Opinion ID: 797350
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Connecticut Coastal Management Act

Text: 90 As the third basis for its WQC Denial, the CTDEP concluded that the proposed pipeline violates the Connecticut Coastal Management Act (CCMA), Conn. Gen. Stat. § 22a-98, which requires that WQCs comport with the CCMA's goals and policies. See Denial at 5. Islander East argues that such consideration was inappropriate, because the CWA requires that WQC determinations be grounded only in state water quality standards, not in extraneous state statutes. Counsel for the CTDEP concedes that the CCMA was not an independent basis for denial, and explains that the Denial's passing mention of the CCMA was merely an observation that the project would have adverse impacts upon existing water-dependent resources, relating directly to the Connecticut Water Quality Standards' antidegradation policy. Respondent's Br. at 38-39. The Denial's discussion of the CCMA certainly appeared to be more than a passing mention, as it was framed as one of three main reasons supporting the decision to deny Islander East's application. Nevertheless, the court will deem counsel's concession as a waiver of the CCMA as an independent basis for the Denial, and we need not decide whether it might properly have constituted an independent ground for decision. In light of our determinations that the CTDEP's other two justifications for its Denial were insufficient, we must therefore conclude that the Denial as a whole was arbitrary and capricious, and cannot support the agency's decision to deny Islander East's WQC application. 91