Farmers are cheering plans to delay the adoption of new water quality standards on Vermont agriculture operations. Critics, however, say the decision to postpone will only exacerbate the pollution issues that have led to toxic algae blooms in Lake Champlain and other water bodies.
The new rules are part of a water-quality bill that lawmakers passed in 2015. And they’re supposed to reduce the amount of phosphorus flowing off of farms and into lakes and rivers.
But farmers say they haven’t had enough time to vet the complex regulatory proposals. They recently asked the Agency of Agriculture to delay adoption of what are known as Required Agricultural Practices.
“A lot of issues have been raised that have yet to be resolved, so there’s more work to be done before the formal rule is ready to go out for primetime,” said Andrea Stander, executive director of Rural Vermont, which represents small farmers.
The agency agreed with Stander. Last week, Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Ross penned a letter to legislative officials seeking their approval to push back the formal adoption of new rules from July 1 to Sept. 15.
In his letter, Ross cites the massive feedback from the farming community in the drafting of proposed rules. He said giving the state more time to accommodate some of that input won’t significantly set back the state’s pursuit of the new water-quality goals.
James Ehlers, executive director of Lake Champlain International, has been a vocal critic of the state’s efforts to curtail the flow of phosphorus and other pollutants into the state’s waters. Ehlers said he’d feel differently if he thought the delay would result in more effective rules.
“But right now the Agency of Agriculture’s reputation is not one of being proactive, and quite frankly this is terribly, terribly disappointing,” Ehlers said.
Ehlers said the clock is ticking if Vermont wants to avoid irreversible ecological harm to its public waters.
“The economic argument that one industry … should get a free pass while other people’s personal financial situations are being destroyed, their businesses are being compromised and public health is being threatened, I don’t think there’s room for any delay,” Ehlers said.
Rebekah Weber, the Lake Champlain Lakekeeper at the Conservation Law Foundation, said CLF also is disappointed by the delay. Weber says the organization will use the extended timeline to push for more stringent Required Agricultural Practices.
“The RAP’s list of authorized activities in buffer zones, for example, including grazing, fertilizer application and harvesting, we feel that that completely warps the definition and purpose of a buffer,” Weber said.
Weber said the proposed RAPs would also allow for continued application of manure to farm fields, even if soil tests show the ground is already saturated with nutrients.
“If you have 20 parts per million, which demonstrates the soils are basically saturated with phosphorus, you shouldn’t be applying any more manure, period,” Weber said.
Jane Clifford, executive director of the Green Mountain Dairy Farmers Cooperative Federation, said the department deserves credit for taking farmer feedback so seriously.
Clifford, a dairy farmer herself, said the issues are important enough to take the time to get them right.
“I don’t believe, and this is my perspective, I don’t believe there is another agency or department that has taken the amount of time and energy that the Agency of Agriculture has taken to go through this process,” Clifford said.
Stander said the economic viability of some small farms hangs in the balance, and that the latest iteration of the RAP proposals, such as ones dealing with manure-application restrictions and nutrient-management planning, could be harmful.
Some small farms, for instance, could be required to comply with something known as a NRCS 590-level nutrient-management plan.
“And that is a very complex and expensive process to go through,” Stander said. “In many cases, that level of nutrient management planning would not be necessary or even effective on their farms.”
Westminster Rep. David Deen, the Democratic chairman of the House Committee on Fish Wildlife and Water Resources, said he’s inclined to give the agency more time to formalize the new rules.
He said he doesn’t think meeting the original July 1 deadline would have much impact on practices during the 2016 farming seasons anyway.
But he said he thinks the state should get only this one delay.
“I’m trying not to use clichés, but slippery slope: Once you start extending deadlines, you just keep doing it,” Deen said.
Lawmakers will consider the request for the extension this week.