Connecticut's environmental agency left groundwater discharge permits pending for over 20 years and stopped putting liens on spill polluters in 2017
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What happened
A December 10, 2025 audit by Connecticut's Auditors of Public Accounts found 30 of 45 pending groundwater discharge permit applications at the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection had been pending more than ten years, 18 of them more than 20 years, citing a lack of management oversight; the same finding appeared in the four prior audits covering 2010 through 2022. Auditors also found DEEP had not placed a lien on any past-due emergency spill account since 2017 despite a $4.5 million lien balance, carried $36.5 million in spill-cleanup receivables, and had provided no documentation of any request for federal reimbursement of spill costs since the 1990 Oil Pollution Act. DEEP did not dispute the permit finding, citing staff losses, and said it had processed 439 of 603 legacy permit applications as of March 2025.
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Response
Contacted and made an on-record admission — exact wording not on record.
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No outcome recorded yet.