Projo — Top DEM official urged staffers to expedite wetlands application from former McKee aide

Sep 15

Signs protesting a plan to build a house on property that is nearly covered with wetlands at 45 Canning St., Cumberland, this summer. Antonia Noori Farzan/The Providence Journal, File — Signs protesting a plan to build a house on property that is nearly covered with wetlands at 45 Canning St., Cumberland, this summer. *Antonia Noori Farzan/The Providence Journal, File*

Sep 15, 2021

By Antonia Noori Farzan — A top official in the Department of Environmental Management urged staffers to expedite a wetlands-alteration application filed by Anthony Silva, a former top aide to Gov. Dan McKee, records show.

"Guys. We need to move on this one. The application has been in for a long time and the applicant is under a ton of pressure from his financing companies to get this done," Terrence Gray, then the DEM's deputy director for environmental protection, wrote in a Jan. 28, 2020 email to Martin Wencek and Eric Beck, the staffers overseeing the application.

Silva, who at the time served as chief of staff to then-Lieutenant Governor McKee, was seeking permission to build a single-family home on a Cumberland lot almost entirely covered by wetlands. The permit was granted in July 2021, after McKee became governor, drawing scrutiny and an investigation by the attorney general's office.

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The Providence JournalAntonia Noori FarzanRIDEMGovernor Dan McKeeCumberlandwetlandsAnthony SilvaTerrence GrayJanet CoitMohamed FreijBrian LaFailleCommonwealth Engineers

Cate Brown

Projo — Top DEM official urged staffers to expedite wetlands application from former McKee aide

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