CLF’s Vermont office is getting connected to the District Heat Project’s renewable biomass energy.

Local, renewable wood will heat CLF’s Montpelier office this winter.  Construction is now underway for the Montpelier, Vermont District Heat project. This will steer many of Vermont’s capital city’s buildings away from using fossil fuels for heat. With this project, CLF and Vermont are well on their way to kicking the fossil fuel habit through renewable heat.

The project will replace Montpelier’s outdated central heating plant with efficient, modern wood-fired biomass boilers. Heat will travel underground through insulated pipes to connect the State House, City Hall, and other State buildings as well as privately owned downtown buildings – including CLF’s office.

The new boilers will process 12,200 tons of sustainably harvested green wood chips per year, replacing an estimated 300,000 gallons of oil and reducing Montpelier’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by about 3,100 metric tons of CO₂ equivalents. This is equivalent to taking 646 cars off the road annually.

The system will be fully complete by February and will provide heat to many of Montpelier’s biggest buildings. The project advances CLF’s and Montpelier’s renewable energy economy, creating green jobs, stabilizing fuel costs and increasing Vermont’s energy security – all while keeping us warm in our cold Vermont winters.

CLF Intern Ari Rockland-Miller amidst the construction outside the Vermont office

Vermont Gas’ proposed pipeline expansion is an ill-conceived pipe dream that would exacerbate Vermont’s contribution to climate change and fuel our continued reliance on non-renewable energy. Adding insult to injury, this fundamentally misguided expansion would pose both immediate and sustained threats to vital wetland ecosystems, state-significant natural communities, and threatened plant populations. The pipeline demands a full NEPA review and environmental impact statement, just as Governor Shumlin called for environmental review of the Portland Montreal Pipe Line reversal in a recent letter to Secretary Kerry.

As Conservation Law Foundation articulates in this letter to the Army Corps of Engineers, the pipeline expansion would have undue adverse impacts on aquatic resources and fails to meet the criteria established by federal law for a Section 404 individual wetland permit.

The proposed route impacts 25.16 acres of wetlands and streams, including 5.29 acres of Class II wetlands deemed “significant” under the Vermont Wetland Rules and an additional 6.22 acres of Class II wetland buffers. Testimony from Alan Quackenbush, Wetlands Program Manager for the Department of Environmental Conservation, says trenching poses permanent risks to wetland hydrology:

“If the hydrology changes or the soil layers are not removed and replaced in order, these impacts will be permanent.”

Vermont Gas plans to use open cut trenching throughout the majority of the pipeline route, even though horizontal directional drilling (HDD) is a far less environmentally damaging practicable alternative. Despite the availability of HDD, the invasive open trenching method will be used in areas up to 75 feet wide, including parts of state-significant natural communities.

Even testimony submitted by Vermont Gas recognizes the “permanent Project impacts” to state-significant natural communities. These permanent impacts extend to four areas, totaling 3.68 acres, of Pine-Oak-Heath Sandplain Forest designated by ANR as an S1 “extremely rare natural community.” Vermont Gas testimony acknowledges that this ecosystem is “appropriate to be considered RINA,” or a Rare and Irreplaceable Natural Area under 10 V.S.A. § 6086(a)(8).

Testimony from botanist Robert Popp adds that the pipeline construction and permanent removal of forest canopy pose risks to seven state-listed “Threatened” plant species, as well as an additional seven “Rare” species:

“There is concern about the pipeline acting in some areas as a conduit for invasive, exotic species to spread into the interior of what were formerly unfragmented forests and wetlands.”

We’ve been down this road before – the pipeline would rely in part on sections of the same wetland-rich right-of-way of the thwarted CIRC Highway project. The EPA came down hard on the CIRC’s wetland impacts:

“Even if the mitigation were fully implemented, the proposed project will cause or contribute to significant degradation of waters of the U.S. in violation” of federal law.

Vermont needs to maintain in tact wetland ecosystems and actively pursue forward-thinking climate solutions. Let’s wake up from this pipe dream before we get sucked down its slippery slope. 

Vermont is known for its thriving bucolic landscapes, but even in downtown Burlington many people have dirt beneath their fingernails. The Conservation Law Foundation has long supported agriculture in Vermont by helping farmers understand the legal landscape and find funding to grow their operations. More recently, CLF has been playing a significant role in urban agriculture advocacy and policy development in Boston, MA, fostering a resilient regional food system by addressing barriers to urban farming. Now, CLF is supporting the Burlington Food Council’s efforts to shape that city’s agriculture policy landscape through ordinances that will promote environmentally responsible urban agriculture and humane livestock husbandry.

Urban food production is burgeoning in Burlington, as residents aim to localize their diets and connect with the sources of their food. In recognition of this growing trend, the City Council created the Burlington Food Council’s Urban Agriculture Task Force in March 2011. After an 18-month stakeholder engagement process, the Task Force published a report last fall addressing opportunities and issues that arise as Queen City residents become increasingly passionate about growing food in their backyards. In late 2012, the City Council passed an Urban Agriculture Resolution, identifying priorities from the Task Force Report and directing relevant City departments to facilitate implementation of action steps.

CLF is proud to collaborate with the Burlington Food Council, which is “an open community group dedicated to creating and nurturing a healthy, equitable and sustainable food system for all members of the Burlington community.” You can learn more about the Burlington Food Council, read the Task Force Report, and find out how you can support the Food Council’s important work by visiting its web site.

As the City’s professional staff and volunteer boards start digging into the Task Force Report’s priorities, CLF is collaborating with the Burlington Food Council to support the City’s efforts by ensuring a clear and comprehensive framework for urban agriculture outreach, policy, and education. Drawing on its experience supporting the City’s effort to adopt a stormwater pollution control ordinance, CLF is providing the Burlington Food Council with strategic input and technical assistance as it participates in the city processes that will make the Task Force Report recommendations on-the-ground realities. For example, CLF and the Burlington Food Council are serving on the Board of Health’s working group that will devise draft ordinance language for humane, environmentally responsible animal husbandry and small-scale slaughter. This open stakeholder process aims to produce a draft ordinance that balances the concerns and aspirations of all city residents and that can win approval from the City Council and the Mayor.

The time is ripe for urban agriculture. By sowing the seeds of a sensible urban agriculture policy today, we are making our food system stronger, safer, more flexible, and more localized for tomorrow.