Vermont stormwater regs raise ire

By Gordon Dritschilo
[email protected]
RUTLAND, Vt. — Rutland County’s senior senator wants to delay the implementation of new stormwater regulations.

Sen. Brian Collamore, a Republican, said that new rules slated to take effect under Act 64 should be pushed back until their costs and funding sources for properties affected by them are better understood. The regulations are part of a multi-faceted effort to reduce runoff and the resulting phosphorus contamination down to the levels required by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The new rules — referred to as a “general permit” — require any property with at least 3 acres of impervious surface to either undertake projects to reduce runoff or pay one-time impact fees of $25,000 per acre — $50,000 per acre within certain watersheds, such as Moon Brook in Rutland. Funding for the required projects is expected to be available, but no one seems to know how or how much, and several local organizations are figuring out what they would have to spend to comply.

Padraic Monks, stormwater program manager for the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, said the department is taking comments on the draft rules through Nov. 8, after which they will be sent — along with any revisions — to the Agency of Natural Resources’ lawyers for review ahead of final approval by the commissioner.

“It’s effective immediately, but (property owners) have some time to apply, starting at 12 months and going out two years,” he said.

Collamore said he thinks they should get a little longer.

“I don’t think we want to repeal the statute, but I think we can go back in and allow a little more time for this to eventuate,” he said.

Local engineer Nicole Kesselring, who worked with Ocean State Job Lot in determining it would cost around $300,000 to bring that Route 7 property into compliance, said costs can vary widely depending on the nature of the property. A development with access to open land could undertake the relatively simple process of creating a retaining pond, she said, while others would have to dig up pavement and install underground stormwater retention systems.

The latter process on a 6-acre parking lot, she said, would definitely be “in the six-figure range.”

All of this supposes, Kesselring said, that the properties are able to undertake remediation projects at all. Some won’t, she said, and will have no choice but to pay the impact fees.

Kesselring also said that just making funding available to property owners is not enough.

“It needs to be an easy program for people to navigate,” she said. “For someone who has to got through a program like this and they’re trying to run a business and keep up with their day-to-day, this is going to be a big distraction for landowners.”

The state assembled a list of properties that would fall under the regulations. Eighty-nine were in Rutland County and 20 in the city. However, Rutland City Public Works Commissioner Jeffrey Wennberg said many of those properties should not be on the list because they are in areas served by a combined storm sewer, and as such are exempt.

“I’ve been following this since before it was passed into law, since 2014,” Wennberg said. “This has been cooking a long time.”

Wennberg said that the impending regulations are part of why, in its efforts to prevent sewer overflows triggered by storms, the city has limited the areas in which it has built separate storm sewers.

“Our strategy for decades has been to propose storm separation projects where they make sense,” he said. “But, as a general rule, we want to increase the size and capacity of the treatment plant.”

The exemption only applies to portions of the city. For example, the fairgrounds, which have roughly 17 impervious acres.

“We have not really started to research yet,” Rutland County Agricultural Society President Robert Congdon said. “Obviously, it’s going to be very detrimental to any small business or to us as well.”