Vermont House Passes Stormwater Bill

The Vermont House of Representatives on Friday passed legislation designed to set up a new system for issuing stormwater runoff permits that backers say will clean up polluted streams, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

The Legislation would "clean up our impaired waterways in Chittenden County and across the state," Rep. Kurt Wright, R-Burlington, said.

Environmentalists, business lobbyists and experts on the issue began meeting last fall at the University of Vermont. Those meetings began after the Water Resources Board last June rejected a method set up by the Department of Environmental Conservation to issue the stormwater runoff permits developers need before they can build new impervious surfaces like roofs and parking lots.

The board found that the agency's method couldn't make the guarantee required by law that streams polluted by storm runoff meet water quality standards within five years, AP reported.

With the preliminary work of the task force in hand, lawmakers had a relatively easy time with what otherwise might have kept them bogged down for months and may not have been resolved this year. The House passed the measure with little debate by a vote of 127 to 3.

"People worked almost a year to try to solve this," said Rep. Margaret Hummel, D-Underhill, a principal sponsor of the bill. "We had a great deal to go on."

Source: Associated Press