I decided to
keep it simple. I started examining the
definition of “regulated activity” in the regulations of a few towns. I wanted to compare the actual wording of
regulations and I wanted to get it done in three months – so that I could
present my findings at a workshop at the CACIWC annual meeting in November
2013. I was finding regulations easily
online through each town’s website – at least for the towns I started with. After reading the excerpted regulations, I paraphrased their content. Not a good technique. So, I retraced my trail and created files of
the actual verbatim text of regulations.
Then I discovered that certain regulations weren’t there anymore or at
least I couldn’t find them (Danbury) or the link was broken (Brookfield). Too late for me, the second time around I also
started compiling the links to all of the regulations as I found them.
Looking up the
regulations for 169 towns was made a great deal easier by the “towns and cities
webpage” on ct.gov. That page contains an
alphabetical list of Connecticut towns.
When you click on a town name, you are transported to the town’s
website. Very nifty. Once I had finished my reconnaissance of a
few select towns, I settled down to plodding alphabetically through the list.
I headed
straight to “regulated activity” in the definition sections of the
regulations. If there was no mention of
an upland review area, I searched for “upland review area” in the regulations. When I bumped into “vegetated buffers” in the
“B”s (Bloomfield) I went back and added that to my search. I also looked for specific definitions of “vernal
pool” or regulations treating vernal pools in a separate manner. And then, I kept notes and verbatim text of
anything else that piqued my curiosity. I
had plenty of data to evaluate.
Once it became
clear that 25% of the towns did not have their wetlands regulations online, I
realized this undertaking with a mid-November deadline was no longer a
one-woman project. I started making
telephone calls to over 40 towns in hopes that staff would fax or email
sections of their wetlands regulations.
Telephone tag, no staff listed online, staff in some towns work one or
two days only, etc. I turned to my alma
mater, Wesleyan University. Through some
fortuitous turn of events, I, desperately seeking assistance, was destined to meet
up with Vanessa Castello, desirous of an environmental law internship, Class of
2015, a double major (earth & environmental science/anthropology). I offered her a tutorial on Connecticut
wetlands law, the opportunity to co-present our findings at the CACIWC annual
meeting, free rein at graphics to accompany our presentation and eternal
recognition. (Hey, our materials for the
conference are posted on the CACIWC website.)
She offered me her time, phenomenal graphics (3-D!) and patience as she
taught me how to use google docs so that we could both work on it at the same
time. (You can teach an old dog . . . )
When I finished
my first round of online searches, I had located regulations for 75% of the
towns. Vanessa took the 25% and found
another 5% online. (New dogs can do some
things better . . .) Then, between the two of us, we placed calls to the
remaining 20% of the towns. We estimate that another 5% of the towns
immediately put their wetlands regulations online when we disclosed we couldn’t
find them. Unexpected service! Staff
from a variety of municipal offices faxed or emailed us another 10% of the
regulations. At the end of the research
phase, after having placed a minimum of three phone calls per unresponsive
town, we didn’t hear back from 5% of the towns.
Our survey includes the results from 161 out of 169 towns, 95%.
75
% regulations
readily accessible online (well, I found them)
5 % additional regulations found by intern
5 % added by towns in response to survey
85
% wetlands
regulations currently online
10
% regulations
supplied by municipal staff or agency chairman
95 % Total
In the next
phase I color-coded text for a variety of parameters (such as a uniform upland
review area between wetlands and watercourse, variable upland review area,
specific definition for vernal pool, and other topics.) Vanessa crunched the colors and created
graphics to represent the data.
Our survey is as
up-to-date as the municipal websites. We
did not check the online regulations with the official regulations filed with
each town clerk. Nor did we examine how
the regulations are applied by the towns.
After a short
plea to the eight as-of-yet unresponsive towns in the next post, we’ll then go
color by color through the survey.
