The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
DEEP’s environment inspections plummet
Dropped nearly 40% over last 8 years due to staff, money cuts
The state’s pollution watchdog is inspecting fewer factories and leaking fuel tanks at gas stations and marinas in the wake of steep budget cuts.
Inspections by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection dropped by nearly 40 percent over the last eight years, the result of a reduced workforce and overall funding, a Hearst Connecticut Media review shows.
Other forms of enforcement, such as issuing consent orders requiring polluters to clean up contamination, is down by more than 40 percent.
The reductions come as the federal Environmental Protection Agency — in keeping with President Donald Trump’s anti-regulation stance — is weakening clean air and water rules and scrapping auto emission standards that have stood for decades.
“With what’s going on in D.C., it’s up to the states to step it up and put more resources in,” said Roger Reynolds, legal director for the Connecticut Fund for the Environment and Save the Sound.
“The state has been decreasing (enforcement) and it’s not a good combination if our quality of life is important to us,” Reynolds said.
DEEP officials said Hearst’s multiyear comparison of enforcement statistics is misleading because the numbers fluctuate year to year. They said inspections at gas stations and marinas spiked during specific years due to stepped up enforcement initiatives.
Those officials, while acknowledging the numbers show an overall decrease in enforcement, insisted DEEP is doing more with less.
They pointed to computer technology that allows less labor intensive assessments of whether a company or factory is following environmental rules. “It has improved our processes and forced us to find efficiencies,” said Chris Collibee, DEEP spokesman.
“We have done a really
good job at it. And we have made sure we continue to do this.”
Staff, money cuts
The Hearst review of DEEP enforcement found that between 2009 and 2017 inspections of potential polluters dropped by nearly 40 percent; enforcement action against violators dropped 16 percent, and consent orders were down 43 percent.
DEEP’s annual reports also show referrals to the attorney general or state prosecutors for legal action against polluters dropped by 63 percent to 14 in 2017, from 38 in 2009.
Notice of violations issued to polluters decreased 7.3 percent to 786 in 2017, from 848 in 2009.
During the same period — which includes the years the state faced billion dollar budget deficits during former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s tenure — DEEP shed staff and suffered reduced funding.
For example, DEEP fulltime employees now number 873, down from 975 in 2015, a 10.4 percent reduction in just five years.
Full-time salaries at the agency dropped from $45.4 million in 2010 to $39.4 million in 2018, a 13.2 percent decrease in eight years.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” said state Rep. Joe Gresko, D-Stratford, and a vice chairman of the Legislature’s environment committee.
“The reduction in staff has had a negative impact on the environment, and what’s really scary is the number (of DEEP employees) retiring in the next four years,” Gresko said.
Those poised to retire could result in another 40 percent reduction in staff, Gresko said.
“It’s going to be tough to replace that institutional knowledge,” he said.
“You are going to hire one or two for every five leaving,” Gresko said. “We keep asking them to do more with less and they are doing the best they can. But you have to make a decision about what is the ultimate staffing level.”
‘Statistics in isolation’
DEEP officials defended the agency’s oversight and cited numerous reasons why the enforcement statistics don’t paint the full picture.
“Every year there are various programs that may cause inspections to go up and some years that will cause the number to go down,” Collibee said.
“Staffing is down across all branches,” Collibee said. “But we have made a focus on process improvement to ensure that Connecticut’s environment is not impacted regardless of staffing.”
Collibee said the conservation side of DEEP — the branches that manage wildlife and state parks and enforce hunting and fishing regulations — bore the brunt of the agency’s staff reductions.
“We also have more data coming into the agency,” Collibee said. “We can review the data here and do additional follow up. We can review computerized data rather than going out into the field.”
Collibee added “Statistics in isolation do not tell the whole story.”
Maribel La Luz, a spokeswoman for Gov. Ned Lamont, agreed with DEEP’s assessment.
“In 2017, the number of inspections, referrals and formal orders is up,” La Luz said. “It demonstrates that, like many agencies, they are determining what is the most efficient way to better serve their constituents.”
While the uptick highlighted by La Luz does show an improvement when compared to 2015 and 2016 — the 3,471 inspections conducted in 2017 are still far lower than the 4,257 inspections in 2013.
Not convinced
Activists are not so sure DEEP is overseeing the state’s air, land and water the way it once did.
Peter Hearn, director of the state’s Council on Environmental Quality, pointed to large reductions in DEEP’s pesticide inspections. Those inspections ensure that pesticide formulas meet state standards and the chemicals are properly applied to lawns or crops.
The council found that in 2014, when DEEP had more staff, it conducted more than twice as many pesticide inspections than in 2016, and that activity resulted in more enforcement action and notice of violations.
“There is no reason to believe that these relationships are unique to the Pesticide Management Program,” Hearn said.
Reynolds said DEEP can spin the numbers anyway it wants, but the reality remains the same.
“What’s most concerning is reductions in consent orders and law enforcement referrals,” Reynolds said. “That’s the real accountability. If you don’t police cars on the highway, people will speed. If you don’t put inspectors in the field, people will pollute.”