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August 5, 2024 Opinion & Commentary

CT must adopt more equitable, modern system to clean up polluted properties, spur development

Katie Dykes (left) and Daniel O’Keefe 
By Katie Dykes, Daniel O’Keefe 

Connecticut has a proud manufacturing history. 

From our origins in clocks and watches to advanced optics and nuclear submarines now, our state has long been an advanced manufacturing leader, supporting our national economy. 

Connecticut’s industrial past has also left a legacy of contamination on abandoned factory and brownfield sites across the state; many of which — due to an ineffective environmental law called the Transfer Act — remain polluted and unusable today. 

By replacing the Transfer Act with a modern, release-based cleanup framework in line with the rest of the country, Connecticut is poised to restore those sites and the jobs and economic opportunity that once came with them — and can come from them again. 

In 1985, Connecticut was one of the first states to tackle property remediation when we enacted the Transfer Act, a laudable, pioneering step, which dictates that upon transfer, property owners in specific industries must demonstrate that no contamination is present. 

This costly, onerous process is required even if there was never a contaminating event — a “guilty-until-proven-innocent” standard. 

Today, we are one of only two states that still adopt that approach — the other 48 have embraced a release-based model, which requires sites that have had a contamination to demonstrate that it has been remediated. This approach has proven much more effective in motivating investment and cleanups of contamination.  

We know that investment drives cleanups. And as other states have found a better way, the Transfer Act has become a deterrent to investment: since the 1980s, fewer than 400 of the 3,000 Connecticut properties in the Transfer Act process have been remediated. The irony is not lost on us that the “Transfer Act” should have actually been called the “Rarely Transfer Act.” 

That’s why the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) and Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), after receiving legislative direction in 2020, teamed up with legislative leaders, municipalities, developers, environmental consultants and attorneys, and other environmental leaders to transition

Connecticut to this release-based cleanup program. 

Last week, we issued draft Release-Based Cleanup Regulations, now available for review and public comment here. These draft regulations are complex, but they reflect several years of diligent effort from a working group of stakeholders, convened by DEEP and DECD, to develop the concepts upon which the proposed regulations are built.  

Today, lenders and buyers typically make sure environmental investigations — of all kinds — are completed as part of due diligence for land transactions. Rather than micromanaging certain investigations, a release-based cleanup program harnesses market-driven investigation to discover historical releases of pollution and establishes clear standards to facilitate effective cleanups. 

If investigation uncovers pollution, the proposed release-based cleanup regulations will ensure that pollution is cleaned up to a uniform standard on all properties, not just the select few singled out by the Transfer Act.  

Unlike many western states, Connecticut does not have large tracts of previously undeveloped, available land to build new housing, factories and businesses. We must reuse and redevelop our older properties to compete and grow, and these new regulations will help accelerate this process. 

We estimate passage of these reforms will have significant economic benefits, generating more than 2,100 new construction jobs, $3.78 billion in new GDP growth, and $115 million in new revenue for the state over the next five years alone. 

With the valuable input we receive during the comment period, we look forward to refining this release-based framework to benefit Connecticut’s economy and its environment. 

Soon, Connecticut will no longer be an outlier. By replacing the Transfer Act with a release-based system, we’ll replace polluted brownfields and abandoned factory sites with housing and job-creating businesses, a true win for Connecticut’s economy and environment. 

The time to act is now. 

Katie Dykes is commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection; Daniel O’Keefe is commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

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