The Word in the House 2/4/2015 - Microbeads and Education

Now that we are a few weeks into the session, the 14 committees of the House of Representatives have settled into their main work: taking testimony on bills and on the Administration's initiatives. A bill's main sponsor as well as interested parties, administration staff, lobbying organizations and interested private citizens are invited to give their insight and analysis of the subject. Committee Chairs take very seriously the responsibility to make sure every side of an issue is heard. It is detrimental to the success of a bill if key testimony has not been heard when the bill comes to the floor for a vote of the full chamber. On the other hand, convincing testimony against a bill might kill it in committee so that it never reaches the floor for a vote. Since there are more bills introduced in a session than can ever be adequately considered, most bills stay “on the wall”; that is, they are posted on the committee's bulletin board where they remain for the duration of the 16 week session.

In spite of these constraints, some bills are so obviously beneficial that they just sail through committee, are read on the floor and pass unanimously. This happened with a water quality bill last week that prohibits the sale of personal care products and over-the-counter drugs containing microbeads. Microbeads are plastic beads less than 5 millimeters in diameter that are suspended in lotions and cleansers as a mild abrasive. The problem is that they are so small that they pass through wastewater filtration systems, are discharged into rivers and streams, and end up suspended in Lake Champlain. They adsorb (attract to their surface) toxic chemicals and are ingested by small fish which confuse them with food. They, in turn, are eaten by larger fish, which are then eaten by humans. In this way the toxins become concentrated up the food chain and pose a hazard to us as well as threaten the sport fishing industry which is an important part of our tourist economy. On a roll call vote H.4 passed unanimously 140 to 0.

Many issues require a lot of testimony even before a bill is introduced. Such is the case with education financing. The Education Committee has a new Chair, Representative Dave Sharpe of Bristol. Dave was a member of the Ways and Means Committee for many years and brings valuable experience with taxation to his new role. At the same time the House Rules Committee revised the authority of the Education Committee over education financing. Previously, the Ed Committee made education policy and the Ways and Means Committee addressed the financing. The new arrangement will allow a comprehensive approach to this high priority problem. The committee has already heard from many individuals and organizations and is expected to draft a bill in the next few weeks. Already a change in approach is emerging. Whereas the current method requires setting the statewide property tax rate to be set according to the total amount of school budgets throughout the state, the committee is looking at fixing a statewide property tax rate to raise a given per-pupil amount which would be allocated to school districts regardless of the size of the budgets that they pass. Needless to say, the devil is in the details, and we'll be hearing more about this topic before anything is settled.

 



Presenting: Ethan Lisle, Olivia Zubarik, Charlie Cantor,
and Schuyler EdgarHolmes with Schuyler's
 Mom, Deirdre Holmes, working the projector.

It was also a pleasure to see a contingent from the CCS 6^th

Grade present their report on composting at the Statehouse during the Farm to School awards presentation last week. CCS was awarded a grant last year and the composting project was the result. Kudos to the whole 6^th Grade team!

 

 

 

I continue to welcome your thoughts and questions and can be reached by phone (802-233-5238) or by email (myantachka.dfa@gmail.com).

Legislative Report 4/24/2014 - Focusing on Water Quality

For more than two decades Vermont has worked to clean up its lakes, streams and rivers with various degrees of success.  Gone are the days when sewage and industrial effluents were discharged directly into streams and rivers.  Yet we still have much further to go to prevent conditions that lead to toxic algae blooms in lakes and ponds and to high nitrogen levels in the Connecticut River that result in oxygen depleted dead zones in Long Island Sound. 

One measure of water quality is the amount of nutrients, i.e. phosphates and nitrogen compounds, in a body of water that contribute to algae growth.  Limits on these nutrients are set by the Environmental Protection Agency to ensure that water quality is maintained at an acceptable level.  This limit is called the total maximum daily load, or TMDL. Despite the state’s reaching one-third of the TMDL goal in less than 10 years, the EPA revoked approval of the initial TMDL plan for Lake Champlain in 2011 because of ongoing problems such as the algae blooms.  Vermont had until the end of March this year to submit a new plan, and the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation did so. 

The VDEC issued a report documenting the sources of the nutrients flowing into Lake Champlain.  The report showed that about 3% of the nutrients are coming from municipal sewage treatment facilities, about 10% from impervious surfaces such as roads and parking lots, another 10% from developed land, about 20% from river and streambank erosion during significant storm events, and about 40% from agricultural operations.  VDEC proposed a 20 year implementation plan with an estimated cost of $150M.  In order to accomplish these goals, legislative action is also needed.

Last week the House passed H.586 to address improving the quality of the state’s waters in a comprehensive manner.  Much of the responsibility and cost for meeting the new EPA TMDL may fall on Vermont’s farmers, who likely will be subject to additional requirements under the accepted agricultural practices (AAPs) and other agricultural water quality rules.  Although the AAP rules were adopted in 1995, the legislature found a general lack of awareness in the “small farm” community about the AAPs.  The bill directs the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets to educate small farm operators in the State about the requirements of the AAPs.  This will include identifying cost-effective strategies, best management practices and conservation practices of cover cropping, grassed waterways, manure drag lines and injection, no-till production, and contour plowing.  It also establishes a small farm certification program to ensure compliance with AAPs.

While additional state and federal assistance is necessary to help bring farms into compliance, including technical and financial assistance to encourage small farms to adopt and implement nutrient management plans, funding mechanisms were removed from the bill by amendments proposed by the Ways and Means committee.  A quarter percent increase in the Rooms and Meals tax and a one percent increase on the automobile rental tax were stripped from the bill that came out of the Fish Wildlife and Water Resources committee.  The bill now recommends establishing financing mechanisms between now and January 15, 2015, to implement the provisions of the bill.

The bill is now in the hands of the Senate.  Like the Shorelands Protection bill, H.526, which passed the House last year, was modified by the Senate and sent to a conference committee to work out the differences, H.586 is likely to be amended before final passage.  If differences cannot be worked out before the end of the session in May, the bill will die and will have to be reintroduced next year as a new bill.  In the meantime, nutrients will continue to flow into Lake Champlain and we will continue to see toxic algae blooms.

On a lighter note, the Charlotte Whale has a new companion.  The Charlotte Whale was designated as the State Fossil in 1993 and is housed at the Perkins Geology Museum at UVM.  A bill passed last week redesignated the Charlotte Whale as the State “Marine” Fossil and named the Mount Holly Wooly Mammoth as the State “Terrestrial” Fossil.  The Mammoth is on display at the Mount Holly Historical Society Museum.

Interview with Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Ross

The Chittenden County Democrats Show on CCTV Channel 17, hosted by Bob Hooper and Rep. Mike Yantachka, featured Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Ross in May.  Secretary Ross discussed changes in the grading of Maple Syrup, the proposed efforts to reduce the effects of agricultural practices on Lake Champlain, the growing locavore movement, and the federal Farm Bill and its implications for Vermont dairy farmers.   Watch the interview here.