The watchdog and the data center

Can the county’s top environmental watchdog handle the complex balancing act required to carry out its dueling missions of protecting the environment while permitting and regulating big commercial projects such as Project Blue?

It’s a question County Administrator Jan Lesher asked earlier this month, in part because a significant number of people have left the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality (PDEQ) in the last year amid what appears to be an internal conflict laid bare by the controversy surrounding Project Blue.

PDEQ is first and foremost a regulatory agency responsible for air and water quality monitoring, wastewater treatment facilities, the hazardous waste program, illegal dumping and landfills. It carries out Pima County’s environmental justice programs and its Climate Change Plan.

But PDEQ is also in charge of providing permits to big commercial projects that could affect air quality, water quality, waste management or environmental health.

And, at least in theory, they are managing one of the county’s biggest economic partners.

Now, Lesher says the tension between those two roles is causing turmoil in the department that is showing up in its staffing levels.

The latest statistics from Lesher’s office suggest about 20% of the department’s positions (including grant-funded jobs) were vacant as of July 11 — roughly twice the average vacancy rate for other county departments.

And that short staffing has Lesher worried.

In his response to Lesher and in an interview with the Tucson Agenda last week, DiBiase said he is confident that despite some temporary staffing issues, the department has the expertise to carry out all of its regulatory functions and meet the expectations of county residents when it comes to regulating and monitoring businesses in the community.

But former county employees have told Lesher through exit interviews and emails that they believe management issues have pushed qualified people out of the department.

We have spoken to several former PDEQ staffers, all no longer with the department or the county, about the department in the last year. All described issues with management in the department, saying they either experienced (or witnessed) alienation and feared reprisals from PDEQ leadership.

Both Lesher and DiBiase told the Tucson Agenda that the county could potentially contract with third-party consultants to handle some of the workload until the department is fully staffed again.

There is evidence that the county is hiring aggressively. Recently, the department hired a new deputy director before its current deputy director retires this fall. Generally, the county does not, for financial reasons, allow positions to have such overlapping terms.

And the department is starting to staff back up, despite the relatively stringent requirements needed to qualify for positions in the department. Many of the jobs being advertised require a bachelor’s degree in a technical or scientific field, along with years of experience in the industry or related fields.

But critics who have left the department in the last year say it isn’t as simple as hiring new staffers. Even after qualified applicants walk through the doors of PDEQ, they said, it could take more than six months before their specific, individualized training inside the department is complete.

While staffing is at roughly 80%, the pain is even more acute than the number suggests, considering key positions are currently open. For example, the feds require that the county have a dedicated employee to ensure compliance with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which governs the disposal of solid waste and hazardous materials. Right now, that position is unfilled.

That short-handedness can be damaging to morale, and more importantly, to the scientific process.

For example, Pima County officials confirmed a mid-level manager is being asked not only to take measurements in the field but also — at least temporarily — to verify their own data.

Scientific integrity depends on independent verification: The person taking the measurements should not also be solely responsible for certifying their accuracy.

And looming large in Lesher’s mind is the question of whether PDEQ will be able to meet a September deadline set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for seven different reports.

Lesher, based on her investigation, said she isn’t sure, but PDEQ officials are working hard to meet those deadlines.

There is consensus that Project Blue played a role in the current staffing crisis inside PDEQ, but there are two very different perspectives on what happened.

County officials say the department — and, some say, the entire county — wasn’t prepared for the complexities of both courting a massive data center for economic development and then regulating it.

Inside PDEQ, some staffers approached it strictly through the lens of the law, accepting the county’s role in regulating and monitoring the proposed data centers like any other business in Pima County.

Others saw the water-hungry development as incompatible with other established county priorities and, more broadly, the Sonoran Desert.

PDEQ had two different missions that overlapped for years but, generally speaking, that didn’t cause divisions before the data center proposal.

DiBiase agreed, having seen it up close over the last year.

Environmentalists who oppose Project Blue say the department hasn’t done enough to regulate the development, which is still in the earliest stages of clearing patches of desert.

Perhaps feeling the sting of that public backlash, PDEQ sent a letter to contractors tied to Project Blue’s developer, Beale Infrastructure, warning about “fugitive dust” generated by heavy machinery. But that letter came only after activists made a formal complaint.

To be clear, Project Blue has not applied for the permits that PDEQ will be expected to evaluate and, if approved, monitor. There is no expectation that the county would deny Project Blue’s permits.

But that is a discussion for another day.

Copper World is a prime example. As county elected officials have repeatedly voiced their opposition to the copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains, parent company Hudbay successfully petitioned the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to take over all regulatory aspects of the mine.

The county argues that local control over permitting and monitoring local businesses is better than allowing bureaucrats (and scientists) in Phoenix to make decisions for Southern Arizona. But we’ll note that both agencies are governed by the same set of laws, so on paper there shouldn’t be significant differences.

Amid the conflict between regulatory-minded employees and those opposed to data centers, former PDEQ officials confirmed that one employee reached out to the Trump administration, offering advice on how to bypass regulations governing data centers in the hope of working for the administration.

DiBiase confirmed a low-level PDEQ employee did send an email several months ago, but said the employee does not have — and will not have — any role in Project Blue decisions.

As part of the lessons that the county learned from Project Blue, Pima County supervisors implemented new guidelines on nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) and how the county approaches potential large-scale economic development projects.

Lesher said that includes making sure more people — including PDEQ officials — have a seat at the table moving forward. A larger conversation with experts from various county departments will lead to better, more nuanced decisions.

DiBiase said the mission hasn’t changed and that he has the experts on staff to carry out the department’s regulatory mission while ensuring the community has clean water and air, and that hazardous waste is being managed properly.

Lesher, however, said she considering some changes inside PDEQ, noting that some of its responsibilities should be balanced with the needs of the community, not just regulatory functions.