Under Section 208 of the Clean Water Act (CWA), PAG, as the region’s Designated Planning Agency (DPA), must update the 208 Plan. Federal Regulation 40 C.F.R 130.6 additionally describes that Plans shall be updated as needed to reflect changing water quality conditions and results of implementation actions or new requirements.  Existing and new point sources of pollution must be consistent with the principles and future conditions described in this 208 Plan. The PAG 208 planning process provides a means for stakeholders to engage in regional environmental decision-making and helps create coordination among jurisdictions, while meeting water quality management goals and protecting priority water bodies.

The Draft 208 Plan, plus appendices, total about 150 pages. To simplify your review, please click here to view a summary of the components of the plan, the updated timeiline for draft approval (as of May 2019), and summary of the proposed changes to the last PAG 208 Plan adopted in 2006.

The Draft 208 Plan, including appendices, are listed below:

• DRAFT PAG 208 Plan: Plan Implementation - Strategic Action Plan and Adopted Procedures
• DRAFT Appendix 1: Glossary of Terms and Acronyms
• DRAFT Appendix 2: List of Changes in the 2019 PAG 208 Plan Update
• DRAFT Appendix 3: Watershed Setting and Conditions
• DRAFT Appendix 4 a: Point Sources: Management Agencies, Facilities, Projections, Methodologies
  • DRAFT Appendix 4 b: Water Reclamation Facility Inventory
  • Draft 208 Wastewater Facility Inventory Portal (online interactive  mapping database)
• DRAFT Appendix 5: Regulatory Authorities and History
• DRAFT Appendix 6: Public Participation Plan and Plan Update Records (will become available at public hearing)
• DRAFT Appendix 7: Application Resources: Application Brochures, Forms, Template Letters, and Portal Guidance (may become available by Management Committee and Regional Council vote)
• DRAFT Appendix 8: References
   

To keep with our review schedule, please provide your feedback on the comment forms http://www.pagregion.com/documents/water/DRAFT-PAG208Plan2019-CommentForm.docx no later than April 10^th. At the March 1 EPAC meeting, PAG will provide a brief announcement on this.

The PAG 208 Plan represents regional stakeholders work in several areas. Therefore, interested parties may want to review the following in particular:

• The changes to the procedure for a facility to achieve 208 consistency. These were streamlined to be more efficient and effective at achieving regional coordination and water quality benefits;
• The completeness of the updates to the water quality conditions inventory;
• Corresponding accomplishments in managing water quality issues across the region;
• Alignment of the Action Plan’s goals with the goals of local programs in the region that may benefit from related water quality funding;

Please send feedback to Mead Mier, PAG Watershed Planning Lead,  or call 520-792-1093 if you have any questions. We appreciate your time and input.

To read the PAG 208 Plan adopted in 2006 and to view the discussions at meetings during the update process, please visit the 208 page, here.

Through PAG’s public committees, regional stakeholders representing municipal, agricultural, environmental, industrial and tribal water providers, users and others will have an opportunity to weigh in on the Lower Santa Cruz River Basin Study. The Tucson metro area is one of only two regions which were selected by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for the three-year climate-model and scenario-planning study, based on strong local water planning efforts already in place to complement the project. Basin Studies are cost-shared, collaborative studies with the goal of identifying where physical water resources are needed to mitigate climate change impacts and improve water reliability for all sectors.

With a study kickoff in March 2016, PAG has been leading stakeholder involvement and the Environmental Sub-team.

• Management Committee 04-08-2015 Memo: PAG Director’s Letter of Support to apply for study
• Regional Council Memo 05-26-2016 Announcement of the Bureau of Reclamation’s selection of Tucson Region for the study
• PAG Regional Objective Newsletter June 2016
• Management Committee Memo 01-11-2017 and Regional Council 01-26-2017 Update: Recruiting additional Stakeholder Advisors, Results of Public Meeting 
• PAG UA Transportation Research Seminar 02-24-2017: Technologies for Watershed Planning and the intersection with Landuse, Transportation, Climate Change, and Growth
• PAG Regional Objective Newsletter September 2017
• Regional Council Memo 09-28-2017 Update: Results of Stakeholder meeting,  additional outreach, notice of winter public meeting

Annual Public Meetings
Public meetings are hosted by PAG’s Watershed Planning Subcommittee or Environmental Planning Advisory Committee.

• Public Meetings: PAG information page

Stakeholder Advisors Team
WPS and EPAC members are invited to become dedicated members of the Stakeholder Advisors Team, which meets at PAG.

04-24-2017 Stakeholder Advisors Meeting

• Agenda
• Responses to Comments/Questions
• LSCR Stakeholder Advisor Presentations
• LSCR BS Draft 2nd Stakeholder Adv Mtg Recommendations and Comments

02-26-2018 Stakeholder Advisors Meeting

• Study Stakeholders Agenda 
• DRAFT Demand Scenarios chart 
• Presentation Supply Demand Scenarios (1MB pdf)
• Presentation Results Of CAP Service Area Model (1MB pdf)
• 3:30 pm to 4:00 pm meet and greet, 4:00 pm to 5:30 meeting
• The meeting focus is on the selection of water supply-demand combinations (without additional adaptation measures) for groundwater modeling.   Draft supply-demand scenario combinations will be presented. A guided discussion  will be led to obtain feedback and make sure key concerns are addressed.  The discussion will go into a fair amount of technical detail.

More Info

To be added to the email list of interested stakeholders and be notified of public meetings, news releases, informational mailings, please contact Eve Halper at  ehalper@usbr.gov.

• Basin Study Fact Sheet  
• Lower Santa Cruz River Basin Study - U.S. Bureau of Reclamation coordination and info page
• SW Climate 10 Water Factsheet (pdf)
• Webinar - Use of Climate Information for Decision-Making (pdf)