Connecticut’s environmental agency has a new name and focus, but its new commissioner really hopes for faster permit reviews.
This year, Connecticut’s top legislative and executive officials are taking yet another stab at fixing an old problem at the former Department of Environmental Protection: making the permit process faster and more efficient for businesses and would-be developers.
“The biggest challenge I see is to change the culture,” said Dan Esty, the department’s commissioner, at a conference in June with Hartford law firm Pullman & Comley LLC.
On July 1, the DEP become the Department of Energy & Environmental Protection, or DEEP, joining together the work of environmental protection with the state’s efforts to form a comprehensive and long-term energy policy.
While the role of the environmental protection division is largely unchanged, Esty has said repeatedly he wants DEEP to have a strong focus on the economy in everything it does.
Esty said he is aware of the problems businesses have encountered in the permit approval process, particularly for developers. He said he is trying to change the culture at DEEP, but is encountering resistance from long-tenured workers set in their ways who have seen many commissioners and initiatives come and go.
“It’s been talked about for many years, but has never really been done,” said Eric Brown, a lobbyist for the Connecticut Business & Industry Association. “What businesses are looking for is fairness and equity in the system.”
To facilitate change, this month DEEP is launching an initiative to evaluate and transform Connecticut’s environmental clean-up laws. The initiative is largely focused on brownfields, as cleaning up contaminated sites and redeveloping them into something useful touches nearly all of DEEP’s goals.
DEEP will gather input from all stakeholders, including the regulated community, and by Dec. 15 issue recommendations to better approach remediation, particularly fixing and streamlining the permitting process.
This coincides with efforts from the Connecticut General Assembly and Gov. Dannel Malloy to greater facilitate brownfield clean-up. A new brownfields law signed by Malloy gives a specific deadline for DEEP to sign off on permits for contamination remediation.
“This is the first time the actual reviews have had strict schedules attached to them,” said Peter Simmons, executive director of the Office of Brownfield Remediation and Development. “It is tremendously beneficial.”
Streamlining the state’s various permitting processes has been a major legislative issue for the business community for years. Businesses have complained the process slows economic development in the state and causes some investors to move their dollars elsewhere.
In 2009, state lawmakers passed sweeping regulatory reform that aimed to streamline the permitting process across state agencies by creating an Office of Permit Ombudsman within the Department of Economic and Community Development. The idea was to work with Connecticut companies seeking permits from the departments of Environmental Protection, Public Health and Transportation.
The ombudsman was charged with expediting the review of permit applications for major development projects that create at least 100 jobs or develop a green technology business, among other criteria.
The legislation also requires the DEP to make all reasonable efforts to review initial permit applications for problems within 60 days and make final determinations within 180 days.
Brown said regulators are making progress in reducing permitting wait times, including adopting lean techniques to remove redundant activities from the process.
“I do think they are taking a very serious look at it and are developing and implementing a strategic plan to meaningfully cut down the time associated with permitting,” Brown said.
In response to the new law however, DEP said last year it needed to add dozens of new staffers and hundreds of thousands of dollars to expedite the permit process.
That definitely won’t happen this year or next year. Under Malloy’s latest proposed two-year budget, DEEP would lose 16 percent of its workforce, or 136 positions. Those layoffs will start in September unless state employee unions agree to concessions in their benefits.
Delays in the environmental review process have slowed brownfield redevelopment for years, Simmons said. The issue particularly comes after a developer cleans contamination on the site, but he doesn’t know if environmental regulators will follow up with an audit.
That uncertainty has been an issue preventing further development on a remediated site, Simmons said.
The newly launched DEEP initiative to find ways to streamline its processes and help foster more brownfield redevelopment will help, Simmons said. When the recommendations are released Dec. 15, the report may contain draft legislation if any laws need to be changed.
This initiative, in conjunction with this year’s brownfields law, should increase the number of sites remediated in Connecticut. Of the 13,000 contaminated properties in the state, 47 have been remediated in the past 15 years.
In addition to putting a strict schedule on environmental reviews, the new brownfields law turns several state programs permanent, makes remediation easier on abandoned sites and reduces liability for developers and investors who buy contaminated properties. The law says new property owners are responsible only for contamination on the property they own and are no longer liable for contamination that may have migrated off site.
Under the law, brownfield projects receiving money from state programs will have environmental permit fees waived.
“In a small way, it provides additional assistance with money that could go toward cleaning up a site,” Simmons said.
