A proposal to clean up Lake Champlain includes a statewide road permit to reduce stormwater runoff, but cautious town officials want to know how much it will cost and who is going to pay for it.
The draft plan is part of the Department of Environmental Conservation’s effort to reduce phosphorus loading into Lake Champlain in order to comply with federal regulations. The plan reaches beyond the lake’s shorelines and could affect much of Vermont’s forests, farms and roads.
The report states that nearly three-quarters of Vermont’s 11,000 miles of municipal roads need erosion control improvements, which include added ditches and culverts, for example. These roads account for more than 11 percent of the state annual phosphorus load into the lake.
“This is one of the issues where the net gain in terms of importance to water quality is substantial,” said David Mears, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation.
He said the permit would apply to select roads rather than a streamlined retrofitting process for the state’s entire highway network.
But the plan’s modest financial guidance is raising concerns for towns anticipating a costly state mandate.
“We’re very concerned about what the price tag is going to be. We understand that we all have work we need to do to reduce phosphorus loading into the lake and we’re willing work on those issues,” said Karen Horn, director of public policy and advocacy services for the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, which represents and assists Vermont’s towns.
The details of the permit will be developed before the department issues a final proposal next summer. But the current lack of details is leading to speculation that such a permit may burden towns with significant costs.
“We are talking millions of dollars to do all the upgrades that are required,” Horn said. “There just aren’t the dollars out there to do that.”
Barring an increase in property taxes, towns do not know where this money is going to come from, she said.
The road permits may require traditional corrugated culverts to be replaced with bottomless culverts designed to allow for the free flow of water, fish and sediment. Horn said these seemingly simple upgrades cost about $400,000 each.
She said many towns will be hesitant to jump on board with the current draft proposal. She said a more realistic goal would set construction guidelines and best practices for investing in infrastructure with state support, as is outlined in the Institute for Sustainable Communities report on resilience that was released on Monday.
“I think they’re expecting that we won’t stand up and cheer about this proposal,” Horn said. “We could do it other ways; permitting is not the only way you get compliance or cooperation out of people.”
Mears said while the state and federal government may provide assistance, communities should make these cost-effective infrastructure investments to avert later costs for repairing washouts and erosion from increasingly severe weather.
“That not only benefits the community in terms of reducing their water pollution, but they will also not have to maintain the roads,” Mears said. “I don’t think it should or will necessarily need to be the full responsibility of the state or federal government to step in and fix these roads.”
The report does not put a price tag or funding mechanism for implementation. Mears said these details have not been figured out.
“We still have a long way to go before we are ready to get the level of deciding what the funding mechanisms are,” he said.
According to Sue Minter, deputy secretary of transportation, municipalities received their road budget largely from property taxes and some grants. Grants, such as the Vermont Better Backroads Program, fund projects on town and private roads to improve water quality. The grant funds are provided by the agencies of transportation and natural resources.
She said she is not aware of any new funding mechanisms for municipal roads.
Minter said VTrans and the Agency of Natural Resources will need to collaborate on addressing pollution into the lake.
“We certainly understand that the lake is not healthy,” she said. “What’s coming off the roads is something we have to treat.”
The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation and the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets released a draft plan for restoring the Lake Champlain Basin this month. The Environmental Protection Agency has order the state to revise its TMDL (total maximum daily load), which sets targets for phosphorus loading into Lake Champlain, or face federal funding cuts and significantly tightened regulations for facilities around the lake.
The watershed-based stormwater permitting of state highways and municipal roads will be designed to achieve the necessary level of pollutant reduction to meet TMDL targets, the report states. Unlike the shoreline protection issue, this draft plan identifies non-point sources of pollution into Lake Champlain across the state’s inland.
The department will accept written comments on the draft plan until Jan. 17. Comments should be sent to Kari Dolan, manager of the department’s Ecosystem Restoration Program (email: Kari.Dolan@state.vt.us).
The EPA will issue a final TMDL plan by next summer when the state will then begin the necessary work to implement a plan.
