Editor’s note: This commentary is by David Mears, who is executive director of Audubon Vermont. He previously was associate dean of environmental programs at Vermont Law School and the former commissioner of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation.
[I] recently attended a series of public workshops discussing the release of the Lake Champlain Basin Program’s 2018 State of the Lake Report. The workshops were sponsored by the Lake Champlain Citizens Advisory Committee on which I serve. The report includes a sobering analysis of the challenges facing the lake and has led many Vermonters to ask what it will take for the lake to recover. The comments we heard during the workshops echo the same concerns I heard six years ago when the 2012 version of this same report was issued. The message that came through loud and clear was that we have not made enough progress.
At the time of the 2012 report, I was the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, and the answer to the question of how to protect the lake remains the same: Reducing polluted stormwater runoff from farms, roads and developed lands, along with the nutrients and sediment carried in that runoff, is our best chance at restoring Lake Champlain, as well as most of our state’s polluted rivers, streams, ponds and lakes. Unless we control stormwater runoff, we will not recover these amazing resources that provide habitat for our birds, fish and wildlife, clean water for drinking and recreation, and that contribute mightily to our state’s economic vitality.
We can get this job done. The solutions are straightforward and already well-defined. In the coming session, the General Assembly and governor must establish a meaningful and stable source of clean water funding, as explained in Treasurer Beth Pearce’s comprehensive report. In addition, the agencies tasked with implementing the state’s clean water laws, including the agencies responsible for natural resources, land use, agriculture, transportation, and economic development, must fulfill the commitments Vermont made to EPA in the Lake Champlain restoration plan and authorized in the Vermont Clean Water Act (Act 64).
With sufficient funding, and with the leadership of state government, we can take the necessary steps to control polluted stormwater runoff. By capturing and filtering the runoff that results from developed or disturbed areas each time it rains or the snow melts, implementing improved farm and forestry practices, and protecting and restoring our river corridors, wetlands and floodplains, we can make the necessary progress.
You might think of the task of implementing the commitments for reducing stormwater pollution as something like eating your vegetables – necessary for your health, but not quite as tasty as dessert. In Vermont, we still need to eat our vegetables – we do not yet have a sufficient source of long-term stable revenue to pay for clean water. And, while our agencies are making some progress, they are struggling to fully achieve the goals outlined in the Lake Champlain restoration plan in the face of budget cuts and political resistance.
At the same time, as illustrated by a set of permit appeals filed by Conservation Law Foundation, the State of Vermont has decided to eat dessert first. The state issued permits authorizing a number of municipal sewage treatment plants to increase the amount of pollution they currently discharge into Lake Champlain as a way to ensure the potential for future development and growth. To be sure, the Lake Champlain restoration plan approved by the EPA contemplated the very same limits used by the state in its permit decisions. As the state and the municipal permit holders have pointed out, the new permits are generally in line with, or even somewhat more stringent than past permits. But, EPA only contemplated these limits based on the understanding that substantial reductions in polluted stormwater runoff would occur.
Local officials, including our hardworking public works departments and the often unrecognized champions who run our sewage treatment systems, are caught in the litigation crossfire between the state and clean water advocates. Just as troubling, our farmers, state and local transportation agencies and road crews, and business and housing developers are likely to become targets for future litigation as long as the state fails to make the necessary investments to address polluted stormwater runoff.
This current circumstance is, unfortunately, a return to what was the case for decades as environmental organizations historically and successfully filed lawsuit after lawsuit, in an effort to drive stronger government actions. The State of Vermont has made steps towards breaking out of this paradigm in the form of the Lake Champlain restoration plan, the Vermont Clean Water Act (Act 64), and important early, if halting, progress under the Gov. Scott administration.
But plans and unfulfilled commitments are not enough. For this reason, state officials should commit to sitting down with clean water advocates, local officials and farmers, businesses and developers to ensure meaningful progress and to avoid litigation. As we head into a new legislative session, our governor and General Assembly should commit to finding the necessary funds to implement the work necessary to restore our state’s waters. All of us should keep the pressure on state agencies to adopt and enforce meaningful and practical clean water programs. If we want to avoid spending our time in court, and instead make real progress in restoring Lake Champlain and all waters across the state of Vermont, we need to postpone dessert and focus on eating our vegetables.