers, springs, irrigation systems, drainage systems and other bodies or accumulations of surface, underground, natural, artificial, public or private water situated wholly or partly in or bordering on the state. See Arizona Laws 49-201
1. That an emergency of such severity exists that water supplies for domestic uses will be inadequate to meet demand unless the facility is able to temporarily exceed one or more water quality standards or discharge limitations by its discharge into waters of the state.
2. That there has been a breakdown of equipment or upset of operations resulting in a discharge to waters of the state in excess of one or more water quality standards or discharge limitations, and both of the following apply:
(a) The breakdown or upset was beyond the control of the facility owner or operator and the facility was being operated in compliance with this chapter before the discharge.
(b) The breakdown or upset will be corrected in a reasonable period of time.
3. That the activity that is the subject of the waiver is necessary to protect human health or welfare or minimize potential adverse impacts to the environment.
B. A temporary emergency waiver of compliance issued by the director may be subject to such reasonable terms and conditions as the director deems necessary. The director may grant a waiver after the occurrence of the activity that is subject to the waiver if the applicant demonstrates that exigent circumstances made it impractical to secure the waiver in advance.
C. As a condition to the issuance of a temporary emergency waiver of compliance, the director may require the facility owner or operator to provide notice of the waiver to all downstream or downgradient users directly affected by both:
1. Publication on not less than three consecutive days, or on three consecutive weeks in the case of weekly publications, in a newspaper or newspapers of general circulation in the area in which the emergency or breakdown has occurred or is occurring.
2. Furnishing a copy of the publication to the radio and television stations serving the area in which the emergency or breakdown has occurred or is occurring.
D. The facility owner or operator shall furnish a copy of the publication to the director.
E. A temporary emergency waiver of compliance issued pursuant to this section shall remain in effect as long as necessary to accommodate the emergency but in no event longer than ninety days.
F. A person operating under a temporary emergency waiver is not subject to section 49-262 or 49-263 for discharges allowed under the temporary emergency waiver but is subject to article 5 of this chapter.