Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1517399
HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MARCH 18, 2024 7 "We are hopeful something productive will come out of this," Myers said. "We want to see an improvement. The business commu- nity still has questions for DEEP, and we are hopeful they can address some of these concerns." What's the rush? Emilee Mooney Scott, a Robinson + Cole attorney on the working group, said there is some concern about perceived pressure to get the regula- tions over the finish line. DEEP has given working group members until March 7 to submit comments to be considered for the next draft. Mooney Scott said some "thorny issues" have been raised. "I do believe they can be resolved through continued engagement with stakeholders, but we will really need to see how they are resolved in the next draft," Mooney Scott said. DEEP staff said input from the working group has been crucial, and will continue to help shape the new rules well beyond March 7. "Their feedback has been critical," said Emma Cimino, deputy commis- sioner of environmental quality for DEEP. "They are the industry insiders. They are the folks on the ground. And this work we have done, this transition, would not be possible without their input, and their input is ongoing." Brendan Schain, an attorney with DEEP, stressed top agency staff have held multiple meetings with industry and stakeholder groups since draft regulations were released Dec. 29, and there will be additional outreach as the regulatory adoption process begins this spring. DEEP staff said they aim for the legislature's Regulations Review Committee to sign off on the new rules in 2025. Staff anticipate some delay in implementation. "We have taken the time to get to where we are today," said Graham Stevens, chief of DEEP's Bureau of Water Protection and Land Reuse. "It's incumbent on DEEP to show our stakeholders that we are listening, and we will deliver a regulation that rings true for all the stakeholder objectives we are trying to embrace." period, and then to the General Assembly's Regulation Review Committee, "with the goal of approval by the end of 2024." Hard to drop The Transfer Act doesn't have many fans, but it has proven difficult to dump. Samuel Haydock, a principal with Meriden-based engineering and envi- ronmental consulting firm BL Companies, said this is the third attempt in 15 years to move to a release- based system. He is an enthusiastic supporter of a move to release-based cleanups, and gener- ally optimistic about the current effort. Still, Haydock acknowledges stake- holders have concerns with some portions of the new regulations shared with the working group in December. For one, some worry the new regulations might pull residential, municipal and institutional properties into the same rigorous reporting and action requirements that commer- cial and industrial properties face, Haydock said. Some working group members are also worried about a more exacting contaminant testing regime that could increase costs with little public safety payoff, he said. Haydock said he realizes there's pressure to finish the regulations, but urged patience to get the best possible result and finally bury the Transfer Act. That means taking time for more input from the working group before soliciting public opinion on a final draft, he said. "We are optimistic we can get this right," Haydock said. "This has to be a success. We can't have this fail again." The Connecticut Business & Industry Association is also raising a number of questions and concerns, among them the potential costs to residential property owners. Housing costs in Connecticut are already high, and any new regulations could add to the burden, which is a concern for businesses starved for employees to fill job openings. CBIA lobbyist Peter Myers said his organization is optimistic that regulators and the working group can work together to avoid unintended consequences. POLITICS & POLICY After years of work, state leaders say they're close to replacing burdensome Transfer Act An industrially polluted site at 777 South Main St., in Waterbury. HBJ PHOTO | MICHAEL PUFFER By Michael Puffer mpuffer@hartfordbusiness.com T hree years after state lawmakers agreed to replace the state's burdensome system that governs environmental cleanups of potentially contaminated proper- ties, Gov. Ned Lamont visited Water- bury recently to announce progress toward sunsetting the Transfer Act. Some in the business community, however, have voiced concern about elements of the first draft of the new regulations, and are urging patience to get it right. In 2020, state lawmakers agreed to a process to replace the Transfer Act with a release-based system more akin to methods employed by 48 other states. "The Transfer Act is a relic of the past, and that's where it belongs," Lamont said. "We should be cele- brated for our industrial past, not penalized by it." Only Connecticut and New Jersey employ a Transfer Act system, in which industrial and commercial properties deemed as potentially contaminated are required to have environmental investigations and cleanup at the time of a sale. Under the current system, any property that produced or stored more than 220 pounds of hazardous waste in any given month is subject to a lengthy and potentially onerous state review to prove the property is safe. The nearly 40-year-old system is widely disliked by developers and property brokers, who view it as a heavy-handed, deal-killer that has stifled redevelopment efforts, partic- ularly in post-industrial cities like Waterbury and Hartford. More than 3,000 properties have entered the Transfer Act program since the 1980s, but less than 400 have been remediated, according to Lamont's office. The state's environmental and economic agencies have been working for three years to craft the complex regulations needed to replace the Transfer Act, aided by a working group of dozens of environ- mental consultants, specialist attor- neys and others. In 2020, Connecticut lawmakers agreed to transition to a release- based system in which cleanups are undertaken when contamination occurs or is discovered. Essentially, that would remove the guilty-un- til-proven-innocent brand from properties where toxic material was stored or produced, but not neces- sarily spilled or mishandled. According to Lamont's office, the state's goal is to have new regula- tions go through a public comment Emilee Mooney Scott Graham Stevens Emma Cimino Peter Myers Samuel Haydock Goals of release-based cleanup regulations According to the state Dept. of Energy & Environmental Protection, the state's new released-based cleanup regulations aim to: • Address all chemical releases, regardless of how the release was discovered. • Ensure releases achieve unified cleanup standards. • Create new, more flexible options for completing remediation. • Create consistent documentation of remediation for all releases, including small ones. • Relieve small business owners from "proving the negative," or paying to determine applicability of property Transfer Act.