July 2005 LCAR Move Has Power to Protect Water

A July 2005 move by the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules (LCAR) on the White River Basin planning process could have powerful implications for how water in Vermont is managed and protected.

Vermont's Water Quality Standards

The Vermont Water Quality Standards (VWQS) serve as the foundation in protecting Vermont’s vital and precious water resources. The VWQS are regulations that classify each waterbody, establish uses (e.g. swimming and fishing) that must be protected, and set minimum chemical, physical and biological criteria that must be met in all of Vermont’s waters.

Statewide Watershed Basin Planning

The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) is required by law to prepare and update watershed plans for 17 major watersheds in Vermont. These plans must inventory the sources of pollution within a watershed, and then craft clean-up goals designed to improve and restore the quality of the water. While this requirement has been on Vermont’s law books for decades, until recently ANR had failed to update a single basin plan.

Outstanding Waters Petition

The State of Vermont has an obligation under the antidegradation policy of the Clean Water Act to ensure that water quality is maintained and protected where "high quality waters constitute an outstanding National resource, such as water of National and State parks and wildlife refuges and waters of exceptional recreational or ecological significance."

VNRC Legal Counsel Jon Groveman's Comments on the White River Basin Plan

The White River Basin Plan (WRBP) is the first of 17 basin plans that the Agency of Natural Resources must update by 2006. To protect Vermont's magnificent lakes and streams, it is vital that the recommendations for classifying the waters are done properly and that good precedent is set for the classification of waters in Vermont’s 16 other basins.

VNRC Staff Scientist Kim Kendall's Comments on the White River Basin Plan

VNRC Rejects Policy That Paves Farms to Solve Stormwater

Wal-Mart needs a state permit to discharge stormwater into a nearby tributary of Stevens Brook, a stream which already does not meet Vermont water quality standards. Last summer, the Agency of Natural Resources granted the stormwater permit to the developers of the proposed 160,000-square-foot store. But VNRC has appealed the stormwater permit raising concerns about Wal-Mart’s plans to discharge several tons of sediment and nutrients into a tributary that has no capacity to absorb it.