RICHMOND, Vt. (WCAX) – Vermont is under a federal mandate to clean up Lake Champlain but homeowners, towns and the state are tussling over who should pay.
The Legislature passed the Clean Water Act in 2015 which requires landowners with more than three acres of impervious surface, such as parking lots and rooftops, to make upgrades to their stormwater systems to prevent pollution from running into rivers and lakes.
But private landowners are now struggling with how to cover the cost.
Forty-four homeowners live on Southview Drive just north of Interstate 89 in Richmond. For years, the town paid their stormwater fees and permits, until the Three-Acre Rule aimed at reducing phosphorus from runoff into the watershed.
Now, the homeowners there will have to pay tens of thousands of dollars for upgraded stormwater controls to meet the new regulations. It has some crying foul.
“The person on this side of the street happens to live in an area that once upon a time had a stormwater permit. Their neighbor across the street does not. This neighbor does not have to deal with all of this; this neighbor does,” said Jay Furr, a member of the Richmond Selectboard.
Furr says homeowners in other areas of town that have never been required to get stormwater permits will not have to upgrade systems.
“It’s this very defined section. If you drive up there, you drive up what feels like a big neighborhood but only a third of it is subject to this permit,” Richmond Town Manager Josh Arneson said.
Homeowners were recently notified about the changes which led to a contentious Selectboard meeting where they were pleading with elected leaders in town and state lawmakers for help.
The state says there are ways for the homeowners to split the cost and there are federal funds to help with permitting and engineering. But they add that upgrading stormwater systems is a key piece of cleaning up Lake Champlain.
“If we don’t rely on these three-acre sites to get at those pollution reduction targets, we’re going to have to find another way,” said Kevin Burke of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation.
From fairgrounds to schools to municipalities, Vermonters in recent years have grappled with the cost of stormwater projects to clean up the lake, which is a huge economic driver.
It’s worth noting that phosphorus comes from a variety of sources including wastewater plants and runoff from dairy farms.