A. User acknowledges and agrees that the Arizona Public Records Act applies to public records possessed by the Department. Accordingly, information and data on a user obtained from reports, surveys, wastewater discharge permit applications, individual wastewater discharge permits, general permits, monitoring programs, and the Department’s inspection and sampling activities will be available to the public or other governmental agency without restriction, unless the user believes and is able to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Department that the release of such information would divulge information, processes, or methods of production entitled to protection under the law as trade secrets.

B. To claim trade secret protection, the user must specify at the time of submitting its reports or information to the Department the specific information the user desires to protect by marking that information as "confidential—trade secret" on each page. When requested by a user furnishing a report or information containing trade secret information, the portions of the report or information that disclose trade secrets or secret processes will not be made available for inspection by the public, but will remain available upon written request to governmental agencies for uses related to this chapter, the NPDES or AZPDES programs or the pretreatment programs; provided, however, that such portions of a report will be available for use by the City, the State or any State agency in judicial review or enforcement proceedings involving the furnishing of the report. Wastewater constituents and characteristics will not be recognized as trade secret or confidential information.

C. If the Department receives a request from the public to review a user’s trade secret information, the Department will notify the user of the request and inform the user that it must present the Department with a court order within five business days prohibiting disclosure of the user’s trade secret information. If the Department does not receive a court order prohibiting disclosure, the user agrees and accepts the Department may disclose user’s trade secret information under Arizona’s public records law. (Ord. No. G-2489, § 4; Ord. No. G-6740, § 1, 2020)