Legislative panel greenlights Hobbs' pick to lead Arizona Department of Environmental Quality

A divided panel of state lawmakers moved to approve Gov. Katie Hobbs’ nominee to lead the state Department of Environmental Quality on Monday.

ADEQ Acting Director Karen Peters was grilled by a Senate panel on various issues including the recent mass burial of chickens at Hickman’s Family Farms.

Peters’ department issued a waiver allowing the farm to bury millions of chickens during a bird flu outbreak last month, raising concerns about groundwater contamination which Peters acknowledged.

Committee Chair Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek) didn’t let up on the issue and why Peters would issue the waiver without knowing important information like the depth to the water:

“That seems like the epitome of bad government,” Hoffman told Peters. “It’s like we have to bury the chickens to see what happens with the chickens,” he said - referencing former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s 2010 quote on the Affordable Care Act: “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”

Peters said the Hickman chicken situation was an emergency because the carcasses were rapidly decomposing and says the burials have stopped and her team is collecting more information.

Sen. John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills) ultimately cited the chicken issue as his reason for voting against Peters, especially because ADEQ used some taxpayer money on the undertaking.

A single Republican on the pane, Sen. T.J. Shope (R-Coolidge), voted in Peters’ favor along with all the Democrats to recommend her confirmation.

The full Senate still must vote on Peters’ confirmation.

Hobbs’ spokesperson Christian Slater declined to comment on the hearing.

Hoffman also questioned Peters about the idea of using treated wastewater in Arizona which many conservatives oppose.

“It is H2O and it has been recycled for millennia, but you're absolutely correct, Senator Hoffman, that the ick factor is an enormous challenge for water providers to overcome our our job was to give them a rule that we feel is absolutely protective so that when they go to their ratepayers and customers, they can assure them that the water that comes through this process is safe,” Peters said.

Peters emphasized throughout the hearing that ADEQ has limited power on environmental regulations, and indicated that her personal opinions don’t necessarily matter on issues like mandating road diets or regulating greenhouse gases, since she doesn’t have that power.

“Facilities that come to ADEQ for guidance on how to comply with the law, how to get their permits, our job is not to make judgments about their industry, she said. “It's not to decide whether it is good or bad.”

Representatives of the Salt River Project and the state’s chapter of the Associated General Contractors put their support behind Peters.

Shope emphasized that in his closing comments.

“We've heard the regulated industry as the people who are actually regulated and generally have a fearful opinion of their government clamping down on them here in full support of her. She has resisted in the time that she has been in office radical lurches to the left, which pleases me,” he said.