The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Automated Surface Water Quality Assessment Tool has garnered the Environment + Energy Leader 2021 Top Product of the Year Award. Arizona DEQ staff developed this open-source tool to determine Clean Water Act assessment decisions at the parameter use and waterbody levels.
The tool automates every step so that DEQ staff can determine if lakes and streams meet federal water quality standards and can make timely decisions that address pressing issues impairing Arizona’s surface waters. In addition, the tool also creates a final assessment report to U.S. EPA. Using the Automated Surface Water Quality Assessment Tool, what took nine months of staff time now takes 15 minutes and saves more than $500,000 annually, allowing staff to review the status of state waters on a much more frequent basis. The time to complete the statewide surface water quality assessment of 1,400 waters was cut by more than 99 percent.
Information on the tool and its dashboard, assumptions, and detailed instructions is available here. For more information, contact Jason Jones of Arizona.
