On Thursday, Feb. 28, the Vermont House passed a bill removing a cap on the amount of phosphorus that sewage treatment plants are allowed to discharge into Lake Champlain. The bill is also focusing efforts toward cleaning up indirect sources of pollution.
The bill
David Deen, chairman of the House Fish, Wildlife, and Resources Committee says with the bill’s passage, taxpayers’ money will go toward cleaning up pollution that comes from indirect, or "non-point," sources. 90 percent of the pollution comes from these sources.
“The phosphorus cap only dealt with one source that accounted for 10 percent of the pollution,”
Deen says. “Now the money will be used to focus on cleaning up the non-point sources.”
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Lake Champlain as seen near Perkins Pier in Burlington. The bill focuses its efforts on cleaning up the lake. (Photo by Abby Robitaille) |
Buzz Hoerr, chairman of the Vermont Citizens Advisory Committee on Lake Champlain, says "point sources" collect wastewater from urban and suburban areas, and discharge the waste from one point, like sewage treatment plants. "Non-point sources" consist of parking lots, fields, and roads, which discharge waste at various points, he says.
“The bill will provide farmers funds to help clean up the way they fertilize,” Deen says. “Money is being expended so farmers can be even better stewards of land.”
The Northern part of Lake Champlain, especially the Missisquoi Bay, becomes easily polluted because of the agriculture and farming activity, Deen says. The manure and fertilizer that farmers use is not treated before it is discharged into streams, causing high levels of phosphorus to flow into the lake, he says.
“We’ve heard over the years from business owners that the lake is just killing them because it’s loaded with algae growth because of the levels of phosphorus,” Deen says.
Farmers will have to pay for 15 percent of the cost of the projects, Deen says. The federal government will provide $21 million and the state will provide $1.4 millions, he says.
The bill has been sent to the Senate, which will decide sometime before May whether it will be passed, Deen says.
Phosphorus problems
Professor Valerie Banschbach, chair of the St. Michael’s biology department, says phosphorus is good in small amounts, but becomes problematic when high levels are entering the lake.
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The bill removes the cap on the amount of phosphorous that treatment plants, such as this one on the lake in Burlington, are allowed to discharge. (Photo by Abby Robitaille) |
At night when phosphorus does not photosynthesize, it consumes large amounts of oxygen, Banschbach says. When oxygen levels in the water get low enough, organisms like fish cannot survive and certain bacteria increase, she says.
“Think of the skunky ponds behind campus, no one wants to swim in that,” Banschbach says. “This is the reason why you should buy cleaning products that have the phosphorus-free label.”
The high levels of phosphorus causes the evolution of the lake’s growth cycle to speed up making the water appear cloudy and green, which causes human health issues, Banschbach says.
Sometimes, Lake Champlain closes in the summer because the bacteria levels from the phosphorus get so high that the water can become harmful for people, she says.
“How much is it worth to you to be able to swim in a clean lake,” Banschbach asks. “It is hard to put a dollar amount on that or the effect of the dying fish.”
Phosphorus does not directly cause harm to people, Banschbach says. The algae that blooms from the bacteria can cause harm to people. Certain areas are susceptible to more pollution, like shorelines, especially near agricultural sites, she says.
The local issue
House Representative Jim Condon, of Colchester, says the new bill is important because the cap on treatment plants was not helping clean up the lake, he says.
“The bill still has a ways to go through the Senate before anything can happen, but for the Agency of Natural Resources to adjust the old bill is an improvement,” Condon says. “We will see in a few years, hopefully, if the money is well spent.”
The old bill, Act 43, required more than a dozen Vermont towns to make upgrades to their sewage treatment systems, which would be paid for through citizens’ tax dollars, Hoerr says.
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Pollution in the lake affects wildlife such as these ducks, as well as sometimes affecting how the lake can be used recreationally. (Photo by Abby Robitaille) |
In order to meet the desired caps of phosphorus levels, upgrades on the sewage plants would have to occur, which was estimated would cost $59 million, Deen says. That would lead to a large increase in sewer rates and taxes for Vermont towns, Deen says.
“We didn’t understand why we should force towns to reduce marginalized phosphorus, when large areas of land have phosphorus running off that has not been treated,” Hoerr says.
It seems to make more sense to clean up the farms’ systems because they account for 90 percent of the pollution, says Eric Smeltzer of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.
“Farmers now want and are ready to do this,” Hoerr says. “They’ve learned from Quebec that farmers actually save money by doing it because they are using manure more wisely.”
People have the misconception that Mallets Bay in Colchester, is closed often in the summer, Hoerr says. DNA was taken from Mallets Bay to figure out what was causing the problem. The research showed that the waste was coming from seagulls and geese that were resting on swimming docks, he says.
“Once the docks were removed, the beach was hardly closed throughout the summer,” Hoerr says. “It is really important to focus on where the problems are actually coming from.”
St. Michael’s was surveyed to make sure they were not using phosphorus on the athletic fields. The results showed that the college does not use excessive amounts, Hoerr says.
“Students can help by making sure their cars are free of oil leaks because untreated phosphorus is much worse for human health,” Hoerr says. “Do not dump anything into storm drains because that water is untreated and goes straight into the lake.”