Champlain clean-up plan

The letter calls Lake Champlain as “the source of vital economic, recreational, and cultural opportunities” in the state. But phosphorus has caused summer algae blooms considered harmful to human health, aquatic habitat and the state’s tourism and recreational economy.

“We share the nation’s interest in returning this treasured water body to full health,” Shumlin said in a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.

Several administration officials hosted a joint news conference in the governor’s conference room last week to announce the commitment to clean up the lake.

Though Shumlin was not able to attend, environmental groups that have criticized the state’s commitment supported this latest step.

Chris Kilian, vice president and director of environmental advocacy for the Conservation Law Foundation, said the letter is an indication that “Lake Champlain is an emerging priority” for the governor.

The EPA is requiring the state to cut phosphorus loading into Lake Champlain by about a third under the Clean Water Act. The EPA will now weigh the state’s proposal before it decides to approve the plan or issue its own enforcement action, which could include tightening restrictions on sewage-treatment plants.

The state has not offered a plan to pay for lake cleanup, or a specific commitment of public dollars. Instead, the administration will give the Legislature next year a range of options to pay for the cleanup.

“Lake Champlain will require an all-hands-on-deck effort involving adjoining state and international partners, the EPA and other federal agencies, municipalities, developers, private philanthropic groups, and all of the citizens of Vermont,” Shumlin said in his letter.

The state’s plan includes new standards for agricultural practices to keep phosphorus on fields, new state and municipal road permits designed to improve channel runoff, additional standards to control runoff from developed areas, and ways to restore natural river channels to prevent stream bank erosion.