The final draft plan setting Lake Champlain’s allowable phosphorus levels is set to be released on Friday. The EPA and the state of Vermont have set a series of public meetings at the end of the month to discuss the plan.
The Environmental Protection Agency will cap the maximum amount of phosphorus that is allowed to enter Lake Champlain through what’s called TMDL’s or Total Maximum Daily Load. In 2002 Vermont prepared its own Lake Champlain Phosphorus TMDL plan. It was rejected by the EPA in 2011, obligating the federal agency to craft a new plan for the state. An initial draft proposal was released in 2013. The state submitted a Phase One implementation plan based on the draft proposal in May 2014 and by December of last year had sent the EPA a legislative report on funding requirements and strategy.
The final draft TMDL plan is scheduled to be released on Friday to be followed by three public meetings on the plan on August 26th and 27th.
Lake Champlain Basin Program Technical Coordinator Eric Howe says while the TMDL affects both sides of the watershed, the revisions adjust what has been in place on the Vermont side of Lake Champlain. “The challenge is identifying all these different sources of phosphorus whether you’re looking at agriculture or cities and towns or rural back roads or forests and then quantifying how much of that phosphorus is being delivered to the lake and where it’s from. Then the real challenge is once you’ve figured that out how do you stop it from being delivered to the lake. That’s what the state and the EPA have been doing essentially in partnership for the past couple of years. And now they’re finally at the point where they’re ready to move forward with their plan.”
Vermont Natural Resources Council Water Program Director Kim Greenwood says the EPA report will tell the state whether it can meet goals to reach water quality phosphorus standards. “I have some serious concerns about whether what we are proposing is enough. And of course EPA needs the models that estimate what those reductions are going to be to line up with the net reduction of pollution. It’ll be really interesting to see how they make that math work out. For instance if you are basing your modeling on something that has yet to happen and you don’t know what that’s going to look like, how do you quantify those reductions? And yet you need to quantify those reductions to be able to get credit for meeting that goal.”
Lake Champlain International Executive Director James Ehlers ponders whether the entire TMDL process should be scrapped. “Phosphorus is just one of the pollutants and that’s the only thing that this TMDL addresses. There’s absolutely no discussion of other pollutants. The federal government frankly is behind the times. The state doesn’t appear to have any more interest other than meeting the lowest common denominator. The premise of a TMDL – Total Maximum Daily Load – is we can solve pollution through dilution and that’s innately in conflict with the basic laws of physics and chemistry.”
The public hearings will be held in St. Albans, South Burlington and Rutland.
EPA Restoring Lake Champlain Phosphorus TMDL link
VTDEC Restoring Lake Champlain link
