LWVCT Urges Restoration of Incentives for Water Co. Land Preservation 2/27/07
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ENERGY AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE Public Hearing February 22, 2007 Support for Section 5 of RB 7183, An Act Concerning Water Resource Planning Comments submitted by Cheryl Dunson, Drinking Water Specialist
The League of Women Voters of Connecticut supports policies and programs that promote the protection of water resources and open space lands. Based upon this position, the League joined the Endangered Lands Coalition as a leading partner in support of 2004 legislation that provided an incentives-based approach to preserve water company lands. This committee and your colleagues in the General Assembly passed this legislation into law – and the law has had the intended consequences! PA 04-200 created the incentives that enabled New Milford to buy and create a 160-acre park in 2005 with ten percent of the property being reserved for future development. This preservation incentive is at NO-COST to Connecticut’s taxpayers.
Section 5 will restore incentives for the conservation of surplus water company lands.
Unfortunately, a new law passed in 2005 created unintended consequences by jeopardizing our State’s proven incentives law for the preservation of water company lands. The new law requires utilities to sell assets, such as land holdings, at public auction. As members of this committee know, nonprofit organizations and/or government agencies working to preserve land require months of careful analysis, multiple approvals, and funding partnerships. Land conservation sales cannot be achieved at a public auction.
Connecticut needs policies and laws that will promote the conservation of land. Section 5 will restore incentives for the conservation of surplus water company lands. The language clarifies that conservation sales need not be subject to a public auction requirement when the water company receives the appraised value of the property.
Connecticut is being developed at an alarming rate, sprawling across and, some say disfiguring, our landscape. The League of Women Voters of Connecticut urges your support to ensure that the essential clarification contained within Section 5 of RB 7183 is passed this year.
Cheryl Dunson Drinking Water Specialist LWVCT 203/861-7335 *ENERGY AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2004
The Energy and Technology Committee will hold a public hearing following an 11: 00 A. M. committee meeting on Tuesday, February 24, 2004 in Room 2A of the LOB. Sign up for the public hearing will begin at 9: 00 A. M. in Room 2A. Please submit 50 copies of written testimony to the Clerks in Room 2A by 11: 00 A. M. Speakers will be limited to two minutes of testimony for both official and public speakers.
SUBJECT MATTER: Water and Miscellaneous
*S. B. No. 149 (RAISED) AN ACT EXTENDING THE BORROWING POWER OF THE SOUTHEASTERN CONNECTICUT WATER AUTHORITY. *S. B. No. 368 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING THE CONNECTICUT ENERGY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM. *S. B. No. 369 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING FUEL DIVERSITY, ELECTRIC RELIABILITY AND PUBLIC SAFETY. *S. B. No. 370 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING UNIFORM ENERGY UNIT PRICING. *S. B. No. 371 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING WATER COMPANY LANDS. *S. B. No. 372 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING THE CONNECTICUT TELEVISION NETWORK. *S. B. No. 373 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING FUEL PRICES AND THEIR IMPACT ON ELECTRIC RELIABILITY. *S. B. No. 374 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING THE TRANSFER OF TITLE IN THE ACQUISITION OF A WATER COMPANY. *S. B. No. 376 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING COGENERATION FACILITIES AND THE MANUFACTURER'S EXEMPTION FROM THE GROSS EARNINGS TAX ON SALES OF NATURAL GAS. *S. B. No. 377 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING AN INFRASTRUCTURE REPLACEMENT ADJUSTMENT CHARGE FOR WATER COMPANIES. *S. B. No. 378 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING A MUNICIPAL ELECTRIC AGGREGATION DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM. *S. B. No. 379 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING NATURAL GAS CONSERVATION. *S. B. No. 380 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING ELECTRIC-GENERATED HEAT AND THE CONNECTICUT ENERGY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM. *H. B. No. 5416 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING USE OF ELECTRIC RATE REDUCTION BONDS FOR GENERAL FUND PURPOSES. *H. B. No. 5421 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING NOTIFICATION REGARDING THE TERMINATION OF ELECTRIC SERVICES. *H. B. No. 5423 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING CUSTOMER PARTICIPATION IN PREPAYMENT PROGRAMS BY FUEL OIL COMPANIES. *H. B. No. 5424 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING BIODIESEL FUEL AS CLASS II RENEWABLE ENERGY. *H. B. No. 5425 (RAISED) AN ACT CONCERNING THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE MUNICIPAL PARTICIPATION ACCOUNT. Testimony of Cheryl Dunson, Drinking Water Specialist CGA Energy and Technology Committee Public Hearing February 24, 2004Support for RB 371
LWV urges the Energy and Technology Committee to Vote YES on RB 371 “An Act Concerning Water Company Lands.”
RB 371 is a WIN for Connecticut’s citizens. By way of illustration, I’d like to share a holiday experience with the committee. I attended a Christmas holiday dinner this year where each guest was given a holiday “cracker”, an English party favor that typically contains a novelty gift, a paper hat and a joke or motto. The cracker I opened asked the following (copy on reverse): What has a pelican got in common with the water company? They both have large bills!
When a water company decides to sell land holdings, this bill is designed to benefit Connecticut’s citizens in one of two ways. 1) it creates a strong incentive for land preservation by rewarding shareholders for conservation sales protecting pristine water company lands that have been in our communities for generations. Connecticut is being developed at an alarming rate sprawling across our landscape. Connecticut needs a policy that will promote the conservation of land; RB 371 does that by encouraging the preservation of 90% of any Class III land or 100% of the Class II land subject to sale at NO-COST to Connecticut’s taxpayers.
2) If however, the company opts to sell the land for development, then according to RB 371 the land sale would benefit Connecticut’s citizens and businesses by allocating the proceeds to reduce customers’ utility bills. For every other utility group, land sale proceeds benefit the bill paying customer. We ask that you also take into account that these lands were acquired from Connecticut’s citizens under the pressure of eminent domain and the cost of the land acquisitions were paid for in rates charged to water company customers.
While the importance of these forests in protecting the quality of our water resources is well recognized, equally important is the role these forested areas play in the recharging of area groundwater supplies for citizens on wells. Utility lands are located in areas originally conceived as “rural” and now rapidly are being developed. You can't blame a company for doing business, but the laws that encourage sell-offs of our reservoir lands need to be changed.
The Water Planning Council unanimously endorsed this proposal after careful and thorough consideration.
This tightly-focused, no-cost proposal can promote the preservation of the significant forested tracks that have been in our communities for generations. The League of Women Voters of Connecticut urges the Energy and Technology Committee to join the Water Planning Council in voting Yes on RB 371.
Co-sponsors as of 3/13/2004of SB 371 “An Act Concerning Water Company Lands” Rep.
Andrea L. Stillman, 38th Dist.
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