The federal Environmental Protection Agency is requiring Vermont to change the way it regulates some types of farms after an investigation showed that a state program is not complying with the Clean Water Act, the federal agency told the state in a letter on Friday.
The EPA is taking aim at the state’s management of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), farms where animals are kept in confined areas. Currently, two agencies split responsibility for regulating the farms: the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets and the Agency of Natural Resources. But that divided system has caused problems, according to the EPA.
“The flaws in this program are preventing Vermont from adequately controlling phosphorus discharges from CAFOs, which contribute to severe water quality problems in Lake Champlain and other water bodies in the state,” the letter, signed by EPA regional administrator David Cash, states.
Specifically, the EPA is asking the Agency of Natural Resources to be the sole entity that regulates Confined Animal Feeding Operations, which would require the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets to step back.
“We understand the importance of (the Agency of Agriculture’s) mission and role in Vermont, and it is also vital to recognize that the current division of responsibilities between ANR and AAFM is interfering with the regulation of Vermont’s CAFOs and preventing Vermont from adequately addressing agricultural water quality,” Cash wrote in the letter.
The EPA’s letter comes in response to a petition from the Conservation Law Foundation, Vermont Natural Resources Council and the Lake Champlain Committee, issued in 2022. In 2008, Vermont Law School Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic filed a different petition with similar arguments, and the EPA determined in 2013 that the state needed to reform the way it regulates Confined Animal Feeding Operations.
“It is clear that Vermont has not adequately addressed deficiencies in its CAFO program and has not complied with the requirements of the 2013 Corrective Action Plan,” Cash wrote in the letter.
Elena Mihaly, vice president of the Conservation Law Foundation Vermont, said the organization requested inspection reports and records of communications between the two agencies in 2020. They found “glaring examples” of problems during state inspections of farms that ranged from an excess of manure being applied to “a manure pit that was overflowing and ending up in a stream going to Lake Champlain,” she said.
“Either nothing was being done about it, or the agency wasn’t properly referring it over to the Natural Resources Agency, or a kind of slap on the wrist — just a litany of examples from emails about feuds between the two agencies over who had jurisdiction,” Mihaly said. “It was just a mess, frankly.”
The environmental groups submitted a formal request asking the EPA to remove Vermont’s authority to administer the federal Clean Water Act.
“We wanted EPA to come in and do its own investigation, and we are delighted that they found the similar problems that we found, and are holding the state accountable to fixing them,” Mihaly said. “We appreciate that the state has showed up so far in a collaborative way to address those deficiencies.”
In interviews on Monday, Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore and Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts said they expect the EPA to allow them to choose how to move forward.
The EPA is asking the agencies to “lay out a roadmap” for transitioning from the status quo to meeting the federal agency’s requirements.
“We may push back on some of the components of EPA’s desired future condition, but all of that will take place in a dialog that I expect to occur once we’ve drafted the corrective action plan,” Moore told VTDigger.
The EPA letter alludes to the Conservation Law Foundation’s finding that staff members of both agencies have been at odds with each other, noting “that the relationship between Vermont’s Department of Environmental Conservation (“DEC”) and AAFM related to implementation of the program is a contributing factor in the failure of the Vermont’s CAFO program to meet its Clean Water Act obligations.”
Tebbetts told VTDigger that tension between the agencies has largely been resolved in recent years.
“I think they’re going back many, many years, maybe, with some data on this,” he said. “But from my current perspective, things are going really well. The program is working.”
Moore said “there’s always room for improvement” with communications between the two agencies, but tensions have “improved markedly in the eight years I’ve been in this job.”
Both secretaries lauded farmers for their work implementing clean water projects and reducing the amount of pollution coming from their farms.
“Under climate change, we’re seeing more frequent and more intense rainfall events, which further challenges the ability of Vermont farmers” to eliminate pollution coming from farms, Moore said.
Farmers have been “real leaders in the work around clean water,” Moore said, noting that the petition and response from the EPA apply to government agencies, not farmers.
