🔒Effort to replace troublesome Transfer Act making progress

Industrial brokers, developers and public officials have long railed against Connecticut’s Transfer Act as a heavy-handed and cumbersome deal-killer that has stalled many redevelopments.

A top official working to replace the state’s often-criticized system for cleaning polluted and possibly hazardous sites says new proposed regulations should debut this year. However, they likely won’t take effect in 2022.

Under the 36-year-old Transfer Act, any property that produced or stored more than 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of hazardous waste in any given month is subject to a lengthy, potentially unceasing state review to prove the property was not a hazard.

The owner or buyer of such a property — called an “establishment” — must prove at the time of sale the site is clean, or has been cleaned to state standards. Even for a relatively small and clean site, this can mean paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for environmental investigation.

Critics say it is a guilty-until-proven-innocent approach that adds costs and hurdles to property reuse not seen in most other states.

Nicholas Morizio, president of brokerage firm Colliers International in Hartford and New Haven, said he has had clients work for 12 to 15 years trying to get their properties certified as clean.

“All other states have a clear path to what is clean and what isn’t, [but in Connecticut] you never get an answer, never get anything straight,” he complained. “It’s terrible.”

In 2020, the General Assembly passed Transfer Act modifications intended to make it easier for property owners to exit state review. The law clarified existing exemptions and authorized the state departments of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) and Economic and Community Development to create a new system of environmental regulation akin to the “spill-based” model used by most other states.

Under the anticipated changes, properties will no longer fall under exhaustive testing and review simply because hazardous materials were produced or stored there. Instead, the state will rely on mandates to clean spills and discharges as they happen.

Frank H. Hird, vice president of O,R&L Commercial in Rocky Hill, is a member of the state-backed Transfer Act working group, which includes industry experts, environmentalists and regulators who are developing the regulations. Hird said the new system will be ready for final review by lawmakers this year and likely take effect within two years.

Graham Stevens, DEEP’s bureau chief of water protection and land reuse, said once the replacement regulations are published there will be a public review and comment period, as well as a necessary review by the legislature’s Regulations Review Committee.

Stevens said the working group hasn’t decided how quickly to switch to the new system. There are concerns about disrupting deals currently underway under existing rules. The current system also operates on a mix of laws and regulations, so the legislature may need to act to repeal past legislation in favor of the new regulations, Stevens said.

Stevens stressed current liability protections safeguarding municipalities and other entities that voluntarily cleanup pollution caused by others will not expire under the new regulations. The state will also continue to investigate spills and contamination, he said.