To the Editor:
Connecticut’s foundational environmental law is under attack by our own state legislators. The Connecticut Environmental Policy Act (CEPA) allows all of us to challenge actions that could have adverse impact on our environment.
For the past 54 years, any person or organization can file an environmental intervention document into any public hearing or court case, and can appeal to court, to raise environmental issues related to proposed development.
A harmful new bill, HB 6249, was proposed by our State Legislature’s Environment Committee, and if passed it would restrict environmental interventions to abutting neighbors only or established nonprofit organizations on residential development applications of any type or size.
First, it is shocking that our Environment Committee would propose such an anti-environment bill. This bill, if passed, will almost completely prevent state residents from raising environmental issues by filing interventions under statute 22a-19, which are used to protect the environment. These interventions are often before local planning and zoning boards, the Conservation Commission, the Department of Environmental Protection, as well as in Court cases. They give the person or organization party status to present evidence and expert testimony. The intervenors have the opportunity to show the commission or the court that the development is “likely to unreasonably pollute, impair or destroy the public trust in the air, water or other natural resources of the State”.
Local boards and our courts are often not made aware of environmental harm unless residents make them aware, and the 22a-19 intervention which is made possible by the current CEPA law, is the primary vehicle to help the local boards protect our environmental health for future generations.
Interestingly, it was the Environment Committee that proposed CEPA 54 years ago, in 1971, acknowledging the public trust in the natural resources of the state, and empowering state residents to take administrative and court action to protect them. At that time, over 5 decades ago, Representative Papandrea, supporting the new law, observed that “some of the most beautiful aspects of our environment, some of those most vital not only to our survival, but to that of future generations are such that they do not lend themselves to a proprietary interest and this bill makes the guaranteeing and the preservation and the protection of these rights available to the general public…”. Representative Collins added that the bill may also serve the purpose of “prodding these agencies into more thorough and responsive carrying out of the legislative programs.”
At present, there are multiple other committees to pass housing laws to spur development in our state. Our state residents should be able to rely on the Environment Committee to protect the environment, and that means protecting our ability to carry out the original intent of our state’s own Environmental Policy Act. But this bill does the opposite.
The purpose of the Connecticut Environmental Policy Act has nothing to do with abutting neighbors complaining about a nuisance, and it should not be restricted to abutting neighbors. Environmental harm is not limited to the property or the nearby neighbor’s property. For example, clearcutting trees and installing inadequate drainage systems can lead to worse flooding, and pollutants will travel into our lakes, rivers, and Long Island Sound, and degrade our drinking water supply. There is a public trust in these resources that is far broader and more important than a nuisance dispute between neighbors.
The bill sells out environmental protection to serve up residential development of any type, size, or price range, without even requiring any affordable units. But the real issue is environmental protection, which is not backed by development interests and has far less support at the local and state level. As we approach April, the month of Earth Day, it is a good time to reflect on how difficult it is even now, for the average resident to protect our natural environment. With this proposed bill, it will be nearly impossible.
I urge Connecticut residents to write to the Environment Committee to oppose this harmful bill and not disempower State residents from taking action to protect our State’s natural resources, as they have been able to do for the past 54 years. There will be a public hearing on this bill on March 17th.
Feel free to submit testimony to the Environment Committee here. We have one planet Earth.
Alexis Harrison
Fairfield, CT
Harrison is founding member of CT169Strong, and serves as a member of Fairfield Town Plan & Zoning Commission but writes as an individual.