Arizona Department of Environmental Quality
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality was established by the Arizona Environmental Quality Act in 1985 to serve as a separate, cabinet-level agency to administer all of Arizona’s environmental protection programs. The same legislation established a comprehensive groundwater protection program and the state’s Water Quality Assurance Revolving Fund (WQARF), to identify, assess and remediate contaminated sites with the potential to impact public health or groundwater.
Since that time, the department has grown from a size of about 135 employees to an agency of more than 700 people, who support a wide range of environmental programs that protect the quality of their air, water and land in Arizona. Established by the Arizona Legislature in 1986 in response to growing concerns about groundwater quality, ADEQ today administers a variety of programs to improve the health and welfare of their citizens and ensure the quality of Arizona’s air, land and water resources meets healthful, regulatory standards.
For more information, please visit http://www.azdeq.gov