Ask any resident "What is the biggest environmental challenge facing Connecticut?" and you will get answers that range from climate change, to air and water quality, to loss of open space and environmental justice. But there is a bigger threat to environmental protection in our state that is largely unknown and seldom discussed: By 2022, retirements at the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) will result in the loss of 44% of the staff in its Environmental Quality Division, and more than 30% department wide. This looming state agency human resource crisis is not limited to DEEP, as the recently released Connecticut CREATES Project reports. The brain drain, at DEEP especially, could not come at a worse time for the environment.