Connecticut State Council on Environmental Quality

The Council on Environmental Quality is continuing to carry out its mission while keeping both the public and our workforce safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. All submissions to the Council should be sent electronically to: peter.hearn@ct.gov

Minutes of the meeting of the April 30, 2018 Subcommittee on the New Britain Watershed Environmental Study, held in the Holcombe Room on the fifth floor of 79 Elm Street in Hartford.

SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Alicea Charamut, Kip Kolesinskas

ALSO IN ATTENDANCE: Peter Hearn (Environmental Analyst)

At 2:13 PM, Co-chair Charamut convened the meeting.

The co-chairs asked Hearn if he would like to suggest a place to begin the review of the draft comments that had been distributed prior to the meeting, and about which Charamut and Kolesinskas had responded with suggested changes. Hearn said he would like to be sure that the format was appropriate. He said much of the specificity about impacts to individual species that was in the first draft was reduced to make it shorter and more readable. He asked for guidance as to whether elaboration regarding the significance of each threatened species be the subject of footnotes or end notes. It was decided not to include footnotes, but to expand slightly the point that those species, which are rare to Connecticut, will be devastated by the construction, and that is one of the negative consequences of the proposal.

Each comment and editing suggestion was reviewed for inclusion in the next draft. It was decided that the revisions would be combined into a new document to be sent by email from Hearn to Charamut and Kolesinskas, who would return any additional changes. The resulting draft will be reviewed at the next subcommittee meeting.

The Subcommittee reviewed their schedules and chose May 8th as the best available date for a meeting before the regularly scheduled Council meeting on May 23. Hearn was asked to try to secure a meeting room at the offices of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority in New Britain, since the subcommittee will be attending a site visit near there on that morning.

Before adjournment, the minutes of the Subcommittee’s April 23rd meeting were read by the subcommittee and Charamut moved to approve them as submitted. Kolesinskas seconded the motion and both approved the acceptance.

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 3:07 PM by motion from co-chair Charamut which was seconded by co-chair Kolesinskas.