VERMONT: Looking to safeguard land, water, and air.

• Author: Sinclair, Mark

Vermont's tiny corner of New England is a place that has a tradition of respect for the environment, and CLF has been working hard to defend that tradition. This spring, the Vermont office launched an initiative to to enforce the Clean Water Act. Many of Vermont's lakes and rivers still fail to meet water quality standards. Fish contain unacceptable levels of mercury and other toxic contaminants. Lake Champlain experiences deadly algae blooms and chronic beach closings. Most of our rivers are dammed or suffer from having their flows altered. More than 1,000 miles of rivers and streams are listed as not suitable for swimming or fishing. What has gone wrong is that unregulated water pollution sources--stormwater from roads and parking lots and runoff from farms and sprawling housing subdivision--have increased to create a massive problem. A report released in late May on Lake Champlain's health finds that recent efforts to reduce phosphorus by upgrading wastewater treatment plants are being offset by increased runoff from new development in the Burlington area.

Unfortunately, the Dean administration has refused to regulate pollution runoff. Instead, the state has been happy to take the path of least resistance--preparing vague watershed plans and relying on voluntary controls. But this has been the basis of our current failed approach for the past 30 years.

In an Earth Day commentary featured by the Burlington Free Press, CLF announced its campaign to fight for restoring watershed health in Vermont, noting that "It's time for Vermont to come to grips with its last major source of water pollution--the answers are well-known, practical, and at hand." We are now working to tackle this problem with a vengeance. We have already drafted a new law for state legislators requiring better control of stormwater from existing housing and commercial subdivisions. We are also collaborating with the town of Shelburne to enact a new zoning model to protect stream banks and shorelines and to minimize runoff into Lake Champlain. We are working with Governor Dean and his environmental and agriculture departments to increase funding for green stream buffers along farm fields and to implement a program to remove the most damaging old dams from our rivers. In May, at CLF's urging, Governor Dean announced that he would double state funds to purchase conservation easements along streams to control farm pollution. Increased funding will help Vermont meet two goals...