Realizing the need for drought preparedness in Arizona, a Governor’s Drought Task Force was created in 2003 and the Arizona Drought Preparedness Plan developed. The plan was adopted in 2004 and its continued implementation ordered in 2007. It established a framework to monitor drought, improve understanding of drought impacts, and determine mechanisms for limiting future vulnerability. The Arizona Department of Water Resources coordinates these activities and prepares the Arizona Drought Preparedness Annual Report each year.

The Arizona Department of Water Resources manages the state’s water supply. Water management includes a wide variety of activities that are intended to protect and preserve the water supply. Examples of these activities include licensing well drillers, assuring the safety of dams, and developing mandatory conservation requirements for all water use sectors in Active Management Areas, protecting the state’s Colorado River allocation and facilitating Indian water rights negotiations among tribal representatives, local interests, federal and state officials and members of Congress.

The revision is a separate document to the Arizona Regional Haze State Implementation Plan submitted December 2003. The Revision meets specific commitments outlined in the December 2003 SIP (Enclosures 2 through 7) as well as a correction to the authorizing regional haze statutes. The submittal contains a SIP completeness checklist and seven enclosures.

This document includes an attainment demonstration and formal request to the United States Environmental Agency to redesignate the San Manuel, Arizona area, a nonattainment area for sulfur dioxide (SO2), to attainment for the health-based 24-hour average and annual average SO2 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). It summarizes the progress of the area in attaining the SO2 standard, demonstrates that all Clean Air Act requirements for attainment have been adopted, and includes a maintenance plan to assure continued attainment after redesignation.

In a rule published July 2, 2002, EPA found the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality’s "Plan for Attainment of the 24-Hour PM10 Standard – Maricopa County PM10 Nonattainment Area" (May 1997), inadequate to achieve attainment of the 24-hour National Ambient Air Quality Standards for particulate matter 10 microns or fewer in aerodynamic diameter (PM10) at the Salt River monitoring site. The 1997 ADEQ SIP revision included attainment and Reasonable Further Progress demonstrations for the 24-hour NAAQS at the Salt River air quality monitoring site of the Maricopa County PM10 Serious Nonattainment Area, as well as at three other monitoring sites in the Phoenix area, - the Maryvale, Gilbert, and West Chandler sites. On August 4, 1997, EPA approved ADEQ’s attainment and RFP demonstrations for the Salt River monitoring area, which showed that the 24-hour PM10 NAAQS would reach attainment in the area by May 1998. Due to continuing violations of the 24-hour PM10 NAAQS at the Salt River air quality monitoring site since May 1998, EPA subsequently required Arizona to submit a revision to correct SIP inadequacies. This document consists of Arizona’s revisions to the state implementation plan for the Maricopa County PM10 Serious Nonattainment Area as described by EPA in its Federal Register notice of disapproval.

The Clean Air Act states that an area designated as nonattainment due to a violation of the NAAQS may be redesignated to attainment if the State submits and EPA approves a plan demonstrating that permanent emission controls that resulted in attainment will remain in place. This plan demonstrates that all CAA requirements for attainment and maintenance have been met and summarizes the progress of the area in attaining the PM10 standard. This document includes a formal request to EPA to redesignate the Rillito, Arizona PM10 nonattainment area to attainment for the health-based 24-hour average PM10 NAAQS.