Local brief
ADEQ takes comments through Nov. 13 on Patagonia Lake State Park wastewater permit change
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality opened a 30-day comment period, Oct. 14 to Nov. 13, 2026, on its preliminary decision to issue a significant amendment to the Aquifer Protection Permit for the Patagonia Lake State Park Wastewater Treatment Plant in Santa Cruz County.
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) is taking public comments from Oct. 14 through Nov. 13, 2026, on a preliminary decision to issue a significant amendment to an Individual Aquifer Protection Permit (APP No. 100624).
Who and where. The permittee is the Arizona State Parks Board, for the Patagonia Lake State Park Wastewater Treatment Plant in Santa Cruz County. ADEQ says the plant is authorized for a maximum average monthly flow of 24,900 gallons per day and uses a membrane biological reactor package plant to treat wastewater mainly from park restrooms, showers and RV dump stations.
What would change. According to ADEQ, the amendment would repurpose the plant’s two existing bentonite clay-lined lagoons as lined effluent holding and evaporation basins after clean-closure verification. Treated effluent would be managed mainly by discharge to those lined basins for on-site containment and evaporation. In an emergency, the facility could discharge treated effluent to a nearby dry wash that feeds Patagonia Lake, under its separate AZPDES Permit No. AZ0026620. The amendment would also replace fecal coliform with E. coli as a discharge monitoring parameter and align E. coli monitoring frequency with the AZPDES permit.
How to comment. Comments may be emailed to ADEQ at nafsin.nabila@azdeq.gov or mailed to the ADEQ Water Quality Division, Groundwater Protection, Attn: Nabila Nafsin, in Phoenix; mailed comments must be postmarked or received by Nov. 13, 2026. The public notice, draft permit and draft executive summary are on the ADEQ notice page (https://azdeq.gov/node/11433).
Original source: ADEQ public notice, Aquifer Protection Permit Amendment, Patagonia Lake State Park Wastewater Treatment Plant, posted Oct. 13, 2026, and ADEQ email of Oct. 14, 2026. Notice Nearby wrote this brief in its own words.
What to read next: the Santa Cruz County hub (https://noticenearby.com/az/santa-cruz), the Arizona hub (https://noticenearby.com/az) and all public papers (https://noticenearby.com/papers). Local businesses, parks and places nearby are on ZOST.app (https://zost.app).
Notice Nearby is a Public Register listing, not a newspaper, and this page is not Legal Publication. If ADEQ and this note disagree, ADEQ wins.
Source: the public notice on this register NN-GOVEMAIL-20261014-AZSCRUZAPP · Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
This is a Notice Nearby local brief — an in-house explainer written from a government-posted notice on this register. It is not official minutes, not a newspaper story, and not Legal Publication.