Approve Consent Judgment proposed by the Arizona Attorney General and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality relating to alleged County violations of solid waste environmental laws.

Based on an October 28, 2008 inspection of the Western Regional Landfill (WRL), on April 8, 2009 ADEQ served the County with a Notice of Violation alleging nine violations of environmental laws.  Based on a July 10, 2013 inspection of the WRL, on August 8, 2013 ADEQ served the County with a Notice of Violation alleging four violations of environmental laws.
 
 The Arizona Attorney General, on behalf of ADEQ, has requested that the County sign a Consent Judgment in Superior Court admitting the violations, with potential consequences if there are additional violations, but no fines unless there are further violations.  If the County does not sign the Consent Judgment, the AG will sue the County in Maricopa County Superior Court to gain a finding of violations and seek further sanctions, including fines.
 
The purpose of this Agenda item is to advise the Board about the proposed Consent Judgment and the potential lawsuit, and obtain a Board decision whether to i) sign the Consent Judgment as is, ii) negotiate the terms of the Consent Judgment, or iii) defend the lawsuit.  The proposed Consent Judgment is attached, as is the AG’s draft Complaint.
 
This matter involves a great deal of history, with ongoing discussions among the Solid Waste Director, ADEQ, several different Assistant AGs, the County Attorney, and Mr. Vlahovich.  Attached is a November 22, 2013 email from Assistant AG John Hestand to Britt Hanson detailing some of that history.  Also attached is December, 2013 letter from Adam Ambrose to Hestand addressing the alleged violations, which also details the history of these violations.
 
The first thing to understand about this matter is that ADEQ does not allege that the violations are ongoing.  To the contrary, the Solid Waste Department addressed and resolved them almost immediately.  In addition, in 2010, the Solid Waste Department finished drafting a Supplemental Environmental Plan to address the causes of the 2008 violations, which was reviewed by ADEQ and I believe was approved as well.  The County Solid Waste Department also implemented a 100% screened load program to prevent hazardous waste from inadvertently being dumped in the landfill.  Former Solid Waste Director Haverty, Deputy County Administrator Vlahovich and Chief Civil Deputy County Attorney Hanson traveled to Phoenix to negotiate what it then believed would be a settlement of the matter through the implementation of these programs.
 
The second thing to understand about this matter is that numerous times during the six years, after the County proposed a resolution of the violations to the AG and ADEQ, the County would not hear back for months and months, to the point where the County believed the matter was resolved—only to get an email or letter from the AG stating that they still intend to pursue the matter.  That is why the matter has dragged out so long.  We have asked the AG directly why ADEQ still wants to pursue this and gotten no response except that ADEQ does want to pursue the Consent Judgment
 
We believe that our legal advice to the Board, and discussion of it, should occur in executive session.

 

Either sign the Consent Agreement and forward it to the County Attorney, or the County Attorney will inform the Attorney General that it does not intend to sign the Consent Agreement and will prepare for a lawsuit.

The County may be subject to a lawsuit by the Attorney General's Office on behalf of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.

If approved, sign the Consent Agreement and forward it to the County Attorney.