Conservation Law Foundation, EPA, and Vermont Officials Reach Agreement on Needed Clean Water Improvements

CONTACT:

Anthony Iarrapino, CLF, (802) 223-5992, x4014
Karen Wood, CLF, (617) 850-1722

EPA Corrective Action Plan for Vermont Provides Roadmap for State Compliance

Montpelier, VT  July 19, 2013 – In a move that marks a positive milestone in efforts to secure clean water in Vermont, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials today sent a Clean Water Act “Corrective Action Plan” to the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). The comprehensive Corrective Action Plan outlines permitting and enforcement improvements and updates the state has made or needs to make to ensure that the state provides all the protections required by law to its citizens and the waters they have a right to use and enjoy. The Corrective Action Plan comes in response to, and conditionally resolves, a petition Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) and its pro bono counsel from the Vermont Law School Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic first filed with EPA in 2008.

The Petition explained how Vermont’s rivers, lakes, and streams suffer from excessive pollution – including toxic algae blooms in Lake Champlain – and documented deficiencies in Vermont’s clean water program. It called upon EPA either to take over Clean Water Act pollution discharge permitting and enforcement in the state, or to require the state to implement meaningful improvements that would ensure full compliance with Clean Water Act requirements.

“CLF applauds U.S. E.P.A. officials for fairly weighing and validating key concerns that CLF’s petition raised,” said Christopher Kilian, Vice President and Director of CLF in Vermont and its regional Clean Water and Healthy Forest Program. “This Corrective Action Plan also represents a heartening reaffirmation by Vermont DEC officials of the state’s commitment to the Clean Water Act’s pollution reduction and public participation requirements.”

After EPA conducted a thorough review of the concerns CLF’s petition documented, officials from EPA Region 1 brought all the parties together to seek agreement on necessary changes to state law and state agency practices. The Corrective Action Plan reflects EPA’s findings and the remedial commitments the state has made in response. These include:

• The final issuance of the state’s first ever general permit to control pollution discharges from “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations”—animal farming operations meeting certain regulatory criteria—in a manner that complies with the Clean Water Act.
• Commitments to increase annual inspections of actual and suspected “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations” to detect unlawful pollution discharges and ensure that CAFO dischargers apply for and comply with Clean Water Act permits.
• Changes to state law allowing citizens to have a voice in the resolution of Clean Water Act enforcement proceedings.
• A plan for regulating nitrogen discharges from sewage treatment plants in the Connecticut River watershed to ensure that the discharges do not exacerbate downstream pollution problems such as dead zones in the Long Island Sound.
• Enforcement against the Village of Waterbury sewage treatment plant that will significantly reduce one of the largest single phosphorous discharges into Lake Champlain through installation of state-of-the-art technology

“This has been an extremely valuable process and we’re very pleased with the results,” said Laura Murphy, Associate Director of the Vermont Law School Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, which provided invaluable assistance to CLF throughout the process. “We appreciate that Region 1 recognized the importance of our well-documented concerns from the outset, and we applaud DEC for its demonstrated commitment to an improved water program in Vermont.  We were honored to perform this work on behalf of our client CLF, a clean water champion for New England.”

Background

Under the Clean Water Act, each state may apply to EPA to assume responsibility for permitting and enforcement through the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program. EPA approved Vermont’s application to assume NPDES responsibilities in 1974. Each year, Vermont receives several million dollars in EPA grants to support DEC’s NPDES permitting and enforcement activities.

The Clean Water Act authorizes EPA to withdraw its approval of state NPDES programs and resume direct federal permitting and enforcement authority in such state whenever the Administrator determines that a State’s program administration does not comply with the Act’s requirements. Clean Water Act regulations set forth several criteria under which EPA judges a state’s compliance and creates a process whereby citizens can petition EPA to withdraw a state’s authority NPDES permitting and enforcement authority. CLF filed its petition pursuant to those regulations.

According to an EPA web site, nationwide there have been thirty-two citizen petitions filed with EPA seeking withdrawal of state NPDES authority since 1989. Of those, ten are listed as still pending. These include petitions filed in Iowa, Illinois, West Virginia, Minnesota, Maryland, Indiana, and Alabama. http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/npdes/basics/withdrawal.cfm

A copy of the Corrective Action Plan, selected filings and correspondence are available upon request from CLF.

Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) protects New England’s environment for the benefit of all people. Using the law, science and the market, CLF creates solutions that conserve our natural resources, build healthy communities, and sustain a vibrant economy region-wide. Founded in 1966, CLF is a nonprofit, member-supported organization with offices in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.