ANNUAL PERMITTING REPORT FY23.PDF

W
MAR)COPA
COUNTY

AIR QUALITY
July 31, 2023

Clint Hickman, Chairman

Maricopa County Board of Supervisors
301 West Jefferson Street, 10 Floor
Phoenix, Arizona 85003

RE: Annual Permitting Report for FY2023
Dear Chairman Hickman:

As required by Arizona Revised Statutes §49-471.14 (Reporting; compliance with time
frames), the Maricopa County Air Quality Department (MCAQD) is pleased to submit this
FY2023 report of compliance with overall time frames for making decisions to grant or deny
air quality permits.

MCAQD issues four types of air quality permits that are subject to legislative time frames:

e Title V (TV): for major sources of air pollutants (e.g., power plants, large industrial
facilities);

e Non-Title V (NTV): for light industrial sources, heating units, and internal combustion
engines that are not major sources of air pollutants;

e Authority to Operate under a General Permit (ATO): for smaller sources (e.g., dry
cleaners, gas stations, vehicle refinishers, woodworking shops, etc.); and,

e Dust Control: for dust generating operations that disturb one tenth of an acre of land
or more.

The “overall time frame” for a given type of permit below represents the maximum number
of days that are allowed by law to elapse between receipt of an application and MCAQD’s
decision to grant or deny a permit. No permits were denied during FY2023.

Air Quality Department P: 602-506-6010
Office of the Director E: AQmail@maricopa.gov

301 W. Jefferson St., Suite 410
Phoenix, Arizona 85003

Overall Total Within | Outside | On-time
Type | Sub-grouping | Time -,, _ | Time Time Compliance
Decisions et win 1 ee
Frame Frame | Frame Percentage
Without 18
minor 10 10 0 100.0%
wes as months
TV modifications
Mi 90
ne 3 3 0 100.0%
modifications days
Without 9
minor 238 149 89 62.6% |
eo months
NTV modifications
Mi 60
er 133 121 12 91.0%
modifications days
180
ATO All 340 338 2 99.4%
days
14
Dust All 4,449 4,449 0 100.0%
days
All Permits 5,173 5,070 103 98.0%

It is the County's vision to efficiently deliver quality services to Maricopa County permit
holders and applicants. A core metric for that objective in MCAQD is the on-time percentage
of permits completed. Overall, 98.0% of the 5,173 permits issued in FY2023 met the
prescribed time frames. Though this represents a slight decrease from the preceding five
years of 99.7%, 99.1%, 99.5%, 99.2%, and 98.6%, our permitting staff has admirably handled
unprecedented volumes in air quality permit applications resulting from Maricopa County's
vibrant post-pandemic economic recovery despite a shortage of qualified permit
engineering staff.

The number of permits issued outside the prescribed time frames increased from 78 to 103
largely due to these same challenging economic forces, but our goal has been and will
continue to be to deliver every permit within the prescribed time frames. To that end,
MCAQD has recently taken several steps to ensure that our customers receive the timely

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care they deserve, such as:

e Partnering with the County's Office of Procurement Services to resolicit a contract
for air quality permit review services, and assigning 70 permit actions from MCAQD's
NTV backlog to qualified contractors,

e Hiring three new permit engineers to replace those recently lost to retirement,

e Notifying customers awaiting renewals of NTV permits that, per MCAQD Rule 220
§301.7, their current permits will remain valid until they receive their renewed permit
from us, regardless of its printed expiration date, and

e Aggressively prioritizing NTV new permits and modifications so that businesses that
need a permit to start up or expand their operations are not delayed.

Moreover, all air quality applications, notifications, payments, and other transmittals are
now received exclusively online through our IMPACT online portals.

Our overarching goal is simply to continue to improve and deliver the quality, timely
permitting services our customers deserve. That has been our proud history and we look to
forward to further success in FY2024. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to
contact me at (602) 506-6701.

Sincerely,

Philip A. McNeely, R.G.
Director

cc: Jack Sellers, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, District 1
Thomas Galvin, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, District 2
Bill Gates, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, District 3
Steve Gallardo, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, District 5

PAM /cjd

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