COLCHESTER, Vt. (WCAX) – Ongoing development and plans for more have people in Colchester worried about the water quality in Lake Champlain’s Malletts Bay. But the town says it is following all requirements to continue to build in the area.
After 74 years in town, Jeffrey Lefebvre has seen Malletts Bay in Colchester change a number of times.
“Lived here, watched the interstate go through,” Lefebvre said.
But as the town continues to grow, longtime residents like Lefebvre, and new ones, like Lori Barg, are uniting over their concerns about how development is impacting the water quality in Malletts Bay.
“There are days out there where we started diving, and you could see nice and clear on top, but you get down below and it’s all muddy,” Lefebvre said.
They say that’s all because of development, something the town says won’t be slowing down. Voters approved the construction of a new recreation center in Colchester on Town Meeting Day last March. It’s going up, right across the street from Malletts Bay and citizens in groups like We Love Malletts Bay say that’s an issue.
“Build a recreation center but don’t build it on this rare and irreplaceable forest,” Barg said. “There used to be 150,000 acres of this forest type and now there’s less than 500.”
The town hired geologist Craig Heindel, who suggested not building at Bayside-Hazelett without doing a geotechnical analysis of the area due to slope instability. There is a sand “cliff” about 40 feet high almost directly adjacent to East Lakeshore Drive.
“It’s not the best place,” Lefebvre said. “Since they have all the land across the street.”
The geologist recommended building at Bayside Park to avoid further risk. But town officials say the plan is already set.
The Colchester Selectboard and Public Works officials would not speak to WCAX News but instead issued a statement. “The town has the appropriate permits for the construction of the recreation center. We have left most of the site undeveloped including the portion adjacent to the lake, West of East Lakeshore Dr.,” Selectboard Chair Pam Loranger wrote.
From video of the area last year when the rec center was first announced to the construction underway today, changes to the site are notable. But it’s not just new construction that citizens believe is diminishing water quality, Barg and Lefebvre point to several ports where untreated stormwater goes directly into the bay as concerning.
“[I] looked at the water quality data. And I see that 38% of the problem in Malletts Bay is coming from development,” Barg said.
The town has already voted to address the stormwater issues in 2017 but Lefebvre, Barg, and others say nothing has been done.
In a statement, Selectboard Chair Loranger says there are direct discharges into the bay because stormwater has to drain somewhere. “There is no regulatory requirements that anything be done to those direct discharges, and the town is in full compliance with all state and federal stormwater permit requirements,” she wrote.
But even though the town is in compliance, Barg and Lefebvre say they hope improving the bay’s water quality becomes a higher priority for officials.
“What people in town care about — and what I moved here for too from Central Vermont is — it’s beautiful,” Barg said. “But if we turn it into a toxic soup, I see this as an incredible opportunity for the town to really get on board with protecting the bay.”
Related Stories:
Colchester residents approve rec center
Colchester residents express concern over proposed rec center
Colchester residents to vote on $16M recreation center