A recent column suggesting that the state scrap a law allowing citizens to challenge environmentally sensitive projects was short sighted and ill advised. The column, by attorney Diane Whitney, recommends repeal of Section 22a-19 of the Connecticut Environmental Protection Act (CEPA). Suits allowing citizens to bring actions to protect against unreasonable environmental degradation have been key to cleaning our water and air and preserving open space in Connecticut. Their repeal would reverse this progress and degrade our environment.
We have already tried the system proposed by attorney Whitney. Before the passage of the Connecticut Environmental Protection Act and other citizen suit statutes in the 1970s, the only people that could bring actions to protect the environment were those who had classical standing because of a property right associated with the natural resource. This system of law failed and, as a result, the Naugatuck River was a toxic soup that would flow different colors on different days, the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland would catch fire on a regular basis, and Long Island Sound was polluted and dying.
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