Under new Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Amey Marrella, businesses are already bristling at what they say is if anything an intensifying bias against business ”“ at a time when the state is desperate for economic growth.
Marrella was the choice of Gov. M. Jodi Rell to lead the agency after former Commissioner Gina McCarthy was hired by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a senior post.
Marrella previously held a deputy commissioner post under McCarthy since 2006. Before that, she was first selectman of Woodbridge, after having been an attorney adviser to the federal EPA, helping develop regulations to implement the Clean Air Act passed in 1990. She graduated from Harvard Law School and Williams College.
At her confirmation hearing, Marrella suggested she would not pursue an environmental agenda that did not take into account the state”™s business sector. And in response to a question from state Rep. Demetrios Giannaros of Farmington, she pledged not to use DEP policymaking to in effect “legislate,” rather seeking any changes to the law through the Connecticut General Assembly.
Some in the environmental sector say that message has yet to filter down to the rank and file at the agency.
“I think there”™s still a mentality at DEP that anyone in the regulated community are bad guys,” said Pam Elkow, an attorney with Robinson & Cole L.L.P., speaking at a gathering of the Construction Institute late last month in Bridgeport. “In reality, all of my clients are trying to do the right thing ”“ just on limited resources.”
At a subsequent hearing by the legislative environmental committee, Marrella reiterated that she sees economic growth and environmental protection as complementary goals ”“ within limits.
“Environmental protection isn”™t just end-of-the-pike or end-of-the-stack controls,” Marrella said. “To the extent that pollution remains a part of business ”¦ it”™s generally more cost effective to minimize it rather than to deal with consequences of the pollution.”
To date, Marrella indicated she has spent most of her time focused on making the agency more efficient, both from the vantage of its internal operations as well as in permitting.
Multiple efforts are under way to force the agency to take economic interests into account as part of its normal processes. State Rep. Larry Cafero of Norwalk is supporting a bill that would create cross-agency teams to expedite the permitting process for economic development projects that have at least 100 jobs at stake, or those that would put 50 workers in a brownfield development or urban enterprise zone.
“Despite the years of requests and suggesting that DEP follow a different philosophy, I think to some extent some of these programs are stuck in the 1970s,” said Eric Brown, associate counsel for the Connecticut Business & Industry Association. “There”™s distrust of industry; there”™s the feeling that when one applies for a permit you have to supply all kinds of engineering and forms, they want to know where every pipe, spigot, (and) valve is in your facility. That all has to be displayed, reviewed, approved.
“If they would take the approach that, ”˜you know what, what we”™re concerned about is what goes out to the environment; what comes out of your pipe,”™” Brown continued. “”˜We”™re not going to take our time and resources to engineer your whole facility. If you can do it right, great; if you can”™t, we’re going to hit you hard.”™ And they could save all those resources, put them all in enforcement for all we care.
“We”™re not talking about sacrificing the environment in any way, shape or form,” Brown said. “That”™s not what the discussion is; the discussion is how we achieve the goals of both those interests, the economic interest as well.”
