Vermont gets a D+ for poor progress toward Lake Champlain clean up By Mike Polhamus Apr 24 2018, 6:

The Conservation Law Foundation has given the state of Vermont a D+ for poor progress toward a clean-up of Lake Champlain. Issuing its annual Lake Champlain Report Card on Monday, the environmental watchdog said “The near-failing grade is the result of a consistent pattern of missed deadlines, weak treatment standards and a lack of investment in clean-up programs.”

The foundation’s grade is in marked contrast to the self-evaluation by Anson Tebbetts, the state Secretary of Agriculture, Food and Markets, who issued a statement earlier in April saying the state had been given “all As” for its efforts so far, by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA report card, issued in early April, in fact gave Vermont only a “provisional pass” because the state had not yet reached a number of milestones the EPA had set in its pollution reduction order for Lake Champlain. They included long-term funding for clean water as well as plans for treating stormwater runoff in certain cities and towns and from large-area developments.

The EPA issued an order to limit additional phosphorus pollution in Lake Champlain in 2016, following the passage of Act 63, Vermont’s Clean Water Act. To comply with the EPA order, the state must report annually to the EPA on its progress toward achieving the limits, referred to as the Total Maximum Daily Load.

Instead of As the EPA gave the state one year to fulfill three conditions of the federal pollution-reduction order that are currently overdue.

https://vtdigger.org/2018/04/24/vermont-gets-d-poor-progress-toward-lake-champlain-clean/

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