[A] panel of senior Scott administration officials say no new fees or taxes are needed to pay for Lake Champlian cleanup for the next seven years.
The Legislature asked the Act 73 Working Group to find reliable long-term funding for a federally mandated effort to reduce phosphorus pollution in Lake Champlain.
Instead of fulfilling that legislative charge, the working group, which includes Julie Moore, the secretary of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, and Anson Tebbetts, the secretary of the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, determined that no new taxes or fees are needed through 2024.
Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, pledged during his 2016 campaign that he would not raise new revenues.
Some business leaders worry that toxic cyanobacteria outbreaks in Lake Champlain will harm the state’s tourism economy, however, especially in light of recent severe blue green algae blooms that closed beaches and Lake Carmi in Franklin County to swimming and other forms of recreation.
Environmentalists say those fears are well-founded.
Jared Carpenter, a water policy advocate for the Lake Champlain Committee, said “nobody’s going to want to vacation on a green lake.”
“There’s $2.5 billion (annually) in tourism that’s being affected. That’s going to hurt Vermont,” Carpenter said.
Carpenter and other clean water advocates say they’re disappointed by the working group’s draft report. “This was supposed to be a recommendation for long-term clean water funding and administration, and it’s clearly not,” he said.
Former Water Resources Board chair Jon Groveman, who is now the water program director for the Vermont Natural Resources Council, had a similar assessment. “We don’t think the group did what they were charged to do,” Groveman said.
The working group did review proposals to raise money for clean water, including fees based on parcel ownership, but they’d have cost more to administer than the effort would be worth, said Moore.
Some sort of long-term funding will be necessary, Moore said, but it was a tall order to ask a small group of administrators to come up with a solution in fewer than four months. Nevertheless, the group made important contributions to an urgent and ongoing discussion.
“What the working group has done is move the ball down the field,” Moore said.
Moore said that although the short-term costs of slowing Vermont’s water pollution appear to be lower than many expected, the long-term costs could be even higher, as prices for needed projects are expected only to increase over time.
The cyanobacteria blooms have been caused by phosphorus pollution from farms, stormwater runoff and roads. Vermont’s roughly 1,000 dairy farms are the largest contributor.
State Treasurer Beth Pearce has estimated the cost of cleanup will be $2.3 billion over the next 20 years. The EPA imposed phosphorus limits on Lake Champlain last year. In order to meet the federal standard, the state must begin curbing pollution from farms, roads and stormwater.
There are funding sources for about $1.1 billion needed for cleanup. The state must find another $1.2 billion over the next 20 years.
In response, lawmakers this year adopted Act 73, which formed a working group made up almost entirely of members of Scott’s cabinet. The statute instructed the group to write “draft legislation to establish equitable and effective long-term funding methods to support clean water efforts in Vermont.”
Instead, the group released a report on Wednesday asserting that short-term funding isn’t needed. The report advises that it might be worth hiring a consultant to figure out long-term funding solutions.
The final draft of the report is due Nov. 15.
The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources is taking public comments on the draft through Oct. 31.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated Friday with comments from ANR Secretary Julie Moore.