For the last 40 years, the Connecticut Transfer Act has primarily driven the remediation of contaminated property in Connecticut—this will change early next year.

Currently, the Connecticut Transfer Act (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 22a-134 et seq.) requires site-wide investigation, and potential remediation, upon the “transfer” of an “establishment” as defined by the Transfer Act. Establishments include specifically identified types of businesses (e.g., dry cleaners, vehicle body repair shops, furniture strippers) and sites or businesses that generated 100 kg of hazardous waste in any one month since November 1980. In other words, the Transfer Act applies to commercial and industrial properties and is triggered by real estate or business transfers rather than actual environmental conditions or ongoing operations. While the Transfer Act has spurred remediation over the years, it has also killed deals. With burdensome requirements triggered by the transfer of an establishment, transfers that would have otherwise occurred were not worth pursuing.

All of that is set to change. In 2020, the Connecticut General Assembly passed Public Act 20-09, which sets up a pivot away from the Transfer Act and toward release-based cleanup regulations (RBCRs). For the last four years, a working group co-convened by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) and the Department of Economic Community Development has been working through regulatory concepts and advising DEEP on regulatory text. Early this year, DEEP announced its decision to proceed with the regulatory adoption process and sent the regulatory text to the Legislative Regulation Review Committee for approval. On April 22, 2025, following its second round of review, the Committee approved the regulatory text with minor changes.   

Under the RBCRs, a release must be reported, investigated, and remediated, as needed, once it is discovered, regardless of whether or not the property is an “establishment” and independent of any transfer. The RBCRs will apply to all property in the state (subject to exemptions in certain circumstances) rather than a specific subset of commercial and industrial properties. In an important contrast to the Transfer Act, the RBCRs will track individual releases and will not require site-wide investigations. Once the RBCRs are in effect, new transfers will not trigger the Transfer Act; however, sites already subject to the Transfer Act must still achieve a “verification” (i.e., completion of site-wide investigation and remediation) under its purview.

The RBCRs will become effective on March 1, 2026. While that date feels far in the future, DEEP and stakeholders each need the time to prepare. DEEP will need to prepare forms and guidance so it will be ready to receive release reports beginning on March 1. Parties negotiating business and real estate deals will need to understand the new program and decide whether deals slated for this year (and therefore subject to the Transfer Act) can or should wait for next year. Property owners in Connecticut, particularly those with operations that handle hazardous materials, will need to understand how the new regulations interact with the existing spill reporting regulations to require a more robust remediation of new releases. We will provide more detailed discussions of these topics as the effective date approaches. 

Meanwhile, the Connecticut General Assembly is about to enter the final month of the legislative session. DEEP had announced its intention to pursue statutory tweaks (for example, providing an optional site-wide investigation incentive compatible with the RBCRs) at the beginning of the session. While no relevant bills have been passed yet, there is still time for statutory changes before the program is implemented.