Laura Malone, who has served since 2012 as Waste Programs Division (WPD) Director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, is recognized in this year’s Environment+Energy Leader 100 list. The annual list honors environment and energy “doers” who are working to create new solutions, programs, platforms, and best practices and products to achieve success in environmental and energy management for their company or government agency.
Under Malone’s leadership, the WPD has worked to innovate and achieve record results in environmental protection, efficiency, and customer service. Results include:
- Doubling the number of Underground Storage Tank (UST) cleanups from 79 in 2012 to 158 in 2021 through implementing a new UST Program that has accelerated the discovery and mitigation of releases and resulted in the lowest number of open sites since the 1980s
- Launching five online permitting and reporting services for 800 UST customers – Plan Review, Notification, Financial Assurance, Suspected Leak Notification, and Notices of Cancellation/Renewal from Insurers – providing customers with 24/7, paperless processes. The services have achieved a 42% registration rate with UST owners within the first three months – the highest registration rate for this timeframe of any of ADEQ’s 80 online services so far
- Reducing the permitting timeframe for a hazardous waste facility from 10 years to six months.
- Removing six sites from the state Superfund registry since 2012, whereas not a single site was removed in the first 26 years of the program
- Establishing the Arizona PFAS Resources Information Clearinghouse and advising fire departments, local emergency planning committees, and relevant industries about adverse impacts to public health and the environment, and
- Characterizing the extent of contamination, designing a demonstration remedy pilot, and starting construction to prevent a PFAS plume from reaching the City of Tucson’s central well field
Congratulations to Laura on her well-earned recognition!
