ACS is currently providing regulatory and technical review services to EEC for completion of the Aquifer Protection Permit (APP) for the Water Treatment Plant (WTP) for Resolution Copper Company’s Magma Mine in Superior, Arizona. A Type 3.02 General Permit was authorized by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) for the WTP. However, because the WTP will discharge to a Water of the United States (U.S.), which is a type of categorical discharging facility under Arizona Revised Statutes Title 49, an individual APP is required for the discharge point (Outfall 002) to Queen Creek. Resolution requested and was granted expedited processing for the APP amendments under the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality’s (ADEQ’s) expedited APP program. EEC was the prime contractor selected by ADEQ to review Resolution’s application and write the permit. ACS is participating in all phases of the project including project meetings with EEC, ADEQ, and Resolution personnel. ACS’ tasks for the project to date have included a regulatory, hydrogeology, and BADCT review of a preliminary application. Because the discharge to Queen Creek is linear, issues regarding a Discharge Impact Area (DIA), Pollutant Management Area (PMA), and placement of sentential wells and a Point of Compliance (POC) present unique challenges to the permitting process. Working on the Expedited APP Program requires an in-depth knowledge of the APP statutes, regulations, and permit process and inherent to the Program is the requirement that all phases of application and permit processing must be completed with strict adherence to ADEQ’s Licensing Time Frame (LTF) regulations. This project originally ran from 2006 to 2007 and was cancelled when Resolution opted out of the Expedited program. The project started up again in late 2008 when Resolution re-entered the Expedited program and is still in process.
