Old logo above,
new one here.
C O N N E C T I C U T D .
E . P . N O W P L U
S E N E R G Y T O B E C O M E
D . E . E . P . T H I N K E R S
Blue Back Square:
Full report on Public Hearing on SB343 here.
- Developer described that process to LWVCT in 2004.
- Food for thought - any
conflict of interest here - SB343? Remember, it is developers
who are revising this to a favorably inclined P&D Committee...
- Historically preserved street front but Sloppy Louie's
closes in 1998 (on Spouth Street - Sweet's still open, we think, around
the corner on Fulton).
D.E.P. played a
role in Weston's school expansion/tertiary
treatment. Big cleanup needed for accident (above). DE(E)P into nuclear plant debate.
- NEW IDEAS here...oops!
- History department: DEP employee*
(l.) now a working mother. Tertiary treatment plant is
functioning on School Road in 2005. DEP Commissioner McCarthy
next.
- TENTATIVE
DETERMINATION:
INTENT TO ISSUE PERMIT UNDER SECTION 22a-430 OF THE C.G.S. ("permit to
discharge"); [PUBLIC
COMMENT:
Prior to making a final decision to approve or deny any application,
the
DEP Commissioner shall consider written comments on the application
from
interested persons which are received within 30 days of this public
notice
(dated November 22, 2002). If a petition signed by 25 or more
persons,
or if he determines there is a significant public interest in the
application...a
Public Hearing may be held (30 days notice).] Small Zenon plants
now suspect as data comes in (not just Weston) in 2007.
- CT DEP Commissioner, appointed by
Governor Rell, who stated her department's policy
(especially in regard to Earth Day): "No Child Left
Inside." now in Obama Administration.
- New
Commissioner of DEP for new Governor - who calls for merging DEP and
Energy into DEEP in 2011 in CT.
* On the
top left, in a late '90's photo at the University
of Rhode Island
center
for in-ground alternative septic systems, is the employee
of the Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Water
Management,
Permitting, Enforcement & Remediation Division who has been
following
Weston's septic/waste disposal travails for years.
Energy Official: 'Micro-Grids' Could
Power Crucial Services During Blackouts
The Hartford Courant
By DANIELA ALTIMARI, altimari@courant.com
5:16 PM EST, December 7, 2011
HARTFORD — Although burying all utility lines and protecting the entire
electrical grid from severe weather is far too costly, building
"micro-grids" to provide power to critical services such as sewage
treatment plants and public safety hubs in emergencies makes sense,
said the commissioner of the state's energy department.
Daniel C. Esty, who oversees the Department of Energy and Environmental
Protection, outlined his vision of such micro-grids — small-scale power
sources independent of the main electricity distribution system —
during lengthy testimony Wednesday before the governor's Two Storm
Panel. The panel is examining the response to Tropical Storm Irene and
the devastating October nor'easter, both of which resulted in prolonged
and widespread power failures.
The micro-grids would be powered by fuel cells or natural-gas-fired
turbines, the commissioner said. They would provide an uninterrupted
source of locally generated electricity to hospitals, warming stations,
prisons, wastewater treatment facilities, and town centers.
"For those who suffered terribly, going home not only to cold dark
houses but unable to get gasoline or food, this would reduce that
burden in a way that would be measurable,'' he said.
Such a system wouldn't be cheap: Esty estimated the cost could reach
$500 million to $1 billion. But it would, in effect, provide insurance
"against the costs and hardships from a prolonged power outage,'' Esty
said in written comments submitted to the panel.
But Esty said a micro-grid could help avert gas shortages and other
problems experienced during the two most recent storms. Wastewater
treatment facilities, for instance, are at risk of failure or reduced
effectiveness when power is lost for an extended period because many
have generators that provide just a few days of emergency power, he
said.
"In the course of the two storms, keeping these systems up and running
emerged as a high priority – and a challenge, as back-up power failed
at a number of facilities, causing several discharges of untreated
sewage into the environment,'' Esty said in his written remarks.
Esty's testimony before the Two Storm Panel was his most detailed
public comment yet on the storms. The panel, commissioned by Gov.
Dannel P. Malloy, is holding a series of hearings in advance of issuing
recommendations that will provide the basis for future policy.
Esty said he backs the idea of setting performance standards that power
companies must comply with — and linking executive pay to performance.
Massachusetts levies penalties against utilities that do not meet
certain benchmarks regarding power restoration. Several Connecticut
lawmakers are pushing for a similar system here.
"I'm a big believer in metrics and performance standards,'' Esty told
the panel. "And I do think we should look at whether we can't establish
some set of targets that we want to hold our utilities to, time targets
... for getting the power back on or getting the cable TV back running
again."
Such standards can be tough to enforce because each storm-related
crisis brings its own unique circumstances, he said.
But, Esty added, "I still think that having performance standards makes
sense. And I think having a series of economic consequences flow from
sub-par performance is appropriate. I do think we need to find ways in
a regulated environment to find the discipline that otherwise is
provided by the marketplace."
The Two Storm Panel on Wednesday also heard from utility company
consultants in Wisconsin and the commissioner of the state Department
of Transportation, James Redeker.
Redeker said the DOT is developing a strategy that addresses trees
along highways and rail lines, among infrastructure issues.
The department lost about 190 employees due to early retirement,
Redeker said, but has now been given approval to hire again.
"We were able to handle [the October] storm,'' he said. "It wasn't like
a major snow event that could have gone on for days and days and days
... that would have been a much more serious challenge from a manpower
perspective."
Lee D. Hoffman, an attorney who serves on the panel, asked Redeker if
it makes sense for the DOT to have staff training in clearing downed
power lines "so you don't have to wait for an over-committed power
company.''
No, responded Redeker, citing safety as a chief concern. Clearing live
wires from the streets requires specialized training and equipment, he
said.
The panel is expected to issue its report around the first of the year.
DEEP's
first energy efficiency program
ready to roll
Jan Ellen Spiegel, CT MIRROR
October 10, 2011
After a balky start, due in no small part to the budget uncertainties
in the first half of the year, the Department of Energy and
Environmental Protection is on the verge of launching its first major
energy efficiency initiative.
Called Lead By Example--a name not uncommon around the nation for
energy conservation programs--Connecticut's is designed to address a
long and longstanding list of inefficient and otherwise outdated energy
components in state buildings and other properties.
Some of the energy retrofit projects involve performance contracts, a
process that pays for energy efficiency upgrades with the cost savings
achieved by making them. Others are being paid for outright with state
funds, starting with $15 million approved by the state Bond Commission
last month.
Action on these projects is being spurred by a provision in the energy
legislation passed this spring that requires energy usage in state
buildings to be reduced by 10 percent by Jan. 1, 2013.
"That's really soon," laughed Alex Kragie, a special assistant to DEEP
commissioner Dan Esty. "I kind of regret that date now.
"That's a big order."
The plan is to start with three of the many projects, some of which
have languished for years, and using bond money to get them done.
"After these three we will know the process," Kragie said. "We'll know
how to do this, and then we'll draw into our deeper pool of projects."
The biggest of the three is to replace all the incandescent lights and
guidance signs at Bradley Airport and the five general aviation
facilities run by the Department of Transportation with LEDs. The cost
is $540,000. With a projected annual savings of just under
$160,000--including maintenance--payback would take less than
three-and-a-half years.
A $400,000 project will replace the HVAC and lighting systems in the
library at Eastern Connecticut State University with state-of-the-art
automated controls--a five-year payback. And the third would upgrade
the roof HVAC unit at Cybulski correctional facility in Enfield for
$187,000 with about a six-year payback.
"It's an investment," Kragie said. "Not just 15 million flying out the
door."
Roger Smith of Clean Water Action said that the state was finally
taking action on these projects was a pleasant shock. "It's something
they've been talking about for years, but never were serious," he said.
"I think 15 million is a great place to start.
"It's important to get projects up and running because it helps to get
building managers excited."
And that's exactly the point of Lead By Example said Jonathan Schrag,
DEEP's new deputy commissioner in charge of energy, on the job only a
couple of weeks.
"It's a perfectly named program that is leading by example: Small
amount of money, show it can be done, and then let others follow in
sort of a ripple effect," said Schrag, expressing the hope of many that
the ripple gets down to the municipal level and beyond. "State
government's role is to set targets, to identify barriers and overcome
them, and to lead demonstration projects."
Lead By Example jelled quickly over the summer after DEEP was
approached by a coalition that included the Emily Hall Tremaine
Foundation, the Common Sense Fund and the Hampshire Foundation. All
three address energy and environment as at least part of their
missions. Tremaine, the leader among the three and a supporter of The
Connecticut Mirror, has for some time advocated a lead-by-example
approach to energy efficiency in public buildings.
Tremaine's goal was to form a partnership with state government to help
do that, though its president, Stewart Hudson, said it's not yet clear
how that partnership will work.
"We're figuring out the details of what that might be right now," he
said. "Sometimes it's about marketing, access to people or experts you
might not otherwise have."
Pulling together a list of projects was relatively simple. DEEP got the
word out to state agencies along with a template for an application
that could be returned by email. Ninety to 100 projects were
proposed. Two committees--one technical, one financial--reviewed
applications and came up with a list of 67. An initial group of
17--state universities, prisons, transportation facilities and office
buildings--including the first three, would use up roughly the first
$15 million. Those chosen are projects that have already been bid or
are close to it. The University of Connecticut will use its own bonding
authority for its projects.
Included in the calculations are how many jobs each project would
include. Among the first three, the airport project is expected to
require 22, the work at Eastern 16 and the prison project eight. The
goal is not so-called green jobs said both Schrag and Kragie--it's just
jobs.
"We do need to make sure we are tapping into the Connecticut labor
force," Kragie said "It's not just a bunch of folks driving down from
Massachusetts to do work and going home. "
Eric Brown of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association said
Lead By Example has great potential to create jobs and lower energy
rates, though it's unclear how much of either will occur. It depends on
how many additional projects will be spurred by this first wave.
"The key thing is the process for selecting projects," he said. "It's
an area that will deserve some attention and commitment to make sure
it's open and transparent and substantive and gets some scrutiny."
Another calculation in choosing bonding projects was whether a single
facility needed so many upgrades that bonding would be too expensive,
making a performance contract a better option. The performance
contract route, however, has not been developed as quickly as the
bonding plan. While the energy legislation required the state to
establish standards and guidelines for performance contracts in state
facilities, that process is only getting underway in earnest next week.
As part of it, the U.S. Department of Energy is providing a consultant
to work with a group from the state. DEEP expects to have everything
ready to go by the end of the year--a fast pace made possible in part
by the fact that a similar process to draw up performance contract
materials for municipalities has just been completed.
That document - lengthy, technical and complex, complete with sample
contracts--has been submitted to the Public Utilities Regulatory
Authority. But many of those lauding Lead By Example, and expressing
hope that it will result in municipalities taking the same sorts of
action. worry that the lack of an outreach plan to tell communities
about the performance contract document and assist them with technical
and other resources, will keep it from being used.
Clean Water Action's Smith led the working group on outreach for the
municipal performance contract document. His committee's language on
how to roll out the program, was eliminated from the final report - a
mistake, he felt.
"It should be a state branded program with the state's name behind it,"
he said. "DEEP and the energy efficiency fund literally should be able
to go out and do presentations."
He and others feel the absence of an outreach plan could undermine some
of Lead By Example's long-range goal to get cities and towns on board.
"Unless municipalities know what the state has to offer and unless they
know how much the state is committed to assisting municipalities,"
Tremaine's Hudson said. "There will be little value to this work."
Link to Courant report:
Malloy
says
NU consulting fee presented no conflict for Esty
Mark Pazniokas, CT MIRROR
September 26, 2011
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy today defended the intervention by Daniel C.
Esty, his commissioner of the new Department of Energy and
Environmental Protection, in a regulatory issue involving a subsidiary
of a former consulting client, Northeast Utilities.
"I don't believe there is a conflict. If I believed there is a
conflict, I would indicate he shouldn't be involved, and I don't
believe that is the case," Malloy told reporters.
The governor was responding to questions arising from a Hartford
Courant story about Esty, a Yale professor who had a busy consulting
business before joining the administration, receiving $205,000 from NU
from 1997 to 2005. Malloy said Esty disclosed his consulting for
NU before he was appointed as the commissioner of environmental
protection, with the expectation that the legislature would approve
Malloy's proposal for the new, expanded agency. Esty has recused
himself from issues involving clients with whom he has worked within
the last five years.
"Based on the information that I have, I do not believe the
commissioner acted in an improper way," Malloy said. "I can assure you
he did in fact disclose the work that he had done for that company."
On Aug. 30, Esty wrote a letter effectively suspending an application
by NU's Connecticut Light & Power to install 1.2 million "smart
meters," whose cost would have been borne by ratepayers. He acted
the day after a regulator produced a draft decision recommending denial
of the application, concluding that the benefit to consumers--smart
meters allow sophisticated off-peak pricing--was negligible, compared
to the cost.
Esty says he acted because the issue of smart meters should be
considered as part of a broader, still-evolving state energy policy,
including smart meters. Malloy said his commissioner's rationale
was reasonable.
"That we would want to be a state government that had a policy in place
shouldn't shock anyone, because all 50 states are in the process of
looking at this as we speak," Malloy said.
"The policy could be as simple as saying for all new customers, smart
meters should be installed," Malloy said. Or the state might set a goal
of installing smart meters at locations with multiple meters, such as
apartment buildings, he said.
In a written statement drafted in response to questions posed by The
Courant, Esty said he actually opposes the CL&P application to the
regulatory arm of his agency, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority.
"In fact, I do not support the smart meter proposal in the filing and
thought it was appropriate to get the policy framework in place before
any signal was given to CL&P about the direction it should take on
this issue," Esty said.
OOPS MOMENT OF THE CENTURY
D.E.E.P. has same logo designer as President Obama? New point man
on energy and RGGI
Something isn't right here, besides the link not being to the Kevin
Rennie column.
Deputy DEEP Commish Resigns After “Weird”
Phone Message Controversy
by CTNewsjunkie Staff | Feb 29, 2012 3:45pm
Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Deputy
Commissioner Jonathan Schrag resigned Wednesday after claims he left an
intimidating voicemail with the head of a conservative women’s
organization.
Schag’s resignation comes a day after Courant columnist Kevin Rennie
reported state officials were investigating a message from his cell
phone to Conservative Women’s Forum leader Cynthia David, suggesting
her email was being monitored.
Schrag told the Courant he didn’t make the call and suggested someone
recorded his voice during private conversation and played it on her
answering machine.
Not everyone bought the argument. Environment Committee Co-Chairman
Sen. Edward Meyer called the whole situation “weird” and after being
told he resigned said “then I guess he did it.”
In a letter to DEEP Commissioner Daniel Esty, Schrag said he was
“taking this step because of concern that my continued presence will be
a distraction from the department’s efforts to create a new energy
future for Connecticut.”
Esty issued a statement thanking him for his work on consolidating the
Energy and Environmental Protection Departments as well as promoting
cleaner, cheaper energy.
DEEP picks head
of greenhouse gas agency for key position
Jan Ellen Spiegel, CT MIRROR
September 13, 2011
The head of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the nation's first
carbon emissions trading and reduction program, has been named to a key
position in the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
Jonathan Schrag will become deputy commissioner in charge of DEEP's
energy division, a key component of the newly-constituted agency and
one with a long to-do list from the legislation that established it.
Schrag is already known to insiders in the state's energy and
environment hierarchy through RGGI, where he was executive director for
the last three years, implementing the emissions allowance and auction
system.
In addition to the experience of building a new energy program from
scratch, his time at RGGI also introduced Schrag to the political
caldron of energy politics in the Northeast. Schrag found himself a
target for conservative groups that disliked RGGI, and he had to handle
the fallout of New Jersey's decision to pull out of the 10-state
compact, of which Connecticut has been one of the more enthusiastic
members.
In hiring Schrag, DEEP Commissioner Dan Esty said in a statement to
employees that he "brings to his new position in-depth expertise and
experience on energy issues, with a particular focus on how to harness
market forces, tap entrepreneurial spirit, and use economic incentives
to promote cleaner and cheaper energy."
Prior to RGGI, Schrag, 41, founded an energy consultancy firm and
worked at energy institutes at Columbia University. He is a graduate of
Harvard University.
In a phone call from New York where he presently lives, Schrag said his
decision to come to Connecticut was based on "first, Governor Malloy
and Dan Esty's commitment to cleaner and cheaper energy. And second,
Connecticut's longstanding history and culture of innovation." That, he
said, is "how you achieve cleaner and cheaper."
He also echoed Esty on how business and clean energy development go
hand in hand: "Government doesn't have all the answers," he said. "The
private sector needs to be part of the picture."
Reporting to Schrag will be Kevin DelGobbo who heads the Public
Utilities Regulatory Authority, formerly the Department of Public
Utility Control, which became part of DEEP in the reorganization. Tracy
Babbidge, who is the interim head of the Bureau of Energy and
Technology Policy, also will report to Schrag.
Schrag's appointment follows the announcement that Macky McCleary has
been named deputy commissioner for environmental quality. He replaces
Amey Marrella who left the agency after returning to that position. She
had also held it before becoming the commissioner of the old Department
of Environmental Protection towards the end of M. Jodi Rell's
administration.
McCleary, 34, a Yale graduate in architecture, had been with McKinsey
and Co., a global management consulting firm and has expertise in the
area of green building.
From DEP to
DEEP: A new state
department opens for business
Jan Ellen Spiegel, CT MIRROR
July 1, 2011
This morning, when state employees stroll into the Italian-style brick
and glazed tile 1920 building at 79 Elm Street in Hartford that once
housed an insurance company, the bronze sign over the entrance will
still read Department of Environmental Protection. The guard at the
front desk will do his job no differently than ever, and the view of
Bushnell Park will be summery and green as it always is this time of
year.
Everything will be the same--yet nothing will.
Today is day one of the new Department of Energy and Environmental
Protection - a merger of the old DEP, the Department of Public
Utilities Control, the energy policy division of the Office of Policy
and Management and a few other bits and pieces. But more than simple
consolidation, the new DEEP represents a fundamentally new approach to
energy and environmental policy in Connecticut.
"Both the energy and environment people are going to need in my
department to be thinking about the economic and the jobs implications
and the economic growth impacts of the choices we make," said Dan Esty,
the DEP commissioner, who today transitions to DEEP commissioner.
Esty was hired by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to wrench a department that had
been viewed by business as obstuctionist and narrowly-focused into one
with a series of big-stakes mandates: Change how energy is provided,
lower costs, clean and protect the environment, address climate change
and make all of it into the top economic driver in the state.
"Job one is to build a team and job two is to draft an energy
strategy," Esty said. "We're thinking about the big issues of structure
and the little issues of logo and name. We don't even know what our
name is yet. Is it D-E-E-P or DEEP?"
Whatever-it's-called was created in a massive legislative package of
energy and environmental initiatives that Esty called "the most
important breakthrough in energy policy that has occurred in the United
States in the last five years."
It comes with a $183-million budget (about $78 million from state
funds) and more than 850 employees--before cuts to help plug the
state's budget hole. It also comes with a new financing structure
called the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority, often
referred to as a green bank--which as of today replaces the Connecticut
Clean Energy Fund.
It includes dramatic shifts in responsibility: Creating a comprehensive
energy plan and taking over electricity procurement from the utilities;
a system for renewable energy in which technologies compete against
each other for funds; and many energy efficiency programs.
That energy emphasis has raised concerns from environmental groups that
classic environmental issues may get lost in the shuffle.
"We're definitely keeping our eye on it," said Roger Reynolds of the
Connecticut Fund for the Environment. "To make sure that the
environmental function continues to be a strong and vigorous part of
that agency."
Esty said both areas would be treated equally. "And even more so, we're
going to work at the interconnection between these issues in a way that
no one had before."
DEEP will have three divisions. Two are from the old DEP: environmental
protection, handling things like pollution control, and environmental
conservation for parks, forest and wildlife. The third, energy,
includes utility regulation and an energy and technology policy bureau.
Regulation will come under a new Public Utilities Regulation
Authority--streamlined for a 21st century deregulated environment from
the DPUC with three directors instead of the DPUC's five commissioners.
No word yet on who is making the cut. Calls to the DPUC were not
returned.
Even with budget cuts, Esty plans to hire a department deputy, a bureau
chief to handle energy and technology, and must, by law, hire an
electricity procurement manager.
The job of putting policy people in the correct slots so that they
avoid duplication, but mesh where needed, has fallen to Jessie
Stratton, the director of policy development who was hired only a
couple of months ago. An old hand at policy, having served as a state
legislator on the environment committee for 14 years and then an
environmental and energy advocate, her days have been spent with
organizational charts matching lists of responsibilities with the
people who need to do them. "A lot of it does actually fall into place
relatively easily," she said. "It supports the logic of combining these
functions: 'Oh of course, why was that separated out to begin with?'"
For others, transition--underway since before the legislation to form
DEEP was even filed--has been a relentless march of nuts and bolts
tasks. "Everyone's looking at the high level and how wonderful it is,"
said Steve Fish, director of DEP's office of information management.
"My staff is down there in the trenches making these things happen."
That means getting everyone on the same computer and telephone systems
(PURA's email won't be switched over in time) as well as overseeing
millions of hard-copy records and beginning a major transformation to
the paperless department Esty has pledged to have in two years.
The financial office has to get everyone on the same systems, a task
complicated by timing that coincides with the end of the fiscal year
and by the 126 federal grants to DEP from nine different agencies plus
stimulus funds transferring over from OPM. Just getting the department
name changed from DEP to DEEP so that financial flow doesn't get
interrupted requires a pile of paperwork for the IRS.
As for the eleven energy division OPM employees, they'll actually
report to their old offices today. It's still undecided whether they'll
move to Elm Street or into the New Britain offices that have housed the
DPUC and will continue to house the PURA.
David Kalafa, a policy development coordinator who's been handling
stimulus grants and developing a database to track energy efficiency in
state buildings, has already calculated that moving to New Britain will
save him $660 a year in gasoline. Wherever his desk winds up, he's
looking forward to new challenges after 23 years at OPM.
"The concept of centralizing energy policy in one agency makes a lot of
sense," he said. "Over the years there's been a lot of complaints about
fragmented energy policy in the state. This should improve coordination
and efficiency."
And that's the first economic step according to Esty. "Energy is a $6
trillion a year part of the global economy. You don't have to have a
very big slice of that to have a lot of very successful, very
profitable businesses," he said. "Whether the transition to clean
energy occurs in the next 10 or 20 years or over the next 40 or 50
years, it's going to occur. And those that lead the way are going to be
very successful from an economic point of view.
"We can't afford to let slip by."
Pomp,
circumstance and a new era at the DEP
By Mark Pazniokas, CT MIRROR
March 18, 2011
The swearing-in of Daniel C. Esty as the new commissioner of
environmental protection blossomed Friday into a celebration for Esty
and a milestone for an agency that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy wants to
quickly embrace a broader new mission. See full story here.
Esty: Connecticut Committed To Nuclear
by John Dankosky
March 17, 2011 · 1:36 pm
Connecticut’s new commissioner overseeing energy and environmental
policy says the nuclear accident in Japan is going to require the
nation to step back and look at the “challeges that need to be faced”
before moving forward with new nuclear power plants.
Speaking on Where We Live, Dan Esty said that nuclear should be part of
a “portfolio” of choices to provide clean and cheap energy.
”Frankly all of the energy options going forward have challenges,” he
said. ”The nuclear industry has to make sure that it can dispose
of waste safely, and frankly deal with accidents. And I think we
don’t yet know what the final outcome of the situation will be in
Japan, but it does signal that we need to be careful.”
Esty said that Connecticut’s nuclear plants are a generation more
advanced, and have more safety built into them. He also called
Connecticut “geologically stable” and a place where nuclear plants
could avoid major natural disasters.
“So, I think there is likely to be a commitment to nuclear that goes
forward. But I think the difficulty is that this adds – the
safety issues that are now at the forefront of people’s minds – adds to
the challenge, which was already substantial for nuclear, based on the
difficulty of getting new plants licensed and built,” he said.
“And, frankly, the large part of that challenge is economic.
These plants have not been built in an economical way in recent years.”
The Millstone Plant in Waterford generates up to 60 percent of the
state’s electricity.
Aquifer
Protection:
CT DEP supports this bill in the 2007 "Long Session" and we ask:
how does this related to suface water quality in a watershed? In
particular, the
one that Weston is in? Since we are in the Saugatuck River
Basin, should we be concerned about the pollution to our north, in
Waterbury (where the Saugatuck rises) as well as to our south, the
mouth of the Saugatuck as it open to the Sound?
CLEAR is the best source for aerial photos of Connecticut online, one
way to check out development (source of most pollution) - click
here!
Trash Goal:
State Wants To Toss
Less, Recycle More
DAY
By Judy Benson
Published on 12/29/2006
The amount of state trash that gets recycled would nearly double under
a new state plan announced Thursday.
Just as curbsides are piled with empty holiday gift boxes and garbage
cans overflow with torn wrapping paper, the Department of Environmental
Protection released the final version of its aggressive new initiative
to reduce the amount of waste generated and disposed of in the state.
Under the plan, recycling would rise to 58 percent from its current
level of about 30 percent of the total amount generated. To accomplish
that, the list of items that must by law be recycled would expand to
include more plastics, plastic water bottles and magazines. Currently
mandatory recycling laws cover cardboard, newspapers, glass jars and
bottles and cans.
Typically, trash haulers collect about twice as much garbage in the
week after Christmas compared to other weeks, so the announcement came
at a time when making the point that residents generate too much trash
was perhaps never easier.
“It was fortuitous,” Bob Kaliszewski, director of planning and program
development at the DEP, said of the timing. He added, however, that the
main reason for making the announcement Thursday was to get the plan
out before the start of the 2007 legislative session next week.
The 58 percent goal is a significant jump from an earlier proposal to
raise the goal to 49 percent. Kaliszewski said the final version set
the goal higher because that's the level the state will need to achieve
to stop shipping a portion of its trash out of state and to avoid
building any new incinerators or creating new landfills.
Currently about 9 percent of the 3.8 million tons of trash generated in
Connecticut annually goes to landfills in Pennsylvania, Ohio and other
states, because the state's six trash-to-energy incinerators are at
capacity.
Other elements of the plan call for more recycling of more demolition
materials and of electronic waste such as old computers and fax
machines. More food waste from restaurants, institutions, businesses
and homes would be composted. Raising the refund for returnable
beverage bottles and cans from 5 cents to 10 cents is another
possibility, as is adding plastic water bottles to the list of
returnables.
The legislature, he said, will be asked to adopt legislation to enable
some of the changes called for in the plan, and will also be asked to
approve the funding to support it. Other parts of the plan can be
enacted by the DEP under its current authority, but the agency will be
working with a panel of municipal representatives and others from
around the state to determine how best to implement the changes, he
said.
“It is a very aggressive goal. We understand that,” he said.
Jerry Tyminski, executive director of the agency that runs the regional
trash incinerator in Preston, said Thursday that while the DEP's goals
are laudable, achieving them might be difficult. Critical to the
success of the plan, he said, is that the state provide towns with
adequate funding to hire the additional staff and equipment that would
be needed to educate the public and recycle more waste.
“This will require a considerable amount of effort and dollars,” said
Tyminski of the Southeastern Connecticut Regional Resources Recovery
Authority. He also believes residents may need some type of financial
incentive to increase the amount they recycle.
“If they (the DEP) come back and say there is funding to do this, there
will be no objection.”
Kaliszewski said the DEP plans to ask the legislature for a budget of
$5 million per year to implement the plan, and that much of those funds
would be passed along to municipalities.
Tyminski said the DEP's plan is a recognition that it may be easier to
reduce the amount of trash through recycling than to try to keep up
with the growing amounts of trash being generated by burning more.
“It may be easier to recycle your way out of this than to build or
expand a new (incinerator) facility or site a landfill,” he said.
But some municipal officials have reservations about the plan. Groton
Public Works Director Gary Schneider, for one, said towns like Groton,
where many different private haulers collect the household and
commercial garbage, would have an especially hard time. The town can't
control whether a private hauler is making sure his customers are
recycling, he said.
“It's going to take enforcement and equipment and capital,” he said.
Another municipal official, North Stonington First Selectman Nicholas
Mullane, said funding for the plan is critical, to make sure that it
doesn't turn into another law that towns are obligated to carry out
without financial help.
“There is a need for recycling to be improved,” said Mullane, who sat
on a statewide committee that helped the DEP craft its draft plan. “But
the big question is how are we going to enforce it and how is the state
going to pay for it?”
Recycling
Needs A Pickup
By RINKER BUCK, Courant Staff Writer
December 29, 2006
Connecticut will have to almost double its recycling rate - from 30
percent to 58 percent - just to keep up with increasing amounts of
waste and changing lifestyles over the next 20 years.
That ambitious goal is the cornerstone of a new Solid Waste Management
Plan released Thursday by the state Department of Environmental
Protection. The plan - the first significant amendment to the state's
basic waste management plan in 15 years - is the result of a year of
study by state environmental officials after lengthy consultations with
consumer groups, town governments and industry groups.
The new plan also represents a continuation of the aggressive
environmental management policies advocated by DEP Commissioner Gina
McCarthy, who has frequently spoken out on issues of development, urban
sprawl and clean air and water since her appointment by Gov. M. Jodi
Rell two years ago.
"We have the same problem with solid waste management as we have with
all environmental issues," McCarthy said Thursday. "There's a comfort
level that we all have because so many of us feel that we've already
done so much with recycling. But the problem keeps leaping ahead of us
and, in fact, recycling rates have basically remained flat at 30
percent over the past five years.
"Meanwhile there's a whole new range of products - particularly
cellphones, computers and other electronics - that are becoming a
larger component of what we throw away every year. Only the most
aggressive and farsighted action can allow us to catch up."
Connecticut generates about 3.8 million tons of solid waste a year.
About 30 percent of that is recycled by commercial trash haulers and
town recycling centers. Fifty-seven percent is burned at six regional
trash-to-energy plants; 9 percent is disposed out of state and 4
percent is disposed at landfills.
Meanwhile, the growth in everything from restaurant and fast-food
dining to DVD and laptop sales is increasing the garbage flow every
year. At current rates of growth, the new Solid Waste Management Plan
says, the state will produce 5.2 million tons of municipal solid waste
a year by 2024. But if current recycling rates remain stagnant, the
state will be inundated with an increase of almost 1 million tons a
year from present levels.
"The bottom line is that, right now, the average person in Connecticut
generates about 1.09 tons of municipal solid waste a year," said Bob
Kaliszewski, the director of planning and program development at DEP
who coordinated the effort to revise the state's plan. "Our goal is to
get that figure down to 0.6 ton a year."
The new plan offers 75 strategies to dramatically reduce solid waste,
one of which is conducting a detailed "waste characterization study."
Among other findings, Kaliszewski said, the study will help the state
identify just how much commercial organic waste from restaurants,
fast-food franchises and commercial cafeterias reaches trash-to-energy
plants a year. Diverting that to commercial compost companies and even
animal farms for feed could significantly reduce the amount of liquids
reaching the trash-to-energy plants and thus make them more efficient.
Although many towns in Connecticut now recycle plastics labeled "1" and
"2," recycling those plastics is not required. Many towns still don't
recycle magazines, food boxes and catalogs. Legislation would be
required to mandate this recycling, but the state first wants to study
how to make such steps easier and more cost efficient for towns.
McCarthy and Kaliszewski also said it's overly simplistic to expect
major industries contributing to the waste stream to fight enhanced
recycling efforts, as indeed the beverage industry has fought "bottle
bills" in the past. In many states, including Connecticut, computer
giants like Dell and Hewlett-Packard are offering consumers an
opportunity to ship their used computers and components back to the
manufacturer for recycling, or sponsoring weekend pickup drives that
divert computers from entering the garbage stream.
McCarthy said the state will work with major electronics manufacturers
to remove hazardous materials like lead from their products so
recycling is easier and safer.
"No one wants to live next door to landfills, and waste-to-energy
plants are enormously costly facilities to expand," McCarthy said. "Our
challenge to manufacturers will be for them to support recycling and
take responsibility for the materials they are placing in the waste
chain. That way we're leading a world where we're all intelligently
managing the problems our success creates."
Engineers To
Begin
Design Work On Point O' Woods Sewer System
DAY
By Jenna Cho
Published on 6/4/2006
Old Lyme — If all goes well, the Point O' Woods beach community in
South Lyme should have a sewer and water system in place in four or
five years.
At the Point O' Woods Beach Association Board of Governors' annual
meeting Saturday at the Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School, Point O' Woods
Water Pollution Control Authority Chairman William Lacourciere told a
packed auditorium of property owners that engineering design of the
sewer and water systems will begin in the next couple of months.
The engineering design process to be done by Robert Prybylo, president
of Plantsville-based RFP Engineering LLC, will take 15 to 18 months,
Lacourciere said.
Point O' Woods is under a 2002 consent order from the state Department
of Environmental Protection to install sewers for the 420 homes in the
community. The septic systems servicing homes in the congested
community were deemed to be polluting Long Island Sound.
The designing of a sewer system and upgrades to the antiquated system
of pipes and water distribution in the community will commence despite
the fact that the beach association does not yet have an intermunicipal
agreement with East Lyme and New London to ship waste from Point O'
Woods to the New London sewage treatment plant.
The waste would travel through a pipeline running along Route 156 and
hooking up to East Lyme's existing system. The entire project will cost
the beach association about $11 million to $12 million.
Point O' Woods has been negotiating the agreement for several years.
Lacourciere said at the meeting that changes in officers due to the
November municipal elections resulted in some delays.
But Lacourciere said Saturday that the beach association is “very, very
near completion, finally, to get an intermunicipal commitment.”
William Hogan, an engineer of water pollution control for the state
DEP, attended the meeting Saturday and said the DEP will be entering a
grant-and-loan agreement with the beach association for the approximate
$650,000 cost of an engineering design, which would provide the
blueprints for the construction of the sewage and water systems.
Once the design is completed, the construction job will be put out to
bid.
“We're comfortable getting the design started because of all the work
that's gone on,” said Hogan. “We're that close to getting a signed
contract (with the municipalities).”
The DEP's Clean Water fund includes a grant for 25 percent of the
design cost as well as a 2 percent interest rate loan repayment program
spanning 20 years.
Though some residents at the meeting questioned whether inflation has
brought the project cost up higher than the originally estimated $11
million to $12 million, Lacourciere and Prybylo said the beach
association had, when determining the final cost, estimated generously
for inflation and other cost adjustments.
Homeowners will pay a portion of the cost of hooking up their houses to
the sewer systems as well as an annual user fee of about $300 a year
per household.
No
problems like this in Weston...that we know of!
Old Lyme plunged
into debate over need for sewers; Controversy swirls around
proposal
for Point O' Woods
By Karin
Crompton - Published on 07/13/2002
Old Lyme
–– To some, installing sewers in Point O' Woods is simply a matter of
money.
It's either
about the town's reluctance to provide seasonal, tax-paying residents
with
costly sewer service, or the state Department of
Environmental
Protection's eagerness to make money on sewage treatment plants.
“They (town
officials) don't want to add to the infrastructure,” said Martin Guyer,
president of the Point O' Woods Beach Association.
“... It's
about millions of dollars of taxes for which very little services are
rendered.
... It's a simple pocketbook issue.”
Mervin Roberts,
a former selectman who founded the Old Lyme Water Pollution Control
Authority
in 1995, said the DEP is all too willing
to promote
sewers for its own benefit.
“(The DEP)
is there to sell sewers,” he said, “so they can manage them and they
can
staff them and they can oversee them and then
they can
become bigger fish because they've got more under their umbrella.”
To others
in the area, it's a quality-of-life issue. Do you try to preserve Old
Lyme's
bucolic atmosphere, or give owners of beach
property
the option of converting their summer cottages into year-round
residences?
“(Sewers)
could be the first pebble in a landslide that could completely change
the
character of Old Lyme,” said Tom Risom, chairman
of the
town's WPCA.
“I don't
know if I want to be here year-round,” said Gail Fuller, vice president
of the Sound View Beach Association. “But you know
what? I
want the option.”
Some people
in Old Lyme, as well as at the state level, are concerned about
pollution.
They say there is obvious pollution resulting
from failed
septic systems. Others say the septic systems in place are functioning
quite well and that pollution is virtually non-existent.
Regardless,
sewers are on the way.
The DEP has ordered
the Point O' Woods Beach Association to implement a sewer system. The
plan
calls for Point O' Woods to hook
into a
pipeline that runs from East Lyme through Waterford and New London to
the
New London sewage treatment plant.
If all goes
according to schedule, the sewers will be installed by 2006. The DEP
has
said the project will cost $11.5 million, with the
state absorbing
up to 20 percent of the total. Point O' Woods would pay the rest
over 20 years.
The town's
WPCA has strongly opposed the installation of sewers, and the town's
Plan
of Conservation and Development lists “sewer
avoidance”
at the top of its “Critical Issues & Opportunities” category.
But many
in Point O' Woods maintain that sewers are the only solution. And they
commissioned a study, done by Consulting
Evironmental
Engineers Inc., that documented a pollution problem caused by faulty
and
antiquated septic systems.
“When you
have (456) houses in a compact area like this, give me a break,” Guyer
said. “It's obvious to anyone with knowledge that
(the waste
is) going somewhere.”
The town
commissioned its own study, by Nathan L. Jacobson and Associates, that
concluded sewers were not necessary at Point O'
Woods.
The study found no recent outbreaks of pollution.
During the
Fourth of July weekend in 1998, the Point O' Woods beach was closed
because
of high levels of bacteria in the water. After
inspections
of approximately 60 houses, Ronald Rose, the town's sanitarian,
determined
that many of them had septic systems in need
of repairs.
He did not find that sewers were necessary.
Nevertheless,
that 1998 beach closing was the beginning of Point O' Woods' pursuit of
sewers. The beach association's answer to the
town's
refusal to install sewers was to form its own WPCA, which it was able
to
do because of its status as a state-chartered beach
association.
Other beach associations in town may follow suit.
Dennis Melluzzo,
president of the Old Lyme Federation of Beaches, helped poll residents
governed by the 13 beach associations in town,
and found
that 68 percent of them said they needed sewers, 20 percent said they
didn't,
and the rest said they didn't want to pay for
them.
“Point O'
Woods has always had a septic issue,” Melluzzo said. “The town has just
pretended it didn't exist, because in 10 weeks (the
vacationers)
go home.”
Members
of other associations want to be able to live in their beach properties
year-round. The South Lyme Property Owners
Association
has asked a federal judge to order the town to install a sewer system.
Those who
oppose sewers fear they will lead to the construction of year-round
homes
on tiny lots, followed by an influx of families that
would put
a strain on the school system and town services. They point to the
Giants
Neck Heights section of East Lyme as an example.
“What's
wrong with Giants Neck?” asked Guyer. “I think it's a beautiful
community.”
“It's great
for Giants Neck people,” Roberts said. “That's what they want, that's
what
they've got, let them be happy with it. We have
something
else here, and we're happy with it, and I think any change would
degrade
our quality of life. And the cost would be
horendous.”
Roberts
said that he and others worked closely with the DEP in forming a WPCA
and
were consistently assured that the town would be
able to
avoid sewers. He now believes Point O' Woods has been duped into
believing
it needs sewers.
“Virtually
all the lack of oxygen and the presence of excess nitrogen in Long
Island
Sound is due to sewage treatment plants,” Roberts
said. “So
now to put an additional load on an already overloaded New London
plant,
from a place that doesn't need to be sewered in
the first
place, to me is the height of a deceit.”
There is
no deceit, said George Hicks, senior sanitary engineer for the DEP, who
has been closely involved with the Point O' Woods
issue.
Sewer avoidance means helping a town coordinate its development in such
a way that it doesn't need sewers, he said. But in the
case of
Point O' Woods, the houses were built long before zoning rules or the
notion
of sewer avoidance existed.
“Sewer avoidance
does not mean that sewers will never go into a town,” Hicks said. “If
an
area has the treatment capability to handle
on-site
disposal, then fine. But if an area has already been developed at such
a high density that it can't handle on-site disposal, you
have to
look at other means.
“In this
case, it's collecting it (sewage) and then sending it to another town's
sewer system.”
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