A North Branford citizen and attorney, Peter C. White, is seeking a ruling from the Commissioner of the state Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) on whether DEEP has jurisdiction to review and decide an inland wetlands watercourses application site plan filed by J.J. Sullivan Fuel Co. (Guilford) for a 60,000 gallon bulk propane storage/retail facility proposed for 40 Ciro Road.

In an exclusive interview with Zip06, White said he has filed a petition for a Declaratory Ruling, with notice sent to DEEP legal counsel on Nov. 15.

"If there is a jursidictional argument, we'd like to see the decision-making returned to the local agency," said White. "What J.J. Sullivan did is by-pass the decision making of the town's Inland and Watercourses agency."

White has filed the petition as a citizen on his own behalf, he said. White had also filed a motion to act as an intevenor in the DEEP review of the Sullivan application, but that motion was denied.

The petition is a separate proceeding, different from the application review, White explained.

"It asks the commissioner of the DEEP to rule on a certain issue, and the issue I asked them to rule on was raised by the North Branford Citizens [Against Propane] attorney during his public comments to the Department," said White.

Grassroots group North Branford Citizens Against Propane is not affiliated with the petition filed by White.

The DEEP gathered public comments as part of its review during a hearing at North Branford Auditorium on Sept. 8. See the story here . To date, no DEEP decision had been delivered on the application.

At the Sept. 8 hearing,the grassroots citizens' group attorney had,"...addressed whether DEEP has statutory jurisdiction to hear this application," said White. "I took that public comment and put it in a petition to the [Commissioner]. The question is, does the DEEP have the authority to hear this?"

The application came under DEEP's purview in March 2015, following a request filed by the J.J. Sullivan's attorney, Jeffrey Beatty (Guilford) on behalf of the company as 2772 BPR,LLC. Beatty took the step after J.J. Sullivan's site plan application, submitted in the fall of 2014 to North Branford's Inlands Wetlands & Watercourses Agency (IWWA), was not decided in the allotted 65-day time period.

White said his petition asks the DEEP Commissioner to look at two issues which may negate DEEP's authority to decide on the application.

"By state statute, the local [IWWA] has to act on an application within 65 days. My argument was they did act on it; they just didn't reach a final decision," said White.

White's second argument is that the application filed with North Branford's IWWA is different from the one filed with DEEP, which has "...more technical variations," said White. A copy of White's Declaratory Ruling Petition is posted with this story.

Now that the petition has been filed, anyone has the opportunity to file comments on the matter with the DEEP Commissioner, said White. Anyone can also file a motion to intervene, said White. Send comments regarding the Petition for Declaratory Ruling regarding 2772 BPR, LLC permit Application IW-201502274 to: Commissioner, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, 79 Elm Street Hartford, CT 06106-5127.

According to state statutes, within 60 days, the DEEP Commissioner is required to act on the petition by either issuing a declaratory ruling; by ordering the matter set for specified proceedings; by agreeing to issue a declaratory ruling by a specified date; by deciding not to issue a declaratory ruling and initiating regulation-making proceedings on the subject; or by deciding not to issue a declaratory ruling, stating the reason for the decision.