February 2008

Secretary, DNREC John A. Hughes

John Hughes with Brian Bailey and Beverly Baxter

When John Hughes was confirmed as Delaware’s eighth Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) on October 10, 2002, the State not only got a dedicated environmentalist, complete with political savvy, but also, a colorful character, complete with a sardonic vocabulary.

He brought his experience as a zookeeper at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. and as 3-term mayor of Rehoboth Beach to the job of dealing with members of the General Assembly, employees of DNREC, advocates in the environmental community, and business people trying to wade through DNREC’s process.

John may disarm with his aw-shucks approach, reminding that he started at DNREC as a dredge operator.  In fact, he owned a dredging company, then managed the State’s dredging program for 12 years before serving for nearly two decades as Director of DNREC’s Division of Soil & Water Conservation before becoming Secretary.  John can tell a crusading Senator that his “facts” about
arsenic in Delaware’s soil are wrong with the same conviction that he will tell a polluting business that it is being fined for its environmental failure.  Responding to local environments’ fervor over ridding the State of all invasive species, he points out that “the most dangerous introduced species is Homo sapiens.”

When John became Secretary of DNREC, he expressed his commitment to environmental protection working in partnership with economic development.  He pledged to replace the unworkable obstructive processes at DNREC with user-friendly ones so that the State and businesses, together, could get things done.  So how well has he done?  What’s changed?  What are the successes?

John will discuss the status of DNREC’s brownfields process and HSCA funding, the Bluewater Wind Farm and other alternative energy initiatives, solid waste  alternatives to increasing the height of Cherry Island Landfill, air quality plans for 2008, Stormwater & Erosion Control regulations compliance, Statewide Resource Protection Areas, and more.  And, he’ll take your questions. 

Beverley Baxter