Research snapshot · Environmental · 31 August 2026

Environmental protection general across the country: 291 towns on the record, the pace easing

This page is a snapshot, cut 31 August 2026, of a topic that moves. Below is the shape of the movement, read from the towns' own meeting records, and the way to get a view of it that stays current.

Snapshot taken 31 August 2026, based on 514 dated municipal records flagged as environmental protection general, spanning 291 municipalities across 39 states. The topic moves; a later cut supersedes this page.

What this page is for one topic at state or national scope, told as a story: how it arrived, the shape of its movement, a dated snapshot of a moving record, and the door to a view of it that stays current. If it does not, write to us; that is what changes the next edition.

The story so far

The record starts in Maine, 3 January 1970. Since then 291 municipalities in 39 states have put the topic on a meeting record, at very different speeds: Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts hold 54% of the dated events between them.

The last 90 days put 48 meetings on the record, down from 116 in the 90 days before. 1 more is already on posted agendas.

It runs through the rooms where budgets and ordinances are made: Conservation Commission, Planning Board and Select Board.

The shape of the movement

Dated meetings on the record at this scope, quarter by quarter, and the same 90-day count as a rolling line, whose right-hand point is that number. Counts of documents, never a reading of what they decided.
QuarterMeetingsTownsStates
Sep 2025 to Nov 202532248
Dec 2025 to Feb 20261138323
Mar 2026 to May 20261249522
Jun 2026 to Aug 2026 (current)504412

a rolling 90-day total, so the right-hand point is that same 90-day count. The busiest stretch was Mar 2026 to May 2026, with 124 meetings.

Where it is moving39 states

The same topic at different speeds in different states. A state's name opens its own page where one exists.
StateTowns on the recordMeetings, 90 daysLatest
Maine5211 ▼ -15.4%2026-08-17
New Hampshire44102026-08-27
Massachusetts4392026-08-12
Connecticut1612026-06-03
California1602026-05-07
Vermont1532026-06-26
New York153 ▼ -25.0%2026-08-12
Illinois111 ▬ +0.0%2026-07-31
New Jersey812026-07-02
Washington642026-07-16
Pennsylvania502026-05-18
Arizona502026-04-29
Utah502026-02-02
Delaware lighter read432026-06-22
Kentucky lighter read402026-05-20

And 24 more states on the record, in an account view.

From the record

The most recent documents behind this page, one per town. Each link opens the town's own file.

27 August 2026 · Rindge, New Hampshire Conservation Commission

the minutes, on the town's own site Conservation Commission — RCC Agenda 082726

17 August 2026 · Liberty, Maine

the minutes, on the town's own site 251216 Minutes

12 August 2026 · Hancock, Maine

the document, on the town's own site 20260812071721397

12 August 2026 · East Longmeadow, Massachusetts

the agenda, on the town's own site Agenda — 2026-08-12

Companies on this record1534 companies, 434 documents

Named in the same documents that carry this topic, read from the record itself: the firms designing, building and advising the work, each with where the record places them:
NHDESAlton, Andover, Atkinson and 9 more
ComcastAndover, Brunswick, Chelmsford and 6 more
EversourceChester, Coventry, Fitchburg and 5 more
AECOMBiddeford, Fairfield, Hanover and 5 more
American Water WorksBiddeford, Fairfield, Hanover and 4 more
AT&TBiddeford, Delmar, Fairfax and 4 more
Advanced Drainage SystemsBiddeford, Fairfield, Falmouth and 3 more
AES CorporationBiddeford, Fairfield, Hanover and 3 more
AirgasBiddeford, Billerica, Fairfield and 3 more
Casella Waste SystemsBiddeford, Hanover, Hempstead and 3 more
Maine DEPAugusta, Falmouth, Liberty and 3 more
VerizonAndover, Billerica, Chelmsford and 2 more
Green Mountain PowerHartford, Shelburne
Connecticut Water CompanyCoventry
T-MobileCoventry
Army Corps of EngineersActon, Bristol, Hanover County and 2 more
CDW CorporationBiddeford, Fairfield, Hanover and 2 more
Eversource EnergyFairfax, Goffstown, Harwich and 1 more
Lebanon land fillHartford
AmazonBiddeford, Fairfield, Hanover and 1 more
ArcadisBiddeford, Fairfield, Hanover and 1 more
NHACCBow, Greenland, Hampton Falls and 1 more
UNITILBow, Falmouth, Fitchburg and 1 more
New England Power CompanyChelmsford, Littleton, Lynnfield
CRT Development Realty, LLCBillerica
GOLFO, LLCBillerica
Pro-Mech, Inc.Coventry
VisionCoventry
Central Maine PowerSkowhegan, Wells, Westbrook
PlanningBillerica, Concord, Hartford

And 1504 more companies.

The documents naming each, and the threads they sit in, are the account view. If one of these is you, those are your projects on the record. Ask and we will show you every one, and the towns around them, as they move.

A snapshot of a moving record

Everything above is frozen at 31 August 2026; the topic is not. 85 more events on this topic carry no usable date and are counted, never dated. The counts follow where we read most: a town or a state absent here was not read at depth, and absence is not evidence the topic is absent there. A lighter-read state is not a ceiling; where you care about a region, pointing the system there is the first thing an account changes. How coverage is built, and its known limits: municipalalpha.com/methodology.

How we can tell you about it ongoing

We track this topic continuously; this page is one cut of it, taken 31 August 2026. An account turns the snapshot into a working view: every town and every document behind these counts, the thread on each matter as it develops, word of new meetings as they land on the record, your own states and topics side by side, and the data itself when you want it in a table. The towns above are the taste; what each is actually deciding, funding or stalling is the read an account carries.

Each state's name above opens its own page. Counts and dates are computed from the documents on the record; the topic and its definition are ours. This page carries no subscriber content.

Environmental protection general, across the country

from the towns' own meeting records

Scope

Across the country

Area

Environmental

every topic in this area

Towns on the record

291

with a dated document on this topic

States on the record

39

counted from the record

Earliest

3 January 1970

the documents' dates

Meetings, last 90 days

48 against 116 before

dated documents

Snapshot cut

31 August 2026

this page's date

A view that stays current

ask for yours