DEP: Doing More with Less To Protect the Environment

The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) came under attack this year for, allegedly, not getting permits out the door fast enough. Legislators and the governor promoted measures to speed up DEP permitting. Some legislative proposals essentially would have undone DEP. One proposal would have merged it into the Department of Commu­nity and Economic Development, for example.

Read more about Connecticut’s conservation politics in our 2010 Environmental Scorecard

However, DEP is a bit of an unsung hero. The agency’s  responsibilities keep expanding even as its staff and resources keep shrinking. Its traditional core programs—reducing pollution of water and air, managing waste, supporting outdoor recreation, and protecting natural resources—now include new initiatives, such as fighting invasive species, manag­ing electronic waste, responding to climate change, and handling federal stimulus projects. Yet, in the past two years alone, DEP lost some ten percent of its workforce along with some of its most knowledgeable and experienced leaders. Figuring out how to handle more responsibility with fewer resources is a necessity at DEP. And guess what? DEP is succeeding. The agency is doing its work faster and more efficiently.

“Many of the legislative battles fought this year directly involved the DEP’s role in enforcement of environmental laws. It is imperative that state lawmakers understand the long-term importance of an effective DEP that is appropriately staffed and funded. Our legislative champions must continue to speak up in support of the environmental work this agency does every single day to protect our air, land, water and health of citizens across the state.”

-Lori Brown, CTLCV Executive Director

Since 2008, the DEP has been systematically imple­menting a process to identify and minimize wasted time and effort across the agency’s permitting and enforcement processes and other programs. They call it LEAN—which doesn’t stand for anything other than, well … “lean.” It is an extension of the lean manu­facturing systems introduced in US and Japanese industries more than 20 years ago.

So far, DEP has completed 23 LEAN projects. The results are remarkable. Wherever LEAN is happen­ing, programs are accelerating, and with no erosion of environmental protections. Inspections are up. Backlogs are down. Permitting time has been cut drastically, too. The Office of Long Island Sound cut its average permitting time from 18 months to about 71 days. Wastewater-discharge permitting time is down from 30 months to about 140 days.

In the face of daunting responsibilities and less staff, DEP has opted to do more, not less. These are the folks who protect our air, water, and quality of life, and they deserve our thanks.