Sen. Meyer Addresses State Environmental Scorecard

State Sen. Edward Meyer, who represents Durham and Killingworth, said that the 2011 report of the state Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) shows that while Connecticut continues to make good progress in certain aspects of environmental protection, it must still work to improve its beach closings, its unhealthy air days, its sewage-free rivers and – perhaps most importantly – improve its compliance with existing environmental regulations.

The Council’s full, 46-page report is available here. 

“Residents breathed unhealthy air for 29 days – essentially a full a month – in 2010, the most in half a decade, and part of that may be due to our poor energy infrastructure here in Connecticut and our overreliance on dirty, coal-burning electricity plants,” said Meyer, who is Senate Chairman of the Environment Committee. “This, more than anything, points to the need to link our environmental and energy agencies, as Gov. Malloy has proposed and which I endorse.

“Nitrogen levels are declining in Long Island Sound, which is good for fish and which is likely the result of Connecticut issuing bonds to improve local sewage treatment plants. And we’re seeing the return of more bird species like eagles and piping plovers,” Meyer explained. “But there are far too many beach closings due to high bacteria counts after heavy rains. There’s no way to track how much open space we have, and an initiative to create an open space registry was removed from this year’s budget. And only 11 percent of state rivers are deemed healthy enough to swim in.

“But perhaps the most disturbing aspect to me of the CEQ report is that Connecticut’s overall compliance with DEP regulations averages just 86 percent, the lowest in several years. And once again the number of inspections performed by DEP has declined from the previous year.

“It was less than a year ago that the General Assembly passed a bill to speed-up the DEP permit approval process in the name of business expansion and job growth. I don’t know how we’re going to do that unless we have a co-commitment to increase DEP permitting staff – and the ‘Plan B’  budget cuts unveiled by the governor last week include the option of reducing DEP permitting staff by 25 to 50 percent. If that comes to pass, it would be both anti-business and anti-environment.”