Pima County Priority Climate Action Plan submitted to EPA - KOLD

Pima County Priority Climate Action Plan submitted to EPA

TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) - The Pima County Department of Environmental Quality submitted its Priority Climate Action Plan to the RPA on March 1.

Continuing its fight against climate change, Pima County created a plan to try and get some of the EPA’s $4.6 billion implementation grant through the Inflation Reduction Act.

“One of the things that Arizona hasn’t had as much of on climate change is leadership,” said Sandy Bahr, director for the Sierra Club-Grand Canyon Chapter. “And so, you know, want to applaud Pima County for showing leadership on this and for pursuing these dollars, that will make a difference in our communities.”

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Getting that grant will be no easy feat as jurisdictions from across the country will be competing for that money.

Pima County partnered with Tucson, Oro Valley, South Tucson, and the Tohono O’odham Nation – to propose a plan that includes nearly 25 projects and will require upward of $150 million.

“We developed a plan that listed out specific projects that we have included that we think will have the biggest bang for our buck essentially to try to reduce emissions in Pima County,” said Natalie Shepp, planning manager of the PCDEQ.

Sarah Davis, senior advisor to the Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher, said the plan is “a really monumental moment for the county and the coalition.”

And Davis said it is just one of many plans to be created in the battle against climate change.

“This is the first plan that we’ve put together since our sustainable action and climate plan for 2018 to 2025,” Davis said. “To comprehensively look at projects across the region that will monumentally change greenhouse gas emissions over the next five years in a measurable and evaluative way.”

All of this comes after the county received a $1 million grant from the EPA last summer to conduct a mitigation plan to essentially try and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the county.

Weatherizing government buildings, replacing fleet cars with electric cars, and having more efficiency in wastewater processing, are just a few sectors that the plan will focus on.

And this won’t just benefit the environment.

“The great thing about climate change is we know what to do, we know the emissions are the issue,” Bahr said. “And so, all of these things, having buildings be more energy efficient, that’s huge because it also saves money. The most cost-effective thing we can do is to actually reduce our energy consumption.”

Both Shepp and Davis made a big point about how important the public’s role in forming the plan has been.

“They have a lot of concerns about water availability and they, they do want to see their government do this work to try to mitigate it,” Shepp said. “So, I think we do have strong support from the community.”

While Bahr agrees that what the county is doing is a good thing for climate change, she said there’s still much to do.

“It is a good plan, and it will make a difference…I should say it’s a good start,” Bahr said. “There’s no one thing that we can do to address climate change, we need to do a lot of things.”

The application for the implementation grant is due April 1, and despite how competitive the decision process will be, Shepp said she’s confident the collaboration between cities and tribes will benefit them.

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