Ever wonder why that creepy old industrial site in the middle of your community sits vacant, year after year? There’s a good chance it’s caught up in a broken system known as the Transfer Act.
What’s the Transfer Act? The Transfer Act is the system we use to address historical pollution releases on properties. The Transfer Act ties investigation of pollution on properties to the transfer of a property or business when it changes ownership.
What’s wrong with it? The Transfer Act chooses certain parcels of land based on historic land use and requires an extensive environmental investigation and complete cleanup of that parcel.
Did you know that since the 1980s, more than 3,000 Connecticut properties have been stuck, unable to complete their cleanup obligations, thanks to the Transfer Act? Such properties are less attractive to developers, and less likely to be redeveloped. This stasis hurts Connecticut economically, and leaves holes in our communities.
Is there a better way? Yes, it’s called a release-based system, and 48 other states are already using it. It’s time for Connecticut to get with the program.
What’s a release-based system? In a release-based system, a clean-up is triggered only when releases of pollution are discovered. It requires that those releases be reported, and sets equal deadlines and standards for the cleanup of those releases.
Connecticut has a rich industrial past. We should be celebrated for it, not penalized by it.
Benefits of a release-based system:
- Allows for faster, less expensive cleanups that still protect human health and the environment, resulting in outcomes that are better for the environment, businesses, local economies, and CT’s economy.
- Supports redevelopment and reinvestment in our municipalities. Fewer blighted properties will sit unused, undeveloped, and potentially hazardous in our communities. Cleaner properties equal healthier, safer communities.
- Efforts will be focused on high-risk releases, and cleanup standards for historical pollution will be streamlined to make cleanups faster and cheaper while still protecting human health and the environment.
- Who benefits from a release-based system?
- Municipalities will see redevelopment of long-blighted properties, and more cleanups.
- Distressed communities disproportionately impacted by environmental pollution will see more cleanups to a protective health standard, and more blighted properties will be restored to productive re-use.
- Real estate developers will have more control over the timing and scope of the investigation and resulting cleanups.
- $$$$$$ DECD and DEEP estimate moving to a release-based system 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.
When can we move to a release-based system?
Over the last 4 years, DEEP and DECD have met more than 50 times with a working group made up of legislative leaders, municipalities, developers, environmental consultants and attorneys, incorporating their input to help shape and fine tune the regulations. DEEP and DECD have also presented to dozens of stakeholder groups interested in the process.
We shared the draft regulations with our Working Group in December 2023, incorporated feedback, and then issued the draft regulations for public comment on July 26, 2024. The public comment period closed on Oct. 24, 2024, and we are now reviewing those comments, and incorporating feedback. We plan to submit the regulations to the Legislature’s Regulations Review Committee in early 2025.
- Related Resources:
DEEP webpage on Release-based program development, regulation adoption process timeline, stakeholder engagement, meeting recordings, and more: Release-Based Clean Up Program Regulation Development
Commissioner Dykes and Commissioner O’Keefe Op-Ed: CT must adopt more equitable, modern system to clean up polluted properties, spur development | Hartford Business Journal
