LWVCT ADVOCACY:  The Public Issues Team and support for advocacy here.

Land Use 2015:  Focus on reconfiguration of 14 planning regions as 8 COGs and how this new approach is working, using W.C.C.O.G. (l) as an example.

Planning and Development Committee observation as first and most major one for Weston League!
Review of others related to land use:



LWVCT in coalition:  Now it is time to write as constituents in favor of PRRI Draft revisions to regulations:  ACTION ALERT

Connecticut Streamflow Regulation: Summary of Provisions:  Public Hearings ongoing now (September 2010):  [not included anywhere on this page are those comments that criticize water companies, both public and private].  Will the PRRI Committee take action before Election Day, Nov. 2, 2010?  Not likely!  What will this change in regulations do (developed over 4 years of research and revisions)? 

Please read Drinking Water Specialist comments below...

LWVCT, working in coalition with Rivers Alliance, the Connecticut Fund for the Environment and other statewide environmental organizations, urges you to contact the Regulations Review Committee in support the Department of Environmental Protection’s proposed Streamflow Regulations. If you are a constituent of one of the Committee members, your contact will be particularly helpful. More information from our coalition partners is below. We hope that you will add your voice in support of comprehensive regulations which will provide for the protection of Connecticut’s water resources amid the many competing uses such as drinking water, public safety, land use development, irrigation and wildlife.

Sincerely,

Cheryl Dunson
Drinking Water Specialist

-------------------------

Coalition Action Alert

This November 2010, the Regulation Review Committee of the legislature will meet to consider DEP's proposed regulations that protect our rivers and streams and their ecosystems. Please help by taking a moment to write to these legislators, listed below, and let them know that streamflow regulation is a critical step in ensuring clean, abundant drinking water for Connecticut's future.

What these regulations would do:

   *Ensure that people's water needs come first, especially during droughts.
   *Exempt the use of water for emergencies and management of water for flood control.
   *Improve the transparency and predictability of the regulatory system.
   *Take a moderate approach: most water supply systems will only need to meet simple requirements to ensure streams do not dry up from overuse.
   *Focus on areas with existing problems and on the very largest systems that have the greatest impacts on our rivers.
   *Provide flexibility and more than ample time for implementation, allowing 10-15 years for communities and water companies to implement compliance strategies.
   *Honor existing permits and DEP-approved management arrangements.
   *Include ongoing and broad public participation so that public and local governments will have a meaningful role in determining the future of our water resources.
   * Recognize that all rivers are not the same and should have different management objectives based on science, local conditions, and previous impacts.

For additional information including the proposed regulations, click on: http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?a=2719&q=434018&depNav_GID=1654

As we received it on the Internet...
Subj: An Invitation from CFE!
Date: 8/31/2001 3:51:42 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From:    saveland@cfenv.org (Save The Land)
Reply-to: savetheland@cfenv.org
 
 

Dear Friend,
Hope you had a great summer and are back, rested and ready to hear the latest about efforts to protect Connecticut's environment. Until then, this is just a brief note to remind you that CFE's Annual Meeting is coming up soon and you're invited . . .

The Board and Staff of the
Connecticut Fund for the Environment
invite members and friends to our

ANNUAL MEETING
Saturday, September 8, 2001

at Weir Farm National Historic Park
Wilton, Connecticut
 

Event Schedule

1:00 p.m.
Parking at Branchville School - vans will begin a continuous shuttle to the site.

1:45 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Annual Review - Election of Officers
Presentation of Awards - The Nature Conservancy, the Shepaug River Association and the 15 towns that participated in the Coalition for the Permanent Protection of Kelda Lands.
Featured Speaker: Professor Robin Winks, professor of history at Yale and foremost authority on US National Parks.
Professor Winks has visited all 385 units in the National Park system and will speak on "America's National Parks: Preservation and Degradation"

3:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Reception

3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
- Guided Tours of American Impressionist J. Alden Weir's studio
- Nature Walk

Casual Dress

RSVP 203.787.0646, ext. 22 or mailto:protect@cfenv.org by August 30, 2001.

Special thanks to the Weir Farm Trust and the National Park Service for their help!
This event is free and open to the public. 


This (below) is the sample letter to leadership on the subject of Kelda lands...that did the trick!

The Honorable Moira K. Lyons
Speaker of the House
Legislative Office Building
Hartford, CT 06105
 

Dear Representative Lyons:

Members of the League of Women Voters of Connecticut, in conjunction with the Coalition for the Permanent Protection of the Kelda Lands, have strongly supported the Governor’s initiative to protect the 18,700 acres owned by the Kelda Group.

The Connecticut General Assembly will soon be voting on the 2001-03 budget and finance package.  The proposed capital budget, as adopted by the Finance Committee, includes the necessary funds to permanently protect all of the Kelda lands.

Action is needed before the end of the session to approve the funding necessary to acquire the Kelda lands.  We urge you to act before it is too late and this critically important open space becomes lost to development.  Thank you.

Sincerely,
 
 

Jara N. Burnett
Vice President, Public Issues