The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has worked for decades with New York and Connecticut to clean up Long Island Sound. Too much nitrogen in the water has led to "dead zones" where fish and shellfish can't survive. Now the federal agency is asking sewage treatment plants nearly 200 miles away in Vermont to help reduce pollutants that are hurting the sound.

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In their annual town meeting Tuesday, folks in this town weighed in on a debate that has consumed lawmakers in Montpelier and dominated radio talk shows and newspaper opinion pages: the continued operation of an aging nuclear power plant whose "leaks and lies" are fueling a push to close it. People in Waitsfield and 13 other towns approved resolutions urging the Legislature to pull the plug on the Vermont Yankee plant. Normally, the decision would be solely in the hands of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Not in Vermont: It's the only state with a law giving the Legislature a say in the relicensing of a nuclear plant. And Tuesday, regular people had their say, too.

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The federal Environmental Protection Agency has taken the rare step of reaching across state lines into Vermont in order to protect Long Island Sound - hundreds of miles downstream. The EPA has formally objected to permits proposed for two Vermont sewage treatment plants. The agency says the Vermont plants would let too much pollution flow down the Connecticut River to the Sound.

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Saying that the state's groundwater was being polluted by the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor, the Vermont Natural Resources Council filed a request with the Public Service Board to intervene in Entergy Nuclear's still-pending request to continue operating for another 20 years. Jon Groveman, water program director and staff attorney for the environmental group, said Tuesday that the recent tritium groundwater contamination convinced group to get involved. So far, it hasn't participated in the formal hearings on the relicensing issue. "Vermont Yankee has misled the Public Service Board and everybody about the threat to groundwater from existing piping," Groveman said.

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A new University of Vermont study offers fresh hope for protecting Lake Champlain. The study demonstrates how a set of actions on a limited land area could dramatically reduce one major pollution source: farm runoff. Although the study identifies strategies for reducing pollution from high-priority fields, implementing those changes will not necessarily be easy. That will depend on the willingness of farmers to change, and the ability of government to subsidize practices such as riverbank buffers and the planting of winter cover crops.

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Five business groups announced creation Monday of the Business Alliance for a Clean Lake, saying excellent water quality in Lake Champlain is critical to Vermont's economic health. The members include the chambers of commerce in Chittenden, Franklin, Grand Isle and Addison counties and the Franklin County Industrial Development Corp. A sixth member, Friends of Northern Lake Champlain, is a nonprofit group.

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Burlington Free Press reports on local resident Daniel Redondo's "water-oriented career," in which he now works in Vermont "researching and then selling plants — especially native species — that help preserve water quality." Indeed, "Redondo spends about half of his working hours providing consulting services related to stream and wetland restoration, pond design, hydrologic analyses and biomonitoring — only a few of the options he offers." He established Vermont Wetland Plant Supply in Orwell, VT two years ago "to accompany his water-related consulting services." Redondo works on a myriad of projects throughout the state, claiming that “business that is centered around a green economy is pretty neat."

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The Brattleboro Reformer reports that Governor Jim Douglas has announced a "$500,00 round of grants to be offered on a competitive basis for projects aimed at cleaning up Vermont's rivers, streams, ponds and lakes." The projects that will be considered for the state's Clean and Clear program will include "those designed to improve stream stability, improve river corridor management, protect and restore riparian wetlands and others."

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Click here to learn more about the Vermont Clean and Clear Action Plan

Vermont Public Radio reports that Governor Douglas has proposed to close Vermont's environmental laboratory. The proposed cut is in response to the state's $201 million budget shortfall. The laboratory does regular and emergency testing of water, soil and air for toxic materials, and its the closure would save the state $700,000 a year. If the laboratory is closed, "some of the work would end and [some] would be sent to private labs." On Tuesday, six employees urged a legislative committee to keep the lab open, saying Vermont's environmental protection would suffer." The employees also questioned whether the plan would save money or not.

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The Burlington Free Press reports that Vermont and six other Northeastern petitioned the federal government Tuesday "to take more steps to reduce mercury pollution of the region's lakes and rivers. The petition asks the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to step in to help with the problem of airborne mercury pollution that makes some locally caught fish unsafe to eat as part of a regular diet." For example, "in Vermont, pregnant women and young children are advised not to eat walleye, and to limit their meals of bass, pike, perch and most other freshwater fish. The Health Department recommends that everyone else should limit walleye consumption to no more than one meal a month, with fewer or no restrictions on other species." The target of the petition is "pollution emitted by Midwestern coal-burning power plants." This pollution "blows east and is deposited in water bodies where it accumulates in the flesh of fish."

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The Burlington Free Press reports that "key groups will hold a public meeting next month to discuss the role of the Champlain Canal in the introduction of invasive species to Lake Champlain." According to experts, "The movement of water and boats through the canal is a likely path by which some invasive species have reached the lake. The canal links Champlain with the Hudson River." Fifty invasive species have made Lake Champlain their home and have"altered the lake ecosystem and cost millions of dollars in control efforts." Those invaders include zebra mussels, Eurasian water milfoil, white perch, alewives and water chestnuts. Notably, the Lake "the is home to fewer invasive species than surrounding water bodies. In the Great Lakes, 184 invasives have been catalogued, 87 in the St. Lawrence River and 91 in the Hudson River."

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Vermont Public Radio reports that the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved a bill that would "give special designation to two northern Vermont rivers as 'wild and scenic.'" If passed, the designation would "help protect the natural, cultural and recreational aspects of the rivers, and maintain their water quality" and "would direct the U.S. Department of the Interior to study adding the two rivers to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System."

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Vermont Public Radio reports that the towns of Jay and Troy will receive $8.2 million in federal grants and loans for wastewater treatment. U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, who the announcement yesterday, said, "The money will help clean up Lake Champlain by keeping under-treated wastewater out of the Missisquoi River, which flows into the lake." Bill Stenger, a top official at the Jay Peak ski resort, said the money will "help improve the sewage systems in Jay and Troy" and enable the resort to expand.

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The Brattleboro Reformer reports that a project between the Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to map out the watershed basin of the Connecticut River will look at the importance of the West and Ashuelot rivers, two of the main tributaries of the Connecticut River. "The West River, which flows for 46 miles starting in Mount Holly in Rutland County, has a drainage area of 423 square miles that extends from Weston and the south side of Terrible Mountain to Windham on the east and Bromley on the west. The Ashuelot River flows 64 miles from the slopes of Mt. Sunapee near Washington to Hinsdale, N.H., where it empties into the Connecticut, collecting water from 425 square miles on the way." The study will look at the health of the rivers; "help define river management procedures well through this century"; and "determine how management of dams and water systems can be modified for environmental benefits while maintaining beneficial human uses, such as water supply, flood control and hydropower generation."

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Vermont Public Radio reports that Vermont's Clean and Clear program has spent $85 million on improving Lake Champlain's water quality but "virtually zero" progress has been made. Indeed, the lake is plagued by toxic blue green algae blooms, and "decades of research shows that much of the lake is not improving [and] some of it is getting worse." Notably, the Lake's water quality is important for the tourism economy, public health, and "good government." 

Tourism
Currently, "thousands of visitors head to the lake each summer" and more are expected next year for the 400th anniversary celebration of Samuel de Champlain's voyage of exploration.

Public Health
"Blue green algae produce a poison, so swimming near the blooms is dangerous for people and animals. When the blooms are bad, beaches are closed and resorts are forced to warn people out of the water."

Good Government
Finally, "there's a good government issue as well. Taxpayers want programs that work. But a recent independent audit of the state's Clean and Clear program said despite the millions of dollars spent, there's little progress to date."