WATCH: EPA Nominee Commits to Kelly on Addressing Arizona’s Air and Water Quality Challenges

Today, during a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly secured commitments from Lee M. Zeldin—the nominee for Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—to help address air and water quality challenges unique to Arizona. 

Arizona faces unique environmental challenges that require tailored solutions. In Maricopa County, 80 percent of ozone pollution comes from natural sources like wildfires or pollution drifting in from neighboring states and countries, yet the EPA’s traditional strategies focus on reducing emissions from manufacturing—an approach that doesn’t address the region’s realities. Meanwhile, in Tucson, PFAS contamination has forced the city to shut down nearly 30 groundwater wells, costing over $71 million in cleanup efforts. With groundwater serving as a vital backup water source during Arizona’s historic worsening drought, finding long-term solutions to protect water quality is critical for the state’s future. 

During the hearing, Kelly emphasized the need for strong partnerships between the federal government and local stakeholders to address these issues and secured Zeldin’s commitment to prioritize Arizona’s pending air quality permits and finalize approval of Maricopa County’s emission offset rules—efforts Kelly has been leading for months. He also agreed to work with Arizona officials on long-term solutions to protect Tucson’s water supply from PFAS contamination and collaborate on efforts to address the more than 500 abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation. 

“Arizona has several unique challenges and what we need most from EPA leadership is a collaborative partner to help us address air quality and water quality challenges without disrupting our state’s growth,” said Kelly. “[…] We’ve been working closely with state and local officials and our business community. And there are specific actions where we’re asking for EPA’s partnership. I’d like to ask for your commitment to working with us on these issues.”   

Click here to download a video of Kelly’s remarks. Click here to watch the full hearing.   

See the transcript below:   

Sen. Kelly: Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Zeldin, congratulations on your nomination and thanks for coming by my office a couple weeks ago.  

As we discussed, Arizona has some unique challenges that we need some help from EPA leadership on, and we need to work with you as a collaborative partner to help us address some specific air quality and water quality challenges that we’re facing, and to do this in a way that does not disrupt our state’s growth. We’re a rapidly growing state. 

Let’s start with air quality. 

As we discussed, Maricopa County, which is Phoenix, half the population of the state, is in non-attainment under the Clean Air Act for ground-level ozone pollution.  

Now under the Clean Air Act, the way the law assumes air quality can be improved is by reducing emissions from stationary sources of emissions, like big manufacturing. Might make sense in some parts of the country, certainly in more industrialized areas — you know, the Rust Belt, the East Coast, but it doesn’t make sense in Phoenix.  

The reason is we’re a really young state, and we don’t have a history of this heavy manufacturing. And manufacturing, by the way, is not the source of our air quality challenges in Maricopa County.  

EPA’s own modeling shows that eighty percent of the ozone-forming pollutants in the Phoenix area come from either natural sources, like wildfires, or sources outside of the region, like California and Mexico.  

Now this means that the typical EPA playbook for how to improve air quality and protect public health is not going to work in Phoenix. It’s just not. We need partnership and collaboration with the EPA headquarters and EPA Region Nine to address these challenges, and we’ve been working closely with state and local officials and our business community on this.  

And there are specific actions that we were asking for EPA partnership on, so I’d like to ask for your commitment to working with us on these issues. I’m going to go through them. There’s like four of them.  

First, we have several New Source Review permits currently under review by the Region Nine office. If confirmed, will you commit to ensuring that those permits are prioritized for review? 

Mr. Zeldin: Senator, your priorities will be mine. We’ll make sure that we follow the law but making sure that this is at the top of the list. 

Sen. Kelly: Thank you. And second, Maricopa County has submitted two local rules, which are called rule 204 and 205. We spoke about those in my office that would provide alternative pathways for generating offsets for new permits, for new manufacturing facilities.  

So, remember what I said, we don’t have the heavy manufacturing that shut down that would generate a permit. So, these rules have some other ways to do that. So, both rules are still pending final approval, although I understand that region nine of Maricopa County has been meeting weekly on this to resolve some outstanding issues.  

But Mr. Zeldin, will you commit to ensuring this coordination between EPA and the county can continue with the goal of having both rules approved as soon as possible? 

Mr. Zeldin: Senator, while I can’t prejudge the outcome as far as approval goes on anything. You absolutely have my commitment to be able to work with you and those local partners, to come to Arizona. You also mentioned the Yuma example as well, and as you pointed out, you come from a state where in a place like Maricopa, you don’t have a lot of these sites shutting down, you have more coming in, which is a good problem to have in one way, but you definitely need that partnership with EPA. 

Sen. Kelly: It’s challenging in the other way, right? That’s what we got to figure out. Third, as I noted, we’re still trying to understand the long-term reasons our air quality is getting worse and how to resolve that challenge.  

Will you commit to help Maricopa County develop some better models? To understand why our air quality is getting worse in Maricopa County and help us find some solutions to address this long term? And fourth, in that same vein, we know that emissions from Mexico are a serious contributor to our air quality challenges throughout Arizona.  

Will you commit to having the EPA Region Nine and EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality work with our local officials? To ensure that our attainment plans account for cross-border pollution. 

Mr. Zeldin: Yes, Senator, I also heard this concern from both Senator Schiff and Senator Padilla as it relates to Tijuana and the southern border of California. This is clearly an issue across states. I look forward to working with you. 

Sen. Kelly: And then finally, will you also commit to working to find solutions to ensure regions throughout the Western United States aren’t penalized for emissions created by wildfire smoke? 

Mr. Zeldin: Yes, sir. 

[…] 

Sen. Kelly: Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Zeldin, I want to discuss another issue with you that’s affected the western United States significantly, especially Arizona on the Navajo Nation, and that’s the issue of abandoned uranium mines, about five hundred of them.  

The nation’s been working to clean up these mines for decades now, but the bureaucratic process of the Superfund Law has meant that very little progress has been made on this, and it contaminates water and just the radiation itself causes cancer.  

One step that was taken during the last Trump administration was to establish a regional office called the Office of Mountains, Desert and Plains, which would focus on cutting through the bureaucracy and accelerating the cleanup of mines in the west. Senator Lummis and I introduced legislation last Congress, which passed this committee unanimously, called the Legacy Mine Clean Up Act, which would authorize the creation of the office and accelerate mine clean-up across the western United States. 

Will you commit to having your team review the legislation quickly so we can then incorporate EPA ‘s feedback before we introduce the bill this year? 

Mr. Zeldin: Yes, Senator.  

Sen. Kelly: And will you commit to ensuring the issue of abandoned uranium mines remains a priority for the EPA? 

Mr. Zeldin: Yes, Senator. 

Sen. Kelly: Thank you for that. And then, one final thing I want to discuss with you, and I know you’ve spoken about this during the hearing already today. I was not in the room, but my understanding is you talked about PFAS. And as we discussed in my office last week, groundwater is the backup source of drinking water for both Phoenix and Tucson, and it’s in an aquifer mostly under the city of Tucson, where Gabby and I live. 

And this has become more critical, this backup water supply, as the drought conditions in the west have worsened. But especially, the groundwater under Tucson in those aquifers have been contaminated with growing PFAS plumes. And the city had to shut down nearly thirty groundwater wells because the water exceeded EPA’s drinking water limits. And to date, the city has spent more than seventy-one million dollars on remediation costs and are in negotiations with EPA Region Nine, with the Air Force, with the state, with Tucson Airport, and other private parties to resolve this, and throughout this process and spanning across presidential administrations, EPA region nine has been a consistent partner in addressing these challenging issues.  

So, Mr. Zeldin, if confirmed, will you commit to working with my team and the City of Tucson to address the Tucson PFAS contamination? 

Mr. Zeldin: Yes, Senator. 

Sen. Kelly: So, thank you, Mr. Zeldin. Thank you for spending the time. I know this has been a long process and a long hearing. It’s great seeing your family here and I look forward to having the opportunity in the committee and eventually on the floor for the vote. Thank you.