On September 8^th the Connecticut DEP released draft regulations for reporting of releases of hazardous wastes, petroleum products and other substances to the environment. The Connecticut General Assembly had passed a law requiring the reporting of such releases, codified at Connecticut General Statutes Section 22a-450, back in 1969. But DEP has never adopted regulations to implement the requirements of the statute, making it mostly ineffective. Now the DEP has started the process of adopting those regulations.

 

The proposed regulations will require that a report be sent to DEP if there is a release of any hazardous waste, hazardous substance, petroleum products, biomedical waste, or other substances in an amount greater than 10 pounds. Generally this means one incident, so releases of smaller amounts do not have to be added together. But in certain situations releases must be aggregated. For example if there have been a series of releases from the same source, the release amounts must be added together and cannot be considered separate releases for purposes of determining whether a release of more than ten pounds has occurred. Releases from underground tanks are included.

 

In some situations a release report would be required even if the amount released is less than ten pounds. Examples include releases near drinking water wells and releases to any watercourse or wetland.

 

A telephone report of any release would have to be made immediately to the DEP’s Emergency Response Unit Reporting telephone number. A written report would be required within seven days.

 

Finally, records would need to be kept for releases which do not have to be reported. The records would have to be kept for three years.

 

Since the regulations are not final a complete summary and analysis is premature. The regulations will go through a period of public comment and revision before they are adopted. In addition, the regulations will not be finalized until DEP has also finalized the revisions to the Connecticut Remediation Standard Regulations, which are also in the process of public comment.