Farms close to Lake Champlain sometimes produce polluted runoff. Photo: EcoPhotography
As the former Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Deb Markowitz has unique insight into the challenges facing the state’s efforts to manage water pollution from farms. In recent years, the Agency of Agriculture and Agency of Natural Resources have struggled to share responsibility for managing the polluted runoff from farms that makes its way into Vermont’s waters.
CLF has long pushed for better enforcement of clean water laws in the state. Recognizing the impasse between the two state agencies, CLF’s Vermont team petitioned the EPA to step in to resolve the issue. In September, the EPA issued its findings and required the state to put the Agency of Natural Resources in charge of dealing with the problem. We recently chatted with Deb, a member of the Vermont Advisory Board, to learn more about what caused this crisis and how CLF is working to resolve it.
1. The EPA recently determined that Vermont needs to revamp how it deals with water pollution from farms. You used to run the Agency of Natural Resources before this issue developed. What caused the current problems?
Vermont has a long and proud history of agriculture, which has played a critical role in the state’s economy and culture. I remember when I first came to Vermont in 1979 there were more cows here than people! As our environmental laws evolved – with a greater focus on protecting water quality from non-point source pollution (like polluted farm run-off) – the state and federal government tried to strike a balance to help farmers comply with new regulations by offering economic incentives and technical support.
This is what led to the state’s decision to delegate the environmental enforcement authority to the Agency of Agriculture. As we have tried to grapple, as a state, with the ongoing challenges of cleaning up Lake Champlain, it is clear that we must take stronger action against polluting farms. According to federal law, the buck stops with the Agency of Natural Resources. As a practical matter, the hope is that moving enforcement back to the Environmental Agency will result in less pollution from farms.
2. How has this dysfunction impacted farmers?
Farmers have had a hard time of it. We’ve learned that some of the practices that they adopted at the suggestion of the Agency of Agriculture and Natural Resources Conservation Service in past years turned out to be problematic for water quality. The hope is that bringing enforcement authority back to the Agency of Natural Resources will result in greater clarity for our farmers, which will help them better comply with environmental requirements.
3. Having the EPA step in was a last resort for everyone involved. How did things get to this point?
Change is hard. We talked about moving the enforcement authority back to Agency of Natural Resources when I was secretary but decided that our focus, and political capital, would be better spent working with EPA to develop and implement the new water quality standards for Lake Champlain. Now, years later, after a number of high-profile failures of the Agency of Agriculture to address repeated violations of water pollution laws, it became imperative to change how farm water quality enforcement was addressed in Vermont.
4. Why was CLF able to help break this impasse?
Sometimes the government must be nudged to take action. CLF does this by using the legal process to push for change. This petition to EPA is just one example of how CLF lawyers use the legal process to ensure that the Vermont government does everything in its power to clean up Lake Champlain and all of Vermont’s waterways.
