The state body responsible for reporting on the condition of Connecticut’s environment wants the state to speed up the pace of land preservation and tighten enforcement of stormwater and mining rules.
The Council on Environmental Quality outlined its 2016 legislative goals in a document released late last month.
CEQ, which falls administratively under the umbrella of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said DEEP is not preserving land quick enough to meet its own statutory goals, which require the acquisition of up to 1,500 parcels by 2023.
The current pace of land preservation will leave the agency short by approximately 60,000 acres, CEQ said.
The council is also unsatisfied with what it perceives as a lack of enforcement of earthmoving activities, such as mining for gravel. Those that violate stormwater rules, CEQ contends, “can be fairly confident that he or she will not be caught or, if caught, will not face financial penalties.”
