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To save money, Pima County may ask the state to take over its responsibility to regulate small water companies, companies that produce hazardous waste, and the construction of commercial pools and spas.

But the supervisors are concerned doing so would endanger public health and safety.

Before approving any changes, they want a report on how many and what kind of problems county regulators have found, whether the county could realistically raise fees enough to cover the county's costs and what plan the state has to take over.

"Even though there still will be review by ADEQ, I think this is a matter of local control," said Supervisor Richard Elías. "It makes me very nervous."

"We need to know what the state is going to do," said Supervisor Ann Day.

For more than 20 years, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality has delegated its enforcement authority in a whole host of areas to the county Department of Environmental Quality. Pima and Maricopa counties mostly do their own enforcement, and the state regulates the smaller counties.

PDEQ plans to keep most of its regulatory powers because fines and fees cover the costs of those programs. But running the drinking water, hazardous-waste management and pool plan review programs costs roughly $100,000.

PDEQ faces a budget crisis because its solid waste division, which runs the county's landfills and transfer stations, faces a $2 million deficit in a year when county officials expect to cut many department budgets.

"We need to look at every dollar," County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said.

ADEQ spokesman Mark Shaffer said the department has been in touch with Pima County officials and if the Board of Supervisors decides to return authority to the state, the department will have to enforce those regulations.

However, ADEQ is under a hiring freeze, meaning no additional staff would be assigned to cover Pima County. Also, the staff most likely would be based in Phoenix, not Tucson.

"We do what we have to do, but everyone is going through the budget shortfall. It's hard on everyone," Shaffer said.

The drinking-water-enforcement programs cover roughly 200 public water systems in Pima County. Public water systems are defined as water providers with more than 15 connections, even if the company is run privately.

Drinking-water quality already is governed by the state, but county inspectors ensure the water systems are designed, installed and run so that the water is not contaminated by surface runoff and that water systems have adequate pressure for fire protection.

"For example, having a well in the middle of a cow pasture would not be a good idea, and we have seen that," said PDEQ Director Ursula Kramer.

Kramer said the county inspectors also provide technical advice to small local water providers when they fall out of compliance with state drinking-water standards.

Pima County also has 45 companies that generate hazardous waste, such as area hospitals.

The county performs 10 to 12 inspections a year.

The pool plan review program, run by the county Health Department, regulates the construction standards for commercial pools and spas.