|
For three decades, scientists have warned that Lake Champlain has been heading toward a pollution crisis. In recent years millions of dollars have been spent to come up with a restoration plan for the Lake. Despite efforts to implement pollution reductions called for in the plan, the Lake's water quality is still severely degraded by phosphorus pollution from stormwater and agricultural runoff and wastewater treatment plants. In fact, phosphorus pollution may well be increasing in many parts of Lake Champlain.
In 2001, CLF established the Lake Champlain Lakekeeper Program to protect the lake through a combination of public advocacy, legal action and old-fashioned detective work. The Lakekeeper involves concerned citizens in restoring and protecting Lake Champlain.
What the Lake Champlain Lakekeeper Does
~ Ensures the Clean Water Act and other environmental policies are implemented and enforced;
~ Works with citizens and groups to publicize their concerns about threats to the water quality of the Lake;
~ Holds polluters - and the agencies that regulate them - accountable for their actions;
~ Investigates pollution problems and ensures that responsible parties clean up the pollution; and
~ Responds to citizen complaints of water pollution and works with them to solve the problem.
Thanks to the Lake Champlain Lakekeeper
~ CLF won two precedent-setting lawsuits: 1) halting construction of a South Burlington Lowe's Home Center that was polluting already-degraded Potash Brook, a tributary to Lake Champlain, and 2) requiring all stormwater dischargers in key counties surrounding lake Champlain to obtain permits and clean up discharges.
~ A sewage treatment plant in South Burlington, VT is subject to more stringent controls on phosphorus discharges into Lake Champlain.
~ The Plattsburgh, NY Wastewater Treatment Plant has a discharge permit with more stringent controls on deoxygenating wastes and suspended solids, putting it into compliance with the Clean Water Act.
~ The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources cut the amount of toxic copper and zinc it will allow IBM - the single largest discharger of toxic water pollution in Vermont - to discharge by almost 4,000 pounds per year. The state also required IBM to limit the amount of cyanide in wastewater piped into the Winooski River and to double monitoring for toxic pollutants in wastewater.
|
