Flaws in a Vermont program are stopping the state from regulating phosphorus discharges from specific ranches, adding to serious water top quality issues in Lake Champlain and various other bodies of water, according to a letter from the united state Environmental Protection Agency to state authorities.
The Monday letter to the assistant of the Vermont Natural Resources Agency claims the program is stopping working to abide by theClean Water Act It routes the state to make considerable modifications in exactly how it manages water air pollution from focused pet feeding procedures, or CAFOs, which elevate pets in arrest.
There are 37 huge and 104 tool CAFOs in Vermont, together with 1,000 little ranches that may be thought about such procedures, according to the EPA.
Two state companies– Natural Resources and Agriculture Food and Markets– manage farming water air pollution in Vermont, which is where the trouble exists, the letter states. The department of duties “is interfering with the regulation of Vermont’s CAFOs and preventing Vermont from adequately addressing agricultural water quality,” wrote David Cash, EPA administrator for Region 1 in Boston.
Excess phosphorus runoff from farms, roads and urban areas has fueled toxic algae blooms Lake Champlain, sometimes forcing the closure of beaches. Sources of excess phosphorus into lakes and waterways include fertilizers, leaking septic systems or discharges from wastewater treatment plants, according to the EPA.
The EPA mandated that the state clean up Lake Champlain and in 2016 released new phosphorus pollution limits for the water body.
In Monday’s letter, the EPA concluded that the Agency of Natural Resources must be responsible for CAFO permitting, monitoring, and enforcement, which includes doing routine farm inspections, enforcing management plans for the placement of manure and other nutrients on fields, and administering discharge permits.
Vermont Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore said Tuesday that the agency takes its obligations under the Clean Water Act very seriously.
“At the same time I think it’s really important to reflect that this is sort of about the operation and administration of government and should not be taken as a reflection on the work being done by farmers,” she stated.
The state has actually managed ranches via no-discharge allows released by the Agriculture Agency, “so nothing is allowed to leave the farm,” Moore said. The EPA is showing that there is evidence of occasional discharges from farms, often in response to severe weather, she said.
The Conservation Law Foundation, the Vermont Natural Resources Council and the Lake Champlain Committee, an advocacy organization, petitioned the EPA in 2022 to take corrective action or withdraw its authorization of the program related to the regulation of CAFO farms. The foundation released EPA’s letter on Monday, and Elena Mihaly, vice president of Conservation Law Foundation Vermont, said it’s a step in the right direction.
Similar concerns were raised in a 2008 petition filed by the Vermont Law School Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic that resulted in a corrective action plan in 2013 in which the state agreed to take steps to improve parts of its program, including its dealings with CAFOs, the letter states.
It’s clear that Vermont has not adequately addressed deficiencies in its CAFO program or complied with the requirements of the 2013 plan, Cash wrote in the letter to the state.
“EPA has closely observed program operations in Vermont for well over a decade and despite having had ample time and opportunity to cure longstanding program deficiencies, many of which were outlined in the 2008 withdrawal petition, ANR has failed to do so,” Cash created.
Vermont Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts stated the concern “really only deals with a handful of farmers” and “is more like a regulatory box that hasn’t been checked.”
Farmers and the company are and have actually been doing remarkable operate in maintaining air pollution out of the lake and rivers, he stated.
“The evidence proves through some of the science, the people that are helping to solve the problem over the last decade or so are coming from the farm community,” Tebbetts stated. “So the program with education, technical assistance, enforcement, inspections is working.”
Lisa Rathke, The Associated Press
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