The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday released new limits for phosphorous pollution levels in Lake Champlain.
The Total Maximum Daily Load establishes limits on how much phosphorus Vermont is allowed to release into Lake Champlain. The EPA has set pollution targets for 12 regions of the lake.
Curt Spalding, the Region 1 administrator for the EPA, said the task of cleaning up the lake will be an enormous undertaking.
In a statement, Spalding said while the EPA is setting the limits, Vermont will be responsible for meeting the pollution limits. He described the state’s new cleanup law, Act 64 and implementation as a “roadmap for achieving these targets.” The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, VTrans and the Agency of Natural Resources will be required to report on progress to the federal agency.
“EPA commends Vermont for some cutting edge choices on how to tackle all significant sources of phosphorus and for all the implementation planning already in motion at the state and municipal level,” Spalding said. “Our action today does not mark the end of EPA’s involvement, but rather the beginning of the next phase.”
State officials and environmental advocates say meeting the federal regulations will require significant money and effort. If Vermont fails to meet the new targets, the feds could wrest control over the cleanup.
Much of the lake’s phosphorous pollution originates from fertilizers and manure used by dairy farms along Lake Champlain and the EPA ruling will require significant changes to agricultural practices. Phosphorous is a naturally occuring nutrient found in soil and other sources include dirt roads, waste water treatment plants, insufficiently treated stormwater runoff, and even forest land.
Phosphorous is carried by streams and rivers into Lake Champlain. Since the 1990s, phosphorous concentrations in several areas of the lake has increased, leading to toxic algae blooms that have threatened public safety. In the northern section of the lake, beaches have been closed and last year Burlington’s water supply was threatened by contamination from an algae bloom. Tourism in the Missisquoi Bay area has been negatively impacted and property tax values have dropped in the town of Georgia.
The Conservation Law Foundation sued the EPA in federal court in 2008 because the state had made little progress on pollution controls since the 1990s. In 2011, the EPA pulled the state’s targets for the lake cleanup because phosphorous pollution had significantly worsened. The feds required the state to write a new plan for abating phosphorous runoff, based on new information about pollution levels in the lake.
Deborah Markowitz, the secretary of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, said it’s not yet certain how much, if any, of Vermont’s agricultural land might need to be taken out of production to meet the new pollution limits. Chuck Ross, the secretary of the Agency of Agriculture, didn’t immediately return calls for comment.
The EPA’s announcement gives Vermont the green light to begin the effort in earnest, Markowitz said.
The Agency of Natural Resources worked with the EPA to develop the new targets as part of a draft TMDL that was released last August. The plan hasn’t changed much since then, she said.
The EPA required the plan as a “reasonable assurance” that the state will follow through with cleanup efforts, Markowitz said.
In addition to curbs on phosphorous from agricultural runoff, the EPA’s new regulations impose restrictions on allowable pollution from municipal wastewater and impervious surfaces such as roads and developed land.
Some towns will need to upgrade wastewater treatment plants and land developers will be held to stricter standards.
In order to ensure compliance, the state put permits for eight developers on hold until the EPA released the new limits, Markowitz said.
Cleanup efforts are estimated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars and lawmakers have yet to identify a funding mechanism.
The Agency of Natural Resources will hold three public outreach events this summer to solicit from the public comments on the state’s plan for implementing the new EPA pollution limits.
James Ehlers, the director of Lake Champlain International, says the legislators have failed to adequately fund the lake clean up.
A property transfer tax adopted last year has amassed a few million dollars, and lawmakers approved no new funding mechanisms in this year’s legislative session.
Ehlers is optimistic Vermont will try to meet the TMDL regulations, but he said if past experience is any guide, little progress will be made without sufficient funding. Whoever wins the gubernatorial election this year will be faced with finding a new source of money to meet benchmarks set by the plan, Ehlers said.
Here is a link to the EPA’s TMDL.
Find links to the EPA’s documents here.
