Update on Stormwater Legislation
It is appearing more and more likely that stormwater permit reform will be resolved this legislative session. Two Associated Press articles have highlighted the progress. From an April 29 article by John Zicconi:
Patrick Berry, policy director for the Vermont Natural Resources
Council, also praised the committee's work. But he stressed that the
legislation is designed to be a temporary fix until the Agency of
Natural Resources proposes new storm water rules three years from now.
Because the measure is temporary, lawmakers exempted polluters with
expired storm water permits from having to clean up their discharges
until new, permanent rules go into affect sometime after 2007, Berry
said. The committee should have been tougher on these property owners,
but instead gave them amnesty for the next few years, he said.
The bill only requires those seeking new storm water permits to ensure
that no new pollution reaches watersheds, Berry said. Existing
development that is already polluting will not have to stop, he said.
This temporary fix is in line with the previous Watershed Improvement Permits, which dictated that old, expired systems are still in compliance as long as they have been properly maintained.
Lawmakers said the agreement reached Thursday does that. It also
establishes a unique mitigation system that allows developers who cannot
contain 100 percent of their storm water runoff to pay for pollution
elsewhere in the watershed to be cleaned up instead.
This item refers to the offset program, which is currently in place. Since storm treatment systems typically remove 80% of pollutants (e.g. sediment) before discharge, additional remediation in the same watershed has to be implemented before the state gives approval to a new project.
The bill passed Tuesday by the House Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources
Committee establishes a system that allows developers to pay an impact
fee relative to the amount of pollution they cannot contain. The money
will be placed in a revolving fund that will be used by local
municipalities and the Vermont Agency of Transportation to clean up
polluting storm water discharges emanating from public property.
This process will take time to implement, as state funding for watershed restoration projects must be provided, then the planning, engineering and construction of such measures will be implemented. According to the ANR's stormwater section, offsets must be constructed at the same time as the permitted project. Until that point, developers would have to fund their own restoration projects to satisfy the offset requirement.
This as well as another Associated Press article may be read in full here .
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Patrick Berry, policy director for the Vermont Natural Resources
Council, also praised the committee's work. But he stressed that the
legislation is designed to be a temporary fix until the Agency of
Natural Resources proposes new storm water rules three years from now.
Because the measure is temporary, lawmakers exempted polluters with
expired storm water permits from having to clean up their discharges
until new, permanent rules go into affect sometime after 2007, Berry
said. The committee should have been tougher on these property owners,
but instead gave them amnesty for the next few years, he said.
The bill only requires those seeking new storm water permits to ensure
that no new pollution reaches watersheds, Berry said. Existing
development that is already polluting will not have to stop, he said.
This temporary fix is in line with the previous Watershed Improvement Permits, which dictated that old, expired systems are still in compliance as long as they have been properly maintained.
Lawmakers said the agreement reached Thursday does that. It also
establishes a unique mitigation system that allows developers who cannot
contain 100 percent of their storm water runoff to pay for pollution
elsewhere in the watershed to be cleaned up instead.
This item refers to the offset program, which is currently in place. Since storm treatment systems typically remove 80% of pollutants (e.g. sediment) before discharge, additional remediation in the same watershed has to be implemented before the state gives approval to a new project.
The bill passed Tuesday by the House Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources
Committee establishes a system that allows developers to pay an impact
fee relative to the amount of pollution they cannot contain. The money
will be placed in a revolving fund that will be used by local
municipalities and the Vermont Agency of Transportation to clean up
polluting storm water discharges emanating from public property.
This process will take time to implement, as state funding for watershed restoration projects must be provided, then the planning, engineering and construction of such measures will be implemented. According to the ANR's stormwater section, offsets must be constructed at the same time as the permitted project. Until that point, developers would have to fund their own restoration projects to satisfy the offset requirement.
This as well as another Associated Press article may be read in full here .
