State lawmakers approve Transfer Act replacement, expected to yield billions in economic activity
Michael Puffer | Hartford Business Journal
A brownfield at 777 South Main St. in Waterbury.
State officials on Tuesday celebrated the final adoption of new rules governing environmental cleanups at Connecticut’s industrial and commercial sites, with the change expected to yield billions in economic activity and thousands of new jobs.
The General Assembly’s Regulations Review Committee, on Tuesday, approved regulations outlining a new released-based approach to environmental cleanup.
“This is a game changer for Connecticut,” Gov. Ned Lamont said. “This new system truly is a win-win, resulting in faster environmental clean-ups and unlocking countless blighted properties that will go from being community hazards to being community assets.”
The new regulations are expected to take effect in spring 2026. DECD economists estimate the new system will unlock $3.78 billion in new GDP growth in the next five years, bringing $115 million in new revenue to the state and more than 2,100 new construction jobs.
In a nutshell, the new system relies on pollution releases being cleaned as they happen or are discovered.
The biggest complaint against the 40-year-old Transfer Act has been the wide net it casts, dragging in all properties at which more than 100 kilograms (about 220 pounds) of hazardous waste was processed or generated in any one month from Nov. 19, 1980 onward.
Under the law, those properties – even ones where there was never any known discharge or spill – had to undergo costly environmental testing and review before a sale could be completed.
That “guilty-until-proven-innocent” approach was seen as a cumbersome and overly costly deal-killer.
Almost 5,000 properties have entered the Transfer Act program since the 1980s. But less than half have been cleared.
The new regulations are the result of a four-year consultation between state environmental and economic development staff and dozens of industry experts including brokers, land-use attorneys and cleanup experts. They align the state more closely with the approach used by 48 other states, which, state officials say, will mean faster cleanups initiated by owners.
“Today’s adoption of the release-base cleanup regulations and the sunsetting of the outdated Transfer Act will exponentially drive economic development, as well as improve environmental outcomes in Connecticut,” said State Senator Joan Hartley (D-Waterbury), co-chair of the General Assembly’s Commerce Committee and a longtime proponent of overhauling the Transfer Act.
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments