Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Louis Porter, the Lake Champlain lakekeeper for the Conservation Law Foundation and former chief of the Vermont Press Bureau.
Last week, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin and his challenger, State Sen. Randy Brock, were asked about clean water at a conference on renewable energy. And then an interesting thing happened. Both men gave distinct, clear, knowledgeable – and very troubling – answers.
Let’s talk first about where the candidates did well.
The governor’s response was unusually forthright for an incumbent. The easy path would have been to say that Vermont, a state that lives and dies by its environmental reputation, is doing well, has good programs in place and is delivering to its residents the clean water they need and deserve. But Shumlin did not take that easy out. Instead, he acknowledged that “our water is getting dirtier, not cleaner.”
And he didn’t stop there.
“We are not making progress, we are not standing in place,” the governor said. “We are losing.”
Showing that his knowledge of water pollution goes deeper than a sound bite, Shumlin illustrated for the crowd the connections between water quality, the two massive floods of 2011, and the state’s aging and outdated wastewater infrastructure that “was built about the time that I was.”
The challenger didn’t shy away from the question, either. “I am adjacent to Lake Champlain,” the Franklin County state senator said. “Clean water and a clean lake is a major issue for us.”
“We have devoted money to cleaning up our water and keeping it clean. We need to devote more money, to the extent that we can, to do that,” he concluded later.
And Brock showed he is familiar with the importance not only of the state’s water, but the importance of its water law enforcement policies.
“We need also to enforce our environmental laws, strenuously, rigorously, but fairly, in order to do that,” Brock said.
And then the candidates began to fall short. Admittedly with some justification, both of them pointed out that the federal government has not done enough to help the states, including Vermont, fix and protect the water.
“All I can tell you is that we do not have in Vermont the cash to rebuild that infrastructure. We don’t,” Shumlin said. “We need a new effort in this country to ask the top one percent to pay their fair share so that we can invest in jobs and economic opportunities and infrastructure that is going to make this country great again.”
There is nothing tougher, and nothing more important, than dealing with the greatest threat to Vermont’s environment and its reputation. And that reputation is important not just for tourism revenue, as vital as that is. It is about attracting businesses. It is about the protecting and increasing the value of homes and buildings. It is about safe and accessible fishing and swimming and drinking.
Brock’s answer was along the same lines.
“The federal government is great on pronouncing things the states should do, and then not paying for it. I think our greatest chance of dealing with this effectively, has got to be with our congressional delegation,” he said.
Laying some blame on the federal government is not entirely wrong. But it fails to acknowledge the state’s obligation – an obligation that is legal, economic and ethical – to either protect its waters or give that authority back to the feds. Perhaps even worse for political leaders, the two failed to offer any vision of how Vermont would actually get and keep clean water for its people.
One of Shumlin’s favorite lines about his governorship is that he “gets tough things done.” There is nothing tougher, and nothing more important, than dealing with the greatest threat to Vermont’s environment and its reputation. And that reputation is important not just for tourism revenue, as vital as that is. It is about attracting businesses. It is about the protecting and increasing the value of homes and buildings. It is about safe and accessible fishing and swimming and drinking.
From the Battenkill to the shores of Lake Champlain to the Connecticut River, people live and work in Vermont in significant part because its environment – and especially its waters – brings them and holds them here. The next governor will be responsible for administering and enforcing the law, for making sure that the infrastructure needed to keep people and the environment safe is built and maintained. The next governor will also be responsible for guiding the state’s economy. The current condition of Vermont’s waters, especially Lake Champlain, threatens all three.
Brock doesn’t get off the hook either. A fiscal conservative and former auditor for private industry and government, he has spent his career making sure that people – whether investors or taxpayers – are not cheated out of what they pay for. Someone who lives as close to the massive, chronic and potentially toxic blue-green algae blooms of Missisquoi Bay as Brock does cannot truly believe his neighbors are getting good value for what they pay to live near Lake Champlain or along Vermont’s other waters that fail to meet basic standards. Someone who is proud, as Brock is, of Vermont’s tradition of balancing its state budget (it is the only state not required to do so by law) cannot simultaneously acknowledge that we need to do more for clean water, and then simply blame the feds for not covering the cost. A balanced state budget without paying what it costs to treat our waste and collect our drinking water is not truly balanced at all.
The answers by the two major party candidates for the state’s top job were simultaneously encouraging and distressing, but they were an accurate reflection of our collective position on clean water in Vermont. We know that we have a major problem with one of the most important natural resources (and economic engines) in our state. We acknowledge we are not doing enough to solve it and that we need to deal with farm discharges, wastewater and polluted runoff. And then we – and they – decide our main approach should be to wait around for the federal government to come fix it for us. When that does not happen we will have nobody to blame but ourselves.
Below is a transcript by CLF of a recording from the forum, made and provided by the Vermont Natural Resources Council.
VNRC Executive Director Brian Shupe: “Vermont’s waters are not as clean as most people think and there is general agreement that they may be getting dirtier. How do you propose to pay for the cleanup of impaired waters that are required under the Clean Water Act and perhaps more importantly what measures are you willing to take to keep the unimpaired waters clean forever from future impairment.”
Gov. Peter Shumlin: “You always ask the small questions. Listen, this is what we have got to do. I am going to be really candid with you. I am pretty pessimistic about Vermont’s ability alone without federal funding to address the water quality issues that we are facing in this state. I am just going to tell you, we are losing the battle, our water is getting dirtier not cleaner, and anyone who has not seen the algae blooms in Lake Champlain or the other challenges that we are facing, just isn’t facing reality. We are not making progress, we are not standing in place. We are losing.”
“And I will be honest with you, the storms, April and May and Irene in August, did as much damage to some of the lake and other waterways as we have seen inflicted on Vermont in a long, long time. So it’s not a happy story. All kinds of stuff got washed into our water that wasn’t supposed to be there. Septic systems, totally washed out, farmers’ fields, totally washed in. We lost 20,000 acres of farmland in one single storm. Good, prime ag land and everything that was on top of it. We had municipal sewer systems, and I was there, not just Irene, but in April and May, up in Johnson and other communities, that just emptied into our brooks that then lead into our lakes. This is a really bleak situation.”
“There are a few things we know we have to do. We are working very closely with the agricultural community to give them the tools that they need to mitigate the challenges that we have with spreading. And we are making some great progress. It is a partnership and I am very optimistic about it. I am less optimistic about our aging infrastructure that treats our sewage, that was built about the time that I was. And it’s old, and it’s gray and it’s wrinkling and it is not looking as good as it used to be. All I can tell you is that we do not have, in Vermont, the cash to rebuild that infrastructure. We don’t. We can pretend that we do but when you look at the number of septic, municipal sewer systems and the other treatment systems that are decrepit and old, we need a new New Deal. We need a new LBJ. We need a new effort in this country to ask the top one percent to pay their fair share so that we can invest in jobs and economic opportunities and infrastructure that is going to make this country great again. And I don’t have a plan to fund that in the state of Vermont because I do not believe we have got enough money in our pockets to do it. I know that is not what you want to hear, but it is the truth.”
Sen. Randy Brock: “Of course I live in Franklin County, and I am adjacent to Lake Champlain. Many of my constituents along the shore of the towns in Franklin County and Alburgh in Grand Isle County are my constituents and clean water and a clean lake is a major issue for us. I have seen estimates that scare me in terms of what is really necessary to clean up Lake Champlain. Clearly beyond the capability of Vermont and our current financial position, our current financial situation, in which we are projected to have again another major shortfall, a multi-million dollar shortfall, next year.
Our greatest ability, and here’s where that difficulty we always seem to have with the federal government. The federal government is great on pronouncing things that the states should do, and then not paying for it. I think our greatest chance of dealing with this effectively, has got to be with our congressional delegation and we have a very senior congressional delegation, certainly in the Senate. And their ability to deal with the pronouncements of the EPA in terms of tighter and more stringent restrictions on clean water. Because it is a problem that doesn’t just affect Vermont, it affects, it affects our nation, it affects our nation overall.
But we know, also, unfortunately that the federal government is broke. This year for the first time, for the first time, as I understand it, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and interest on the federal debt will basically consume every dollar of tax revenue that comes in and everything else will have to be paid for through borrowed money. Vermont has been the only state in the nation that is not required, by law, to balance its budget. But on a bipartisan basis, as long as I can remember, regardless of which party is in power, we have always balanced our budget. And if I am elected we’ll balance our budget.
We have devoted money to cleaning up our water and keeping it clean. We need to devote more money, to the extent that we can, to do that. We need also to enforce our environmental laws, strenuously, rigorously, but fairly, in order to do that. We need to work with the affected communities, certainly from a stormwater perspective, our municipalities, and from a farm, an agriculture perspective, our farmers. I believe we are doing that. Can we do more? Yes. Should we do more? Yes.
