• Policy Category: Environmental Justice
• State: Connecticut
• Date Implemented: 1/1/2009

Went into effect 1/1/2009 

Defined “Environmental Justice Community,” “Affecting facility,” “Meaningful public participation,” and “Community environmental benefit agreement.” The Act outlined that applicants of new or expanded permits or siting approvals in EJ communities must file a meaningful public participation plan and consult the elected officials of the town to “evaluate the need for a community environmental benefit agreement.” 

Defined “environmental justice community as “a United States census block group, as determined in accordance with the most recent United States census, for which thirty per cent or more of the population consists of low-income persons who are not institutionalized and have an income below two hundred per cent of the federal poverty level, or (B) a distressed municipality.” 

Defined “affecting facility” as “(A) electric generating facility with a capacity of more than ten megawatts; (B) sludge or solid waste incinerator or combustor; (C) sewage treatment plant with a capacity of more than fifty million gallons per day; (D) intermediate processing center, volume reduction facility or multitown recycling facility with a combined monthly volume in excess of twenty-five tons; (E) new or expanded landfill, including, but not limited to, a landfill that contains ash, construction and demolition debris or solid waste; (F) medical waste incinerator; or (G) major source of air pollution, as defined by the federal Clean Air Act. 

“Meaningful public participation” means (A) residents of an environmental justice community have an appropriate opportunity to participate in decisions about a proposed facility or the expansion of an existing facility that may adversely affect such residents’ environment or health; (B) the public’s participation may influence the regulatory agency’s decision; and (C) the applicant for a new or expanded permit, certificate or siting approval seeks out and facilitates the participation of those potentially affected during the regulatory process; and 

(4) “Community environmental benefit agreement” means a written agreement entered into by a municipality and an owner or developer of real property whereby the owner or developer agrees to develop real property that is to be used for any new or expanded affecting facility and to provide financial resources for the purpose of the mitigation, in whole or in part, of impacts reasonably related to the facility, including, but not limited to, impacts on the environment, traffic, parking and noise.” 

• Action Agency(ies): Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), Connecticut Siting Council
• Read the full policy language