March 8, 2021 The waters of Sabino Creek in Tucson flow intermittently. It’s currently on the state’s draft list of protected surface waters. (Photo by Ariana Brocious/Arizona Public Media) Since June, a large proportion of Arizona’s rivers, lakes and streams have not been protected by the Clean Water Act, the result of changes to federal rules by the Trump administration in 2019. The state had relied on the landmark law to keep its arid streams free of pollution. But after the federal protections were limited, Arizona set to work on its own set of surface-water quality standards. For the past two years, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality has been working to craft the new rules with public input. Trevor Baggiore, director of the agency’s water quality division, said a bill currently moving through the Legislature will help fill the regulatory gap.