Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Senate has voted to enact another study on how to fund clean water (S260). A coalition of municipal, business, and environmental groups are calling on the Vermont House of Representatives to take concrete steps toward meeting our state’s commitment to putting long-term funding for water quality in place. The bill passed without opposition last Thursday.
The coalition calling for action on clean water funding this year includes the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce, the City of Burlington, the Town of Williston, the Town of Colchester (both representing municipalities with stormwater utilities), the City of St Albans, the Vermont Natural Resources Council, Lake Champlain Committee and Vermont Conservation Voters.
Vermont has been under a mandate from the federal Environmental Protection Agency since 2015 to enact funding for clean water as part of the order to implement water pollution clean up in Lake Champlain and other waters statewide when it passed Act 64 of 2015, known as the Vermont Clean Water Act. This unique coalition has come together to demand that the State of Vermont fulfill its commitment to put long-term, sustainable funding for water quality in place.
The state has been running on stopgap funding for clean water since 2015, and during that time the Legislature has requested extensive studies on how to raise the funds required to implement water quality projects across the state.
The impacts of inaction on funding clean water are being seen in pervasive cyanobacteria blooms in Lake Carmi, closed beaches on Lake Champlain, pollution problems in Lake Memphremagog, and elsewhere across Vermont. Failing to clean up our waters hurts the health of our communities, our families, and our economy.
Brian Shupe, Executive Director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council said, “the time for study is over and the time for action on clean water funding is now. The diversity of groups that have all come together around this issue is unprecedented.”
“Our waterways are vital to our health, economy and quality of life,” said Lori Fisher, Executive Director of the Lake Champlain Committee. “The Legislature has the information necessary to make a policy decision about establishing a long-term funding mechanism. Further delay will only increase costs, worsen existing water degradation, and foist the problem onto future generations.”
The coalition has advocated for two key priorities this year, the implementation of a modest parcel fee as described in the Vermont Treasurer’s 2017 Report to the Legislature, and the creation of a clean water authority that would be responsible for collecting the fee, setting priorities, and investing in Vermont’s clean water future.
St. Albans City Manager Dominic Cloud explained his support for the creation of a clean water authority: “We have the obligation and the opportunity to act decisively right now to take a bold step forward and create long term capacity that would restore the health of Vermont’s water resources, and the communities, industries and economies that depend on clean water.”
Tom Torti, President of the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce, noted that this coalition of allies marks an historic coming together of groups that don’t usually agree on major environmental policy: “I can’t remember any time in the last three decades when the business community, local governments and environmental groups saw eye to eye on an issue of this importance, much less agreed to work together like we have. Decision makers in Montpelier should take note that we are waiting for them to give the green light so that we can transform our collective energy into action for Vermont’s waters.”
Having passed the Senate S.260 is now before the House Committee on Natural Resources, Fish and Wildlife.
Source: Vermont Natural Resources Council 3.26.2018