Press Releases
11/22/2024
DEEP Releases Second 20BY26 Progress Report
DEEP Continues Implementing Process Improvement Measures Toward 2026 Targets to Better Serve the Residents, Municipalities, and Businesses of Connecticut
(HARTFORD, CT) – Today, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) released its second report describing the work its teams pursued in the summer of 2024 toward the agency’s ambitious 20BY26 Initiative. 20BY26 launched in February 2024 and released its first progress report in August 2024. This initiative builds on the foundation of DEEP’s highly successful 20BY20 Initiative by setting 20 new targets to meet by the end of 2026 to make DEEP’s processes even more predictable, transparent, and efficient. The goal of these ongoing improvements is to keep striving for better and more innovative ways to serve our state’s municipalities, businesses, other regulated entities, and residents.
“Successfully delivering on our mission starts with effective process,” said DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes. “That’s why one of DEEP’s strategic goals is to prioritize efficiency, transparency, and predictability in our regulatory responsibilities. In pursuit of that strategic goal, we have already made a strong start since the launch of 20BY26 in February of this year. This second report is part of a series of 20BY26 progress reports issued quarterly to provide public visibility into DEEP’s success towards these important agency goals.”
Here are just a few highlights of the progress we’ve made in the third quarter of 2024:
Goal 1: Adopt Release-Based Cleanup Program Regulations to Modernize Connecticut’s Environmental Cleanup Framework to make the cleanup of more than 3,000 polluted properties more equitable and efficient by bringing Connecticut’s regulatory framework in line with 48 other states. DEEP released the draft regulations for formal public comment on July 26, 2024, and the 90-day public comment period has concluded. These regulations are the result of four years of hard work across multiple divisions at DEEP, engagement with legislative leaders, municipalities, developers, environmental consultants and attorneys, and other environmental leaders, and 50 Release Based Working Group meetings co-convened by DEEP and the Department of Economic and Community Development. We aim to submit the regulations to the Legislative Regulation Review Committee in early 2025.
Goal 18: Enhancing Dam Safety Through Improved Permitting for Repair and Removal to maintain public safety, provide environmental benefit for private and state-owned dams, and improve climate resiliency, has made great strides. The DEEP team has begun work to expand the eligibility for use of Dam Safety General Permits; this expansion will make it easier to repair or remove structures that pose a risk to public safety and fragment ecosystems in our state. We will be engaging soon with an Advisory Group of professional engineers, water utilities, and environmental advocates to receive their feedback on improvements to the General Permits.
Goal 19: DEEP’s goal to Establish Community Resource Hubs is focusing on building DEEP’s capacity to facilitate community engagement in program design and improve access to beneficial environmental and energy programs and services. As a first step in providing much needed services to and partnerships with Connecticut’s environmental justice communities, we released a draft Request for Qualifications and opportunity for public comment to gather feedback before finalizing the RFQ.
DEEP announced the first 16 goals of the 20BY26 Initiative at a press event with Governor Lamont in March 2024. At that event, DEEP invited stakeholders to submit suggestions for the four remaining goals. The first progress report in August introduced those final four goals—covering dams, equity, natural diversity databases, and online metrics.
Please view the second 20BY26 progress report here.
To receive quarterly progress updates, to learn more about 20BY26, and to get involved in any of the initiatives mentioned in the report, please go here.
If you have questions or comments about 20BY26, please email DEEP.20BY26@ct.gov.
For more information on the 20BY26 initiative, please visit the 20BY26 webpage.- Twitter: @CTDEEPNews
- Facebook: DEEP on Facebook
Contact
DEEP Communications
DEEP.communications@ct.gov
860-424-3110