(Host) Within the next few weeks, the state will tell about 400 property owners in Chittenden County that they have to help control stormwater pollution.
The Agency of Natural Resources will impose the new regulation in response to a court order. The court said five streams have been damaged by run-off from parking lots and streets and they need to be cleaned up.
VPR’s John Dillon reports:
(Dillon) The state says property owners near five Chittenden County streams will now have to get pollution permits.
The decision caps a six year legal battle over stormwater regulation.
The issue centered on how to clean up the streams that feed into Lake Champlain. The Conservation Law Foundation argued that the state was obligated to implement a permit program under the federal Clean Water Act.
Chris Kilian is director of the group’s Vermont advocacy center.
(Kilian) "This will absolutely result in cleaner water. Unless you retrofit the existing facilities in waters that are already so polluted that they don’t meet water quality standards, those waterways will never get better than they currently are."
(Dillon) The environmental court has twice ordered the state to implement the permit program. The Agency of Natural Resources has now complied with the court order, and will soon put property owners on notice that they’ll need a discharge permit.
The owners range from condominium associations to shopping centers and they may be required to install pollution control systems.
Jennifer Callahan is with the state water quality division. She said the details of what that permit will require are still being worked out.
(Callahan) "At this point we don’t know what the impact is, and what any individual discharger will need to do in any watershed. It could vary, depending on the watershed, also. They have to apply for this permit within 180 days, according to the court, and we’re in the process of developing that permit now."
(Dillon) The water pollution problem stems from the acres of parking lots, roads and rooftops and in the county. Water runs off these impervious surfaces and carries sediment and other pollutants into streams.
Chris Kilian says the control measures vary from the high tech to simply using less pavement.
(Kilian) "There are numerous options that are available to retrofit existing sites, and they range from highly engineered to quite passive. Disconnecting and minimizing impervious surfaces is the best way to go first off. You put in rain gardens or you put in vegetation where there once was pavement. That kind of stuff. And the more highly engineered systems are ones where you put in some kind of control system at the end of the pipe."
(Dillon) Kilian says the permit program marks an important step toward cleaning up the streams and Lake Champlain.
(Kilian) "Because if ANR had spent the last five or six years while they’re pursuing endless litigation on this simply implementing the Clean Water Act, many of these brooks would already be showing signs of returning to health."
(Dillon) The Agency of Natural Resources says it will schedule a public hearing to brief property owners about the new permit requirements.
For VPR News, I’m John Dillon in Montpelier.