The legislation requires the Department of Environmental Protection to evaluate public health and environmental effects when certain businesses like power plants, incinerators, sewage treatment facilities and trash-processing plants apply for permits in certain communities. These communities are defined as census tracts where 35% of the population has low income, or where 40% of households are minority or have limited English proficiency. There are more than 300 towns accounting for half the state’s population that fit the bill.
The law gives regulators the authority to deny permits in such instances for the first time.