Ariz. Admin. Code § R18-11-213 - Procedures for Determining Economic, Social, and Environmental Cost and Benefits

A. The Director shall perform an economic, social, and environmental cost and benefits analysis that shows the benefits outweigh the costs before conducting any of the following rulemaking actions:

1. Adopting a water quality standard that applies to non-WOTUS protected surface waters at a particular level or for a particular water category of non-WOTUS protected surface waters;

2. Adding a non-WOTUS protected surface water to the Protected Surface Waters List when the conditions of A.R.S. § 49-221(G)(4) apply; or

3. Removing a non-WOTUS protected surface water from the Protected Surface Waters List when the conditions of A.R.S. § 49-221(G)(6) apply.

B. The economic, social, and environmental cost and benefit analysis must include:

1. A justification of the valuation methodology used to quantify the costs or benefits of the rulemaking action;

2. A reference to any study relevant to the economic, social, and environmental cost and benefit analysis that the agency reviewed and proposes either to rely on or not to rely on in its evaluation of the costs and benefits of the rulemaking action;

3. A description of any data on which an economic, social, and environmental cost and benefits analysis is based and an explanation of how the data was obtained and why the data is acceptable data.

4. A description of the probable impact of the rulemaking on any existing AZPDES permits that are impacted by the rulemaking action;

5. A description of the probable amount of additional AZPDES permits that will be required for known and ongoing point-source discharges after the rulemaking is completed that otherwise would not have been required if the Director did not undertake the rulemaking action; and

6. The administrative and other costs to ADEQ associated with the proposed rulemaking.

C. The Director shall publish a copy of the economic, social, and environmental cost and benefits analysis to the agency website prior to filing any rulemaking materials during any of the rulemaking actions listed in subsection (A) of this rule.

D. If for any reason enough data is not reasonably available to comply with the requirements of subsection (B) of this section, the agency shall explain the limitations of the data and the methods that were employed in the attempt to obtain the data and shall characterize the probable impacts in qualitative terms.

E. The Director is not required to prepare the economic, social, and environmental cost and benefits analysis required by this rule when:

1. Adding or removing a WOTUS-protected surface water from the Protected Surface Waters List; or

2. Adding a water to the Protected Surface Waters List on an emergency basis pursuant to A.R.S. § 49-221(G)(7).

Notes

Ariz. Admin. Code § R18-11-213

Adopted effective January 29, 1980 (Supp. 80-1). Amended effective April 17, 1984 (Supp. 84-2). Former Section R9-21-213 renumbered as Section R9-21-212, former Section R9-21-103 renumbered as Section R9-21-213 and amended effective January 7, 1985 (Supp. 85-1). Former Section R9-21-213 renumbered without change as Section R9-21-214, new Section R9-21-213 adopted effective August 12, 1986 (Supp. 86-4). Former Section R9-21-213 renumbered without change as Section R18-11-213 (Supp. 87-3). Amended effective December 1, 1988 (Supp. 88-4). Section repealed effective February 18, 1992 (Supp. 92-1). New Section made by final rulemaking at 29 A.A.R. 302, effective 2/20/2023.