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.
