As it did after Tropical Storm Irene, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is temporarily streamlining the repair and rebuilding of certain seawalls, bulkheads and revetments damaged or destroyed by Storm Sandy.

For previously permitted structures that were built before 1995 or are protecting a home or infrastructure that was built before 1995, owners will be allowed to rebuild them to the same height and on the same footprint immediately and submit the necessary paperwork afterwards. But that paperwork must be in by May 30, 2013.

Owners will still need to comply with any local approvals and are advised to contact their city or town first.

This does not apply to any new seawalls or structures, those that were never permitted, or those that are being enlarged. Additional information is available on the DEEP website.

Jan Ellen is CT Mirror's regular freelance Environment and Energy Reporter. As a freelance reporter, her stories have also appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Yale Climate Connections, and elsewhere. She is a former editor at The Hartford Courant, where she handled national politics including coverage of the controversial 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. She was an editor at the Gazette in Colorado Springs and spent more than 20 years as a TV and radio producer at CBS News and CNN in New York and in the Boston broadcast market. In 2013 she was the recipient of a Knight Journalism Fellowship at MIT on energy and climate. She graduated from the University of Michigan and attended Boston University’s graduate film program.

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