Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection

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Anyone who wants to get a permit to build or expand an Affecting Facility within a designated Environmental Justice Community must first get approval on a plan for engaging the public in this process — before they can even file their permit application. This requirement ensures that affected stakeholders have an opportunity to share their input before any projects that have the potential to impact the environment move forward.

What Is an Environmental Justice Community?

In CT, many refer to the statutory definition of an "environmental justice community" as either: 
  • a distressed municipality, as designated by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development; OR
  • a U.S. census block group where 30% of the population is living below 200% of the federal poverty level.

See Connecticut General Statutes section 22a-20a(a) (defining “environmental justice communities” for purposes of much of DEEP’s permitting work).

Note: The list of “distressed municipalities” (i.e., one path to qualifying as an EJ community under that definition) is updatedannually by the State of Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (also called “DECD”).  Some towns on the listmeetthe DECD’s definition (see Connecticut General Statutes 32-9p(b),and some townson the list no longer meet the technical requirements for being a distressed municipality, butare granted “grace period” status.  If they are in a grace period, they are still considered “distressed municipalities” and, if the program allows for it, are eligible for benefits remain as EJ communities for a period of 5 years, or for towns with a population of 100,000 or more, 10 years. The DECD updates the list annually based on recent socioeconomic data.

DEEP’s Environmental Justice Community data is updated annually around December or January. 

Review commonly asked questions and learn more EJ-related terms

You can review this map for the 2024 Environmental Justice Census Block Groups here. This map also includes the 2025 list of distressed municipalities referenced above.

For detailed instructions on how to use and navigate this map, please view the video tutorial here.

 

What Is an Applicable Facility Affected by These Rules?
Facilities that are subject to these environmental justice engagement plans are known as “affecting facilities” (see section 22a-20a of the Connecticut General Statutes (CGS), also known as the state's Environmental Justice Law). To be categorized as an affecting facility, they need to fall under at least one of these categories:
  1. electric-generating facility with a capacity of more than 10 megawatts;
  2. sludge or solid waste incinerator or combustor;
  3. sewage treatment plant with a capacity of more than 50 million gallons per day;
  4. intermediate processing center, volume reduction facility, or multi-town recycling facility with a combined monthly volume in excess of 25 tons;
  5. new or expanded landfill, including, but not limited to, a landfill that contains ash, construction, and demolition debris or solid waste;
  6. medical waste incinerator; or
  7. major source of air pollution, as defined by the federal Clean Air Act.
CGS Section 22a-20a states that for any application for an affecting facility that constitutes a new or expanded permit, and that is located/proposed to be located in an EJ community, the applicant shall enter into a community environmental benefit agreement with the municipality if there are five or more affecting facilities in such municipality at the time the application is filed.

 

 

EJ affecting facilities map
This map displays the affecting facilities in environmental justice communities and towns that contain EJ communities as census block groups. 

 

 

 

Additional Resources

If you need to create or file an Environmental Justice Community Engagement Plan, here are a few resources you may find helpful:

Ways to Connect
  • For environmental justice administrative inquiries, please contact Edith Pestana (Program Administrator) at (860) 424-3044 or edith.pestana@ct.gov.
  • For community and education coordination inquiries, please contact Doris Johnson (Outreach & Education Coordinator) at (860) 424-3053 or doris.johnson@ct.gov.

 

Updated January 2026