The City of Winslow in Navajo County has become the first municipality in northern Arizona to participate in ADEQ's statewide program to help communities comply with state and federal environmental regulations.
"We are very pleased that Winslow is the leader in northern Arizona in this effort," ADEQ Director Owens said. "We are committed to providing small communities with the assistance they need in light of their limited resources to comply with the various environmental laws. Our experience is that small communities want to do the right thing and just need a little help to do that. We hope that other small towns throughout Arizona will follow Winslow's lead and take part in this program."
As part of the program, Winslow agrees to disclose known environmental violations within the city, request compliance assistance before enforcement actions begin, participate in compliance evaluation to identify violations and to promptly correct known violations. In so doing, the city will be eligible for up to a 100% penalty reduction if it has future environmental violations.
"This is really a win-win for everyone," Owens said. "The environment and public health is protected by getting environmental problems identified and addressed, and the community benefits by getting the compliance assistance it needs and avoiding potentially costly penalties. The result will be increased compliance, enhanced relationships with the community and a cleaner environment for all Arizonans."
ADEQ unveiled its Small Communities Environmental Compliance Assistance project in 2007 for small towns and special water and wastewater districts to sustain compliance with state and federal environmental laws and reduce the number of violations and enforcement actions.
The project was funded by a $12,000 grant from the Environmental Council of States (ECOS) for the communities to develop Small Community Environmental Protection Plans (SCEPP) to improve compliance. Guidance materials, including a comprehensive manual, have been prepared to train small communities on environmental requirements and help with SCEPP development.